Lenio Kaklea

Lenio Kaklea is a dancer, choreographer, director and writer born in Athens, Greece and based in Paris. She studied at the National Conservatory of Contemporary Dance in Athens (SSCD), where she trained in classical ballet and American modern techniques and repertories such as Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham and Jose Limon. In 2005, she was awarded the Pratsika Foundation Prize and moved to France, where she studied at the CNDC in Angers, under the direction of Emmanuelle Huynh, and collaborated with prominent figures of the European dance scene such as Alexandra Bachzetsis, Boris Charmatz, Claudia Triozzi, François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea.

In 2011 she completed the SPEAP program, an experimentation in arts and politics’ master directed by Bruno Latour at Sciences Po in Paris. Since 2009, Lenio Kaklea’s artistic practice uses a wide range of media including choreography, text and video and is informed by feminism and postcolonial critique. In her work, she explores the production of subjectivity through the organized transmission of movements and reveals the intimate spaces in which we construct our identity. Her work has been presented by institutions and festivals throughout Europe such as the Centre Pompidou, Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, Palazzo Grassi-Pinault Collection, ImPulsTanz Festival, CN D Pantin, Lafayette Anticipations, Onassis Foundation, Athens Epidaurus Festival, the National Greek Opera, Milan’s Triennale, documenta 14/Public programs, and Les presses du réel. Her performances have joined public and private collections such as the CNAP-National Centre of Fine Arts and KADIST Foundation. Along with her personal choreographic work, she is engaged in collaborations with other artists.

In 2013, Kaklea presented a collaboration with the American choreographer Lucinda Childs on the music by Ryoji Ikeda and in 2016, she was invited as curator at the National Scene of Brest and presented Iris, Alexandra, Mariela, Katerina et moi, a program led by female choreographers working in Athens. In 2022, she collaborated with the Italian fashion house Bottega Veneta and created a performance at Punta Della Dogana with clothes designed by Matthieu Blazy. In 2019, Kaklea was awarded the Dance Prize of the Hermès Italia Foundation and the Triennial of Milan and created the autobiographical solo Ballad. In 2021, she choreographed Age of Crime, a piece for nine dancers, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Greek Revolution at the Athens Epidaurus Festival, as well as Sonatas and Interludes, the emblematic work for prepared piano by John Cage, accompanied on stage by pianist Orlando Bass. In 2024 she creates Chemical Joy, a stage work for five dancers for BODHI PROJECT, contemporary dance company based in Salzbourg. The same year, Kaklea is nominated for the 25th Pernod Ricard Foundation Award for which she prepares a new short film.