ABOUT

“As a counter proposal to today’s popular culture, my work in its essence aims to go beyond the able, vigorous, high performance and aesthetic body. It acknowledges that sociopolitical large-scale forces influence our health and play a concrete role in how we experience ourselves. Artistically and methodologically I work with expressions of physiological, psychological and emotional realities including archetypal patterns, as well as a phenomenological exploration of our matter. I do that through a dialog with formerly dormant unconscious parts of ourselves using somatic body work. During the working processes we built on my 16-year research into the somatic practice FULL DROP into the body. We have explored altered states of perception relying on the science of deep tissue release towards heightened sense of bodily perception and expanded self-awareness.The performers unwind the matter allowing the body to release tension in the depth and in that way to open up and become a vessel for channeling and self-expression beyond the cognitive. We enter into a dialog with generational archives and passed-on trauma patterns and related energetic realities dormant and originating within the cellular body and subconsciousness. My work in general deals with energetic citizenship. As a choreographer I compose experiences that are meant to vibrate energetically at the core of omnipresent pathological states of embodied beings induced by current and ancient conditioning and transference. When I use the term pathologies I am referring to the practical fact that cells, muscle fibre, bone structures, body alignment, the nervous system-respiratory system-circulatory system-digestive system endocrine system-reproductive system, the connective tissues and flow of various energies within our bodies all reflect our current and former experiences, conditioned patterns, as well as genetic imprint. Including traumatic events from our biographical history which we carry with us in a literal sense.Therefore all internal and animated motorised movements of the body reflect pathological (non-optimal functioning) inner systems and scarred and contracted tissue. These embodied pathologies exist in the shadows of what is considered normal life and in conceptual shadows. The audience may be confronted by pathology, but this is done to initiate release and transformation and further cognitive and physical processes on the topic, not to re-traumatise”.

Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir 

Since 2010, Icelandic choreographer and former dancer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir has developed a long-term artistic research trajectory investigating somatic and psychological sub-worlds accessed through deep tissue release. Rooted in choreographic practice and informed by fascia therapy, this research examines how social, political, and economic forces imprint themselves materially within the body. Over more than a decade, Guðjónsdóttir has articulated what she defines as a politics of intimacy: a practice-based methodology that resists the logics of hyperactivity, productivity, and achievement that characterise neoliberal society, and instead foregrounds de-conditioning, surrender, and heightened bodily awareness as political acts.

At the core of this research lies FULL DROP, a somatic practice that enables performers, practitioners, and audiences to access altered bodily and perceptual states—referred to as HYPERSTATES. These states facilitate a direct inquiry into the relationship between body and mind, enabling participants to question internalised patterns of movement, thought, and behaviour, and to access expanded agency, perception, and choice. De-conditioning formerly imprinted body memory—understood here as the embodied accumulation of trauma, injury, conditioning, and social control—is approached as both a somatic and feminist act of resistance. From this perspective, the body becomes a site of energetic citizenship, interconnectedness, and critical resonance with the inner and outer social-political body.

Through the sustained development of this practice, Guðjónsdóttir has mapped out a new category of performative body language, situated between somatic practice, choreography, and embodied research. This emerging field has been disseminated internationally through performance works, workshops, and theoretical reflection within both artistic and academic contexts. The research has evolved through close collaboration with performers and practitioners, and has recently entered a new phase of expansion through collaborative processes with artists Ginman and Moilanen (2022–2024), culminating in the performance Boundless Ominous Fields (2024) and Marie Topp From the finite to the infinite to the finite to the infinite to the … (2025-2026). The urgency of the works done 2024 onwards lies in extending alternative somatic practices beyond the professional confines of dance and theatre and into shared public space. This includes the development of site-specific choreographic installations, interdisciplinary collaborations, and work with film as a medium capable of carrying embodied knowledge beyond temporal and spatial limitations. 

Formerly Berlin based now Brussels based Icelandic choreographer Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir studied dance in Holland and worked as a performer with various performance makers around Europe during the period 2000-2014. She co-founded the production house Panic Productions with Icelandic choreographer Sveinbjörg Þórhallsdóttir which was active from 2004 – 2009 and focused on initiating collaborative performance works with Berlin based performance artists for the Icelandic stage and beyond it.  At the same time she  lived in Berlin while creating and touring internationally.

Margrét Sara´s work has shown her work and been supported by numerous platforms and dance organisations across Europe, including: Wilderness residencies, a project for the Nordic-Baltic contemporary dance community organisation keðja; Life Long Burning co-productions fund, Cullberg Ballet, Stockholm; Aerowaves festival platform England; ICEHOT! Nordic Dance Platform; SLINGAN Swedish Performance Network; Atalante, Gothenburg; Dansstationen, Malmö; MDT Stockholm; Tanzfabrik Berlin & Advancing Performing Arts Project (APAP) Production Studio Berlin / EU Culture Programme; WP Zimmer, Antwerpen, Sommer.bar–Tanz im August,Berlin; Barney’s Crossing,Cologne; Hauptstadtkulturfonds, Berlin;The City Funds of Reykjavík; Sophiensaele Berlin; Senat department for Culture and Europa, Berlin; BAU Dance and Performance Platform Amsterdam; Brussels Workspace, SAARI residence Mynämäki Finland; Kutomo theater in Turku Finland; Inter Arts Center (IAC) platform for artistic research and experimentation in Malmö Sweden; ICI-Institute for Cultural Inquiry Berlin; Savy Contemporary Berlin, Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media; Data Society Research Program of Malmö University; Inter Arts Centre (IAC); The Ministry of Education, Science and Culture is an Icelandic; Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the program NEUSTART KULTUR, Dachverband tanz Deutschland.

Collaborators from 2010 onwards 

2010-2020 collaboration with dancers Laura Siegmund, Suet-Wan Tsang, Johanna Chemnitz, Angela Schubot, Catherine Jodoin, Louise Dahl, Marie Ursin, Alexandra Tweit, Marie Topp, collaborated and deeply engaged in the work for longer and shorter time during this period.

2010-2020 collaboration with composer and director of record label Edition MEGO Peter Rehberg (PITA), who composed music to all the works created during that time period. 

2017- 2024  collaboration with Phenomenologists Prof. Susan Kozel at Malmö University, Jeannette Ginslov screen dance maker and Keith Lim computer scientist. Mixed Media choreographies, artistic research and interdisciplinary mixed media archival project.

2019- 2022 collaboration with visual artist and filmmaker Hulda Rós Guðnadóttir and composer Guðný Guðmundsdóttir 

2022-23 collaboration with musician, writer and performance artist Esther Mugambi.

2022-2024 collaboration with performers Karolin Ginman,  Marlon Moilanen 

2022-2025 collaboration with musician and composer Lucy Railton. 

2017-2019 / 2024-2026 collaboration with choreographer and dancer Marie Topp.