Joanna Leśnierowska
she/her
visual dramaturge / light & space composer / performance maker / choreography curator
Bringing together my interests in visual arts and choreography, I have been developing the practice of visual dramaturgy (VD) for more than a decade. My work embraces dramaturgy, light and space composition, visual semiotics and choreography – both in collaboration with international artists and within my own projects.
I particularly enjoy engaging in artistic processes from their earliest conceptual phase and entering into dialogue with them in multiple ways. This practice involves creating spaces of visibility and exploring the visual identity of projects, and may also include the development of promotional concepts for performances.
I approach light design, choreography, and all visual materials accompanying a performance as powerful dramaturgical devices.
I believe we can all expand our perception and cultivate an awareness of visual dramaturgy next our choreographic practices.
My artistic path is woven from more than twenty years of active involvement in the international choreography community. In the early 2000s, I became the first regular dance writer in Poland, contributing to the seminal magazine Didaskalia. I also published on Polish dance in Theater der Zeit (Berlin), Dance Today (Israel), and Dance Zone (Prague), and lectured on the history and theory of choreography at the universities of Poznań and Cracow.
In 2004 I established the first regular dance space and choreographic development center in Poland, within the Art Stations Foundation in Poznań (Old Brewery New Dance). There, I introduced avant-garde choreography to local audiences and intensively supported the development of Polish dance artists through production and educational programs. Between 2019 and 2023, I also directed the program of choreographic reflection and research ACZIUN at Muzeum Susch, an art institution in the Swiss Alps.
Since 2022 I have been working as a freelance curator and artist, collaborating with international art institutions and projects.
Recent institutional engagements include: the curatorial team of Art Safiental 2024, and participation as an artistic collaborator in the research project Performance: Conservation Materiality Knowledge at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. Since October 2023, I have been working regularly with the Warsaw Observatory of Culture, serving as an expert in dance and choreography. I also curated two events within the Polish Presidency in the EU 2025.
My international collaborations include: Arkadi Zaides / IL (Quiet, Landscape Research), Lia Haraki / CY (Again), Márta Ladjánszki / HU (Josha, solo for Leśnierowska), Jurij Konjar / SLO (For Juliano Mer Khamis), Adi Weinberg / ISR (If the Bull Won’t Come), Weronika Pelczyńska / PL (Kuliści), Isabelle Schad (Persona with Voice), and Maria Zimpel (Love Project), among others.
For many years I have maintained an artistic dialogue with Janusz Orlik / PL (Live on Stage, Rite of Spring, Insight, KODA). In 2019, the solo KODA. A Tribute (created with and performed by Orlik) celebrated 15 years of our collaboration.
I continue to work with Renata Piotrowska-Auffret / PL (Unknown.seans, Danse Macabre, As Long As We Dance, Second Practice).
I am also a member of cranky bodies a/company (Berlin), where I explore real-time composition of light and images.
In 2011 I made my official debut as a full-time author with Reconstruction. In 2013 I co-created the solo Insight with and for Janusz Orlik (later awarded Best Choreography at the Polish Dance Platform 2014 in Lublin, and subsequently toured in Europe, Brazil, Palestine, Israel, among others).
Following my ongoing interest in visual arts and my aim to expand the intersection between visual arts and choreography, in 2014 I premiered the trio …(rooms by the sea). From the series Exercises in Looking, inspired by the “hopperesque” qualities of contemporary visual culture. In 2017, as part of the same series, I created the solo blur – an evening-length work inspired by the gesture of intentional blurring, revolving around instability, data overload, and the constant loss of clear points of reference. The latest iteration of this cycle premiered in 2024 at the Cracow Dance Festival, returning once again to Hopper, this time through the lens of Tim Eitel’s paintings.
Another ongoing thread of my practice stems from my discovery of Polish choreographer Yanka Rudzka, who became a seminal figure in the dance scene of Bahia, Brazil in the 1950s. In 2016 I conceived The Yanka Rudzka Project, an exchange between Polish and Salvadoran (Brazil) dance communities that brought dancers and choreographers into creative dialogue fueled by the traditional dances and cultures of both countries. The project premiered at the International Dance Festival VIVADANÇA in Salvador, continued in 2018 in the Caucasus, and culminated in the creation of Wielogłos (Polyphonies) – a choreography developed in dialogue with Armenian, Brazilian, Georgian and Polish artists.
My most recent project once again follows Yanka’s story. Inaugurated in January 2024, it is envisioned to lead to a video and photo installation as well as a performance created in collaboration with the seminal Brazilian choreographer Lia Robatto, dancer/choreographer Neemias Santana, and artists Anna Zielinska and Stella Horta (photo/video). The premiere is scheduled for October 2026 as part of the Festiwal Wielu Kultur in Łódź.
For more info on current projects
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