Clara Saito

What are the choices of movement that a body makes in response to the multiplicity of information and questions we are facing every day? Where does study start? Why do I have pain in new body parts about every week since few years? What does it mean to perform dissociation? Sister Emanuelle had the same zodiac placements as me in sun sign, rising and moon. Towards Anal is about imagining ways to dismantle capitalism while asking ourselves questions to help deconstructing bodies and minds that have been shaped to accommodate such a system. Going back to important questions that thinkers such as Fred Moten, Stephano Harney, Paul Preciado have touched upon, as well as choreographers such as Deborah Hay or singer Anitta, Dada genuinely makes the move to formulate answers through dance, all of this in a camp/humoristic and overall confused style.

Clara Saito is interested in performance as a tool to explore and expand the limits of the self, the position of art in our society, and its possibilities to enact effective changes in the world. This is done through the creation of practices for the body and the mind and the embodiment of characters which explore different visions of life. In her most recent works she puts in relation three of her main characters, Kurt Dickriot, Lady Dada and a confused version of Clara Saito. These characters have been performing together or separately since 2014, in different contexts, sometimes making their appearance in bigger projects such as the Black Circus or the film « A Piece of Dada.» In each presentation their personalities and moods evolve as they are deeply connected to the current events and to Saito’s authentic experiences. Their entangled stories were finally theorized and brought closer together in her MA thesis at the Dutch Art Institute called: Dissociative Performance - Anarchic Bodies and the Politics of Improvisation. In this research she explores the link between her different fascinations. Clara Saito has been active since 2017 in the Amsterdam-run dance space Jacuzzi and, next to her own practice, has performed for choreographers such as Michelle Moura, Florentina Holzinger, Carles Casallachs, Louis Vanhavebecke and Ann Liv Young.

Concept: Clara Saito
Performance: Clara Saito and Matthieu Blond
Thanks to: Hypatia Vourloumis, Quinsy Gario, Leon Filter

Website >>