Die Kulthexe – for you, my witch is an interdisciplinary artistic research project by Anna Martens that investigates ritual movement as embodied knowledge. Focusing on practices suppressed during the witch hunts of the 15th–18th centuries, the project explores female-coded, collective, and resistant body rituals as living archives of memory. Drawing on feminist theory, dance research, and archival work, Die Kulthexe (The Cult Witch) combines somatic practices – such as Authentic Movement, contact improvisation, and circle dance – with field research and studio-based choreography. Through collaboration with dancers from Switzerland and Austria, the project seeks to reactivate marginalised ritual knowledge and translate it into contemporary dance. The research culminates in a movement archive – video, audio, and choreographic sketches – forming the basis for a future participatory performance in natural and communal settings.
Anna Martens is a Germany-based choreographer and dancer whose queer-feminist work bridges contemporary dance, somatic practice, and ritual research.
