bio

Corporality // space // dynamic
‘the art lies in uniting its elements’

hello, I’m Laura Schönlau (*1994) dancer and choreographer based in Cologne, Germany. I graduated in 2020 from the Fontys school of Fine and Performing Arts in Tilburg, NL with a b.a. in dance and choreography. since 2021 I am working as a freelance artist in various artistic projects and dance productions in nrw, Germany and beyond. Most recently I worked in the Contemporary dance field with Laura Hicks, .Dencuentro, Tacho Tinta and Thomas Lehmen. I have been working in a collective with photographer Annika Schönfeldt since 2021, and the video work UMGELENKT has been part of various exhibitions and festivals. Currently I undertake the dance coordination at the Tanz-Arbeit, as part of the socio-cultural space Kunsthaus Mitte in Oberhausen.

My work and my goals as a performer are based on the thematic and physical examination with corporeality, (questioning) femininity, and spatial concepts. Therefore, I’m looking for physical urgencies and confrontations that are linked to social and cultural discourses in a wider context that lead to a physical interdisciplinary artwork. Important elements in my physical practice are the use of power-release, body isolations, floor work and acrobatic fundamentals, which then develop into a movement language that is characterised by rhythm and dynamics, rawness and in search of connection. It plays with the physical capabilities and the physical and mental presence of the performative in the now. A field of tension arises between tangible form, somatic research, and perceptive level.

Adding to this I’m studying Art History and Cultural Media studies at the university of cologne.