who

SARAH KLENES was born in Liège in 1983 into a family of artists, somewhere between the melodies of her double bass player father, a few notes on the transverse flute and a lot of care (and it's an art) from her mother, the nimble fingers of hers sculptor aunt, the magician's fingers of hers organist grandfather, the nimble fingers of hers seamstress grandmother who also always sang with joy, the fanfaronic tunes of her trombonist godfather, and the Ardennes art of living...

In the middle of this, dance, her very first crush, led her train all her youth in a ballet school in Liège to later join the Koninklijk Ballet Van Vlaanderen (Antwerp, BE) for 3 years as a corps de ballet. She takes part to the great classics there and collaborate in a.o. with Jan Fabre, Marc Bogaert and Stef Kamil Carlens.

During those years, she encounters jazz and improvisation and falls in love with the freedom, the liberating movement that she experiences in this music. In 2004, she leaves ballet to dive into sound and voice and she enters the Lemmens Instituut conservatory in Leuven (accompanied in her journey by Natasha Roth, Dré Pallemaerts, Pierre Van Dormael, Bart Van Caeneghem), she continues in Brussels with a.o. David Linx and Kris Defoort and finished his cycle in 2009 at the CNSM in Paris.

The joy of exploration and the passion to meet people through music are endlessly feeding her path and she participates as a scholarship holder in the Jazz and Creative Music workshop in Banff (Canada, 2011) chaired by the American trumpeter Dave Douglas, where she meets later musicians-fellows.

On the boards for 20 years now, she collaborates with many artists.

For 8 years, she led and composed for the jazz trio OakTree, with cellist Annemie Osborne and accordionist Thibault Dille, collaborating in particular with the remarkable Tcha Limberger, Magic Malik and Michel Massot (JazzLab, Asspropro, Carte Blanche au Brosella, 2 albums, Jong Jazz Talent prize and GentJazz Festival).

She is also part of the Belgian-Leton pop-jazz-contemporary group How Town led by double bassist Lennart Heyndels, with guitarist Matiss Cudars and singers Laura Polence, Elina Silova (Europe Tour, Match & Fuse London, Bimhuis, Porgy & Bess and Stadtgarten, Keep An Eye 'The Records' award 2017 and the Jong Muziek award at Theater Aan Zee 2014).

In February 2018, she participated in the international music project CRISSCROSS EUROPE, under the tutelage of Danish percussionist Marilyn Mazur (Miles Davis, …), which tours across Europe.

In 2020, she participated in the album "The States of the Human Soul" by bass clarinetist Yann Lecollaire (personal compositions on the poetry of William Blake).

Versatile, she opens the field of possibilities by founding with the singer Géraldine Cozier the company Les Superluettes in 2008, a burlesque vocal duet for which they create several street theatre art performances: creations 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2022 at the international festival of street arts in Chassepierre (BE).

Sarah joins the Projet Nomade (travelling theatre, Elsa Rauchs and Little Lies Luxembourg interdisciplinary collective) with which she tours in the summers 2015, 2016 and 2017 and for which she writes and arranges the music.

At the same time, over the course of the encounters, the work of the voice - which is none other than a resonant body expressing - awakens an urgent need to dance again. She moves to Berlin in the fall of 2015 to follow a 3-month training in multidisciplinary performance (SMASH Intensive).

She deepens voice and body work with Géraldine Cozier (vocal technique) and explores somatic techniques with a.o. Laurence Chevalier (BodyMindCentering), Catherine Delasalle (Feldenkreis) and Marielle Morales (dancer and choreographer).

Voice and movement intertwine, feed, stimulate and question each other.

In 2016, she begins a series of solo performances mixing voice and movement entitled ECOUTE, which then gave birth to …ENTRE… a voice-dance-poetry performance with Catherine Barsics (co-produced by the Théâtre de la Parole, Bxl, 2019) and is available today in the ambulatory and performative workshops “La Traversée” with Catherine Barsics (co-production Commune de Forest and Province de Liège, 2021).

From 2018 to 2022, she tours with the contemporary dance show The Sea Within by Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten van Cauwenberghe (Voetvolk) which received a triumphant welcome.

CURRENTLY (2023):

She sings in "Modern Tales" of the Brussels Vocal Project (compositions by American drummer John Hoollenbecq for 5 voices and a drummer on texts by the BVP inspired by children's tales presented in a contemporary context, an album co-produced by Radio France );

She is preparing a trio album with Bram de Looze and Sylvain Debaisieux;

She is in creation with the dance performance "M-Ondes" by Marielle Morales.

In parallel to all these artistic adventures, another adventure constantly nourishes and inspires her for more than 20 years: the transmission or rather the facilitation of experiences in music and movement.

She regularly gives workshops, facilitates laboratories for all the ideas that cross her mind-heart-body, around the voice, improvisation and movement in Brussels (Maison de la création de Laeken, Piano Fabriek, Cellule 133, THEATER DE LA PAROLE), in Liège (LA TCHICASS) and in Leuven (WISPER), alone or in pairs with a.o. Géraldine Cozier, Tania Bosac, Manu Lurquin and Marielle Morales.

She occasionally teaches at the Antwerp Conservatory (BE).

And finally, she regularly accompanies dance, storytelling, theater and music performances as a coach/voice writer.

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CONTACT

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