Monika Błaszczak is a Polish-Łemko dancer, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist. Monika is passionate about movement, embodied memory, hauntology, queer-feminist ecologies, and the transformative power of love. Monika has showcased their work worldwide, gaining critical acclaim and building a community around their choreographic creations and movement practice called Soliloquy – Hauntological Somatics.

Their choreographic works have been presented at venues including Tate Modern, Sadler's Wells Lilian Baylis, The Place, Laban Theatre, South London Gallery, East London Dance, V.O Curations, Victoria and Albert Museum, and The Barbican Centre, amongst others, as well as at numerous festivals such as Malta Festival and Polish Dance Theatre’s “Borders of Nature – Borders of Culture” International Dance Theatre Festival.

In their long-term project Soliloquy, they are researching the body/world as a site of memory, agency, and desire, and they are designing a movement practice which considers all moving bodies as dancers. The practice incorporates a hauntological lens to their choreographic works and the study of the body in space and time.

Monika taught Soliloquy at places which include Independent Dance in London, Galerie Molitor in Berlin, Proyecto Barranco in La Paz, Centro Manna in Santiago, and Polish Dance Theatre in Poznań.

They have graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK with a Bachelor in Contemporary Dance (First Honours Degree), and from the State Ballet School in Poznań, Poland as a professional ballet dancer. Monika’s dream is to make dances which change the world, and to have a lot of fun doing that.

Why PS @ NYU?

I chose PS at NYU mostly because of the amazing faculty. It is truly a dream to study with people whose work I became fascinated with long before my studies at NYU. Additionally, I think that the interdisciplinary and experimental nature of what I do can truly thrive in the environment of the PS Department at NYU, which is at the forefront of the kind of research that interests me. Also, it is really great to be able to explore the rich cultural scene of New York, and share my work in this context.