Photo: Stine Sampers
Jan Martens (Belgium) studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg and graduated in 2006 from the dance department of the Artesis Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Since 2010 he has been making his own choreographic work which, over the years, has been performed with increasing regularity before a national and international audience.\
The work of Jan Martens is nurtured by the belief that each body can communicate, that each body has something to say. That direct communication expresses itself in transparent forms. His work is a sanctuary in which the notion of time becomes tangible again and in which there is room for observation and emotion as well as reflection. To achieve this result he creates not so much a movement language of his own, but shapes and reuses existing idioms in a different context so that new ideas emerge. In each new work he tries to redraw the relation between public and performer.
In 2014, Jan Martens founded the dance organisation GRIP with business director Klaartje Oerlemans, in Antwerp / Rotterdam. Since 2023, GRIP is an organisation with shared artistic leadership. Femke Gyselinck, Jan Martens, Cherish Menzo and Steven Michel are at the helm of the organisation, together with business manager Klaartje Oerlemans and supported by artistic coordinator Rudi Meulemans.
Since 2022, Jan Martens combines his role as co-artistic director with GRIP with that of associate artist at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. He also regularly creates works for other companies, such as Ballet de Lorraine, Dance On Ensemble, and Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon.
For the NDT 1 programme Wildsong, Martens will create his first world premiere for NDT.