JOANNA CZAJKOWSKA
A dancer, a choreographer, a dance teacher, a member of the Dance and Ballet Section in the Polish Actors’ Association (ZASP), a graduate of the Pedagogy Institute at the Gdańsk University and a graduate of the Modern Dance Instructors Course organized by SAK in Gdańsk, she has received the artist – dancer diploma from the Polish Actors’ Association and recognized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In 2005, she received a Culture Creators Scholarship from the Marshal of the Pomorskie province. Previously, she was involved in the Patrz Mi na Usta (Read My Lips) Theatre and the Gdańsk Dance Theatre. She debuted as a choreographer and an independent artist in the year 1997, and in 1998 she started artistic co-operation with Jacek Krawczyk, which was the beginning of Okazjonalny Theatre. She has co-operated with the Kino Variatino Theatre, the Artonik Theatre from France, and Cappella
Gedanansis. She has performed as a dancer in theatres both in Poland (e.g. in Gdańsk, Warsaw, Cracow, Poznań, Lublin, Szczecin and Wrocław) and abroad (Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Russia, Iceland, Portugal, Germany, Romania, and Sweden. As a teacher, she has worked for the Culture Animateur Studium in Gdańsk, the WINDA Integration Alternative Club in Gdańsk, the FETA Theatre and the Sopot-based Off de Bicz Theatre. In 2006, she was nominated for the award in the ‘Artist of the Year 2005’ competition organised by the Gazeta Wyborcza Trójmiasto daily. In September 2006, she was the guest of the Live Art Festival and Philly Fringe in Philadelphia. Since February 2007, she has been running a series of lectures on dance history as part of the ‘Different Theatre’ project in the Gdańsk-based Żak club.