Marita Schwanke - Eye of the Storm

"My artistic practice explores the body as a physical, perceptual and relational system, moving between contemporary dance, somatic practices, Taiji and Breaking. I am interested in movement beyond technique and in the underlying principles that connect different movement traditions, such as weight, spiralling, momentum, grounding, support and release.

During the residency, I want to investigate silence and movement as two interconnected states that can continuously transform into one another. I am interested in what happens when I slow down or suspend habitual movement patterns: what becomes perceptible, where impulses arise, and how attention can shape the transition from stillness into movement. I will explore silence as a space of listening, potential and heightened awareness, while movement can become a way of articulating what emerges from it. By bringing these questions into my different practices, I want to explore shifts in rhythm, intensity, attention and presence, and how these can open new choreographic possibilities."

Marita Schwanke is an Independent Dance Artist and Fascia Therapist based in Brussels, Belgium. She studied contemporary dance and choreography at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem and at P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels.

Since graduating in 2022, she has worked on projects with choreographers and visual artists including Isabella Soupart, Caroline Le Mehaute, Adem Ouhaibia, Lee Mingwei and Elen Braga, while also developing and performing her own work. Her artistic practice is inspired by Qigong and Taiji, Western somatic approaches (Body-Mind Centering© and Fascia Therapy), and Breaking.

She has been mentored by dancer and facilitator Eva Karczag, whose work remains a strong inspiration. In 2022, she began collaborating with Adem Ouhaibia on his research project Breaking Technologies. In 2025, she obtained a diploma in Fascia and Dance Therapy from Body-Mind Academy in Brussels, began teacher training at XUAN School for Internal Martial Arts in Berlin/Brussels, and continued her studies at the Body-Mind Centering© school in Brussels.