Grėtė Šmitaitė (born in 1994) is a dancer and choreographer based in Switzerland and Lithuania. She graduated from HZT Berlin (BA Dance, Context, Choreography) and received a danceWEB scholarship in 2017. From 2022 to 2024, Šmitaitė studied clowning, choreography, physical theater, and acrobatics with Ira Seidenstein (Cirque du Soleil, Slava Snow Show). Since 2025, Šmitaitė has been an I.S.A.A.C. associate. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Lithuanian Dance Association.
Šmitaitė seeks to create choreographies that use humor to open new perspectives on difficult topics. Her first solo piece, What do I cry for? (2019), explores and questions the physical need to cry. Solo works Cracks (2022) and Meadow (2023) speak of the fear of loving and belonging. My Ground does not Break. Version for Silence (2025) explores women's faith and resilience during exile and imprisonment.
Another Šmitaitė’s goal as a choreographer is to create choreographies that show interrelations between places and people. Šmitaitė created site-specific dance works: Shy Palms - A piece for 7 viewers for Kaunas Fort IV, (co-created with Sunayana Shetty), (2019); Winter Garden (2018) and an in depth research on site-specific dance projects On Earth.
In 2019, Šmitaitė's dance practice was enriched by a dialogue with choreographer Stephen Batts and Echoe Echoe Dance Theater during her residency in Derry, Ireland, as well as a six-month remote mentorship with S. Batts. Šmitaitė's work during this period focused on exploring the principles of dance that challenge creativity of diverse groups: children, seniors, professional dancers.
Šmitaitė’s dance pieces have been presented at New Baltic Dance Festival Vilnius, Contempo Festival Kaunas, toured throughout Estonia with the support of Premiere Programm, shown in Open Spaces Festival Berlin, LT Art Vienna and Baltic Dance Platform Riga.
Šmitaitė offers dance, embodied theater and clowning workshops for professional dancers, students and amateurs (in Lithuania, Switzerland, Germany). She has initiated platforms of exchange for young choreographers, such as Unending Research with Liza Baliasnaja, and was invited to mentor dance artists during the research platform Bitės in 2021.
As a dancer, from 2017-2023 Šmitaitė collaborated intensively with choreographers Doris Uhlich (Melancholic Ground, 2023; Gootopia - the Treatment, 2022; Gootopia, 2021; Seismic Session, 2017; Habitat, 2017; More than Naked, 2017) and Ania Aristarkhova (Lust, 2018; Obnimashki, 2017; Zweites Stück, 2016; Rinnzekette, 2016).
In 2025 Šmitaitė established a dance association G S Projects in Switzerland. With it she seeks to gather stage artists to create dance projects that widen our human sensitivity to one another, make us laugh and feel daring, challenged and connected.