Joanna Czajkowska is a dancer, choreographer, and dance pedagogue. She graduated from the University of Gdańsk (Institute of Pedagogy), and received her dance artist diploma from the Association of Polish Stage Artists (ZASP), recognized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. She also defended a doctoral dissertation on innovations in Polish dance theater at the Faculty of Dance of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw (supervised by prof. dr hab. Ewa Wycichowska), where she also taught dance directing, dramaturgy and staging (2018/19). Early into her creative career, she had ties with the Patrz Mi Na Usta Theatre and the Gdańsk Dance Theatre led by Wojciech Mochniej and Melissa Monteros. Her choreographic debut came in 1997, and in 1998 she began her artistic collaboration with Jacek Krawczyk, which gave rise to the Sopot Dance Theatre (formerly known as the Okazjonalny Theatre).
Czajkowska is the creator and co-creator of choreographies for over 55 performances of the Sopot Dance Theatre. Together with the company, she presented her works at many festivals in Poland and abroad, including the Czech Republic, Portugal, Germany, Lithuania and Belarus, Romania, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Indonesia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, France, Austria, Argentina, Italy, Spain, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland and China. She is the author of the research and art project Open Body, which combines dance theater methods with the Hawaiian huna and mindfulness, and the author of the Good Solo choreographic course. Czajkowska also explores dance as a theorist. She has led a series of lectures on the history and theory of dance in Gdansk Club “Żak,” and together with Anna Haracz she was regularly featured in a series of Radio Gdańsk live broadcasts, titled Dance Lessons. She also taught a series of lectures Dance Theater: History and Artists, co-organized by the TwO Windows Theatre and the Faculty of Theater Studies of the University of Gdańsk. On the occasion of the 2009 Congress of Polish Culture, she compiled a report on contemporary dance in the Tri-city for the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. She is a member of the Polish Choreological Forum.
Czajkowska is the president of the Dance [SIC!] Association, and director and executive producer at the Sopot Dance Theatre.
Over the course of her career, Czajkowska has received numerous distinctions and awards, the most important of which include the Gloria Artis Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture (2018), the honorary badge of “Merit to Polish Culture” (2010), Sopot Muse (2015), scholarship for people of culture of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2017), and the artistic scholarship of the Marshal of the Pomorskie Province (2009, 2010, 2011, 2015). She is also the recipient of nominations for several awards, including the “Artist of the Year 2005” prize in the poll of the “Gazeta Wyborcza – Trójmiasto” daily, “Personality of the Year 2015” awarded by the “Dziennik Bałtycki” daily, and the Pomeranian Art Prize for outstanding artistic creation in 2017.
