Marcus Louend is an Australian third-generation Estonian/Ukrainian dancer and choreographer currently residing in Adelaide, South Australia. After completing secondary education, Marcus accepted a position at the New Zealand School of Dance, where they completed two years of training as a Contemporary major. Marcus finished their final year of study at Adelaide College of the Arts, graduating in 2011. Prior to graduating, Marcus was approached by Australian choreographer Larissa McGowan, who offered post-graduate mentorship and a position in her upcoming work titled Skeleton, which debuted at the Adelaide Festival 2013, Dance Massive Melbourne, and Dublin Dance Festival in Ireland.
In the following years, Marcus continued to work with McGowan on multiple developments while also teaching Contemporary and beginner Ballet to ages 5-16. Other projects included Castaways, a film for the Adelaide Film Festival directed by Michael Kantor with choreography by Larissa McGowan; Aeon, a site-specific performance choreographed by Lz Dunn for Adhocracy festival 2016; and a guest spot with Phillip Adams BalletLab to perform excerpts from their 2011 work titled Aviary.
In 2017, Marcus relocated to Berlin after being accepted to participate in SMASH, a three-month intensive program of experimental physical performance, hosted by several mentors such as Maria F. Scaroni, Anna Nowicka, Diego Agulló, Shannon Stewart, Lea Kieffer, and Anna-Luise Recke.
In 2019, Marcus met Kiani Del Valle, and under her direction, became one of the first members to form the KDV dance ensemble. In 2020, KDV premiered their first work at Funkhaus Berlin titled Las Casas Invisibles. This marked the beginning of an ongoing working relationship between Marcus and Kiani, where they not only performed in Del Valle’s work but also worked as an assistant choreographer on Del Valle’s 2022 solo work Mujer Pulpo, and a KDV ensemble piece titled Tierra Quemada shown in Berlin Art Week 2022.
In 2020, alongside their friend and colleague Annalise Van Even, Marcus was awarded by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation for their direction, choreography, and performance in the short film Welwitschia. Marcus and Annalise have continuously explored work together in film and live performance, such as an untitled original work that was part of Tag Der Clubkultur, Berlin 2021. They also choreographed the About You / A Lot Less campaign for German pop star Lena Meyer-Landrut.
From 2021 onwards, predominantly under the choreographic direction of Julia Fidel, Marcus worked on multiple film projects such as Babylon Berlin Season 4, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds, Pitch Perfect Season 1, and John Wick 4 (choreographed by Chris Jäger). Marcus also took to some stunt work under the direction of Kiani Del Valle and stuntman Leo Plank for a Mercedes-Benz X Moncler commercial. Before recently leaving Berlin, Marcus worked with choreographer Yoriko Maeno on the development of her work O_V, and did a parting performance at the Volksbühne in a piece titled Forma, directed by multidisciplinary artist Mauro Ventura.
Marcus is currently studying Horticulture in Australia to explore other mediums that use physical practices as a foundation for personal and collective transformation, decentralization, and radical systemic change. After completing their Cert III in Horticulture, Marcus plans to continue their studies in Occupational Therapy, further exploring movement practices that encourage an ethical descent from the impending social, chaotic climax.