Judith started her first dance classes at the Marleen Sempels Dance School in Leuven. In 2011 she started her training at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. The next year she decided to study contemporary dance at de!Kunsthumaniora Wilrijk. During her education she had the honour of working with choreographers such as Helder Seabra, Iris Bouche and Anton Lachky. She graduated in 2016. That same year Judith was accepted as a student at P.A.R.T.S.
At P.A.R.T.S. she created and performed her solo 'Shuffle' at Dansand in Ostend, (2017) and created 'Shuffle (extended version)' that premiered at the GXII Festival in Rosas/P.A.R.T.S. in 2019 that she curated with her fellow students. Later in 2020, Judith brought back 'Shuffle' to Copacobana Festival in Ghent.
During her graduation year, she completed an internship with the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel-Aviv and created the site-specific performance SOMNIA, (2019) together with all students of her generation under the direction of Jolente and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. After graduating at P.A.R.T.S. at the age of 20, she decided to continue her studies within performance art and fine arts at KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts).
'Chloé and Anton' is the first theatre play that Amos Tindemans co-directed with Judith Van Oeckel and in which they both performed.'Chloé and Anton' premiered at Monty Kultuurfactorij, was shown during Love at First Sight Festival (2021) and played at ARSENAAL/LAZARUS among others.
In July 2022 Judith graduated with greatest distinction as a Master of Fine Arts. She started researching how to archive, maintain and own non-tangible artistic practices. Alternating between choreography, performance art and fine art, Van Oeckel plays with themes such as ownership and control and explores how dance can be preserved. All She Wants to Do Is Dance, is her debut performance and has already been seen at Museum Dr. Guislain (Par Hasard, 2023), at Playground (Museum M, 2023) and at Chambres d'O (KAAP, 2024).
In addition to her activities as a performer, Judith also teaches at several Art Academies (De Kunstbrug, MAAK, ART) in Flanders. Meanwhile she enjoys a close collaboration with organisations such as Danspunt, fABULEUS and Passerelle to offer educational and artistic movement workshops in (secondary) schools.