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. She graduated in 2016 and 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.
During her graduation year, she completed an internship with the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel-Aviv and created the site-specific performance SOMNIA, (KAAITHEATER/Kunstenfestivaldesarts, 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., she decided to continue her studies within Performance Art and Fine Arts at KASK (Royal Academy of Fine Arts).
During these studies she performed in works by Sofia Caesar (Unrest), Laure Prouvost & Alex Cecchetti (Occupie Paradit), Nathalie Rozanes (March), Amos Tindemans (Chloé en Anton) en Rut Buelens (Piste Blauw).
However, her practice emerged after chronic migraines forced her to end her career as a performing dancer. She started researching how to archive, maintain and own non-tangible artistic practices. Alternating between choreography, performance art and fine arts, Van Oeckel plays with themes such as ownership and control and explores how dance, as well as the performer can be preserved.
She graduated with highest distinction as a Master of Fine Arts in July 2022.
'All She Wants to Do Is Dance', (2022) is her debut performance and has already been shown at Museum Dr. Guislain (Par Hasard, 2023), at Playground Festival (Museum M, 2023), Chambers d'O (Kunstencentrum KAAP, 2024), De Villa (Dag van de Dans, 2024), 30CC (Young Poets Society, 2024) and Z33 (Modelling Life, 2025).
Judith was artist-in-residence at A Two Dogs Company (2025) and completed the M-residency at M Leuven in collaboration with Cas-co (2026).
There, she explored the question of how movement can be decoupled from the body and captured in a form in which it can be slowed down, silenced or fragmented, without losing its meaning or intensity. In her latest works choreography shifts from the physical body to other media; contracts, VR environments, sculptures, 3D-prints, or installations. Her work does not function as a documentation of dance, but as an attempt to give movement itself a new physical or temporal form.
There, she explored the question of how movement can be decoupled from the body and captured in a form in which it can be slowed down, silenced or fragmented, without losing its meaning or intensity. In her latest works choreography shifts from the physical body to other media; contracts, VR environments, sculptures, 3D-prints, or installations. Her work does not function as a documentation of dance, but as an attempt to give movement itself a new physical or temporal form.
The exhibition 'What holds and is held: on (safe)keeping movement' is currently on view at M Leuven.
She created a series of sculptures using motion capture and 3D printing. These will soon be exhibited at Thermae Palace for De Langste Dag (Kunstencentrum KAAP and Mu Zee). From this space, a movement unfolds towards the sea, where the work is gradually absorbed, erodes or disappears, thus embodying the transience and transformation of her practice itself.