After graduating from the Rotterdam Dance Academy in 2001, Swantje was a long-term dancer and collaborator for companies such as Dansgroep Krisztina de Châtel, LeineRoebana, and Schweigman&.

During her career she studied and taught the Counter technique system developed by choreographer Anouk van Dijk. With the Master Contemporary Theatre, Dance and Dramaturgy at University Utrecht in 2018 Swantje specialized in dance dramaturgy, namely the dramaturgy of the relation towards the spectator in contemporary dance performance.

Next to theory classes at the Dutch National Ballet Academy Swantje teaches at the Master Education in Arts at Codarts and the Bachelors of Lucia Marthas Institute of Performing Arts. She is an advisor for project subsidy at the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst and a member of the VSCD jury dance / NDD editorial team.

“As a teacher I am curious as to how alternating between experiences as a dancer and as a spectator can inform theory classes of students of Performing Arts.”