BIO
Sofia Kakouri is a performance artist, dancer-choreographer and sound artist,
born in 1986 in Heraklion, Crete, where she started dancing at the age of three.
She received two awards in contemporary dance at the national Greek competition Terpsichoris Erga and graduated from the Hellenic State School of Dance (KSOT) in Athens in 2010.
Based in Brussels since 2012, she has developed an independent artistic practice at the intersection of contemporary dance, performance, choreography, improvisation and sound.
Her practice is rooted in a particular attention to the body, listening and the present moment. She works with improvisation and instant composition as spaces in which movement and choreography can emerge, transform and unfold in dialogue with their surroundings.
Her work explores different states of body and mind, open forms, graphic scores, the relationship between the individual and the collective, and the spaces where dance, music, visual arts and performance meet.
A central line of research runs through her practice:
how can we go further in dance without losing the ability to listen to the body?
She is interested in how listening to the body can become a way of going further rather than a way of holding back. She explores how listening to breath, sensation, fatigue and physical needs can become tools for developing greater intensity, endurance and performance. How can we push beyond our limits without overriding the signals of the body?
This research into the longevity of the body within a demanding practice is not about protecting the body from effort, but about finding ways of entering effort more deeply, consciously and sustainably.
Another strand of her research focuses on the relationship between movement and sound.
Sofia explores the body as an instrument and investigates how sound can emerge from physical action, but also how sound can in turn affect, guide and transform the moving body.
Voice, pocket trumpet, percussion, objects and materials enter into a physical dialogue with the body. Movement generates sound; sound becomes an impulse for movement. Through this reciprocal relationship, she explores situations in which sound and dance can emerge together, influence one another and transform the space around them.
In her performances, she often works with simple and open structures, leaving space for listening, unpredictability and transformation. The body, breath, sound, objects and space become elements of a moving score. Her research has led, among other works, to Árpyia, an evolving solo project at the intersection of dance, breath, voice, sound and choreography.
Alongside her own creations, Sofia has developed a long-standing practice of collaboration and collective improvisation, working with dancers, musicians, visual artists and performers in Belgium and internationally. Since 2013, she has been collaborating extensively with musician and artist Peter Jacquemyn and continues to participate in various improvisation ensembles and collectives, including T.A.E.O.B., WORP / Sichtlaut and INcluster.
Transmission is another important dimension of her practice. Through Humanimals Dance Dialogues and Tools for Actions, she develops research and workshop formats exploring movement, sound, improvisation and instant composition. These practices invite participants to develop awareness and listening towards themselves, others and their environment, while exploring movement and voice in relation to the group, space and time.
Her practice is shaped by an ongoing dialogue between body and sound, intensity and listening, individual and collective, structure and improvisation. She is interested in creating forms that remain alive and porous, allowing the unexpected to emerge and opening spaces for encounter.
CURRENT ARTISTIC WORK - CV
Árpyia / Pocket Danse
Solo performance · in development
Árpyia, previously developed under the title Pocket Danse, is an evolving solo performance where everything begins with the body: impulse, sound and the unexpected.
A material woven between dance, breath, sound, voice and choreography, the work explores the relationship between movement and sound through the body, pocket trumpet and other sound elements.
The solo develops through open structures, listening and transformation, allowing sound and movement to emerge together and influence one another.
Presentations
03.06.2020 — Solo’s Video project invited by David Zambrano, TiC TaC Art Center, Brussels
27.05.2023 — Ladyfest BXL, Centre culturel Jacques Franck, Brussels
21.03.2024 — Kakouri / Jacquemyn / Stokart, Cobra Jaune, Brussels
26.03.2024 — ZO! evening, Zonneklopper, Brussels
11.01.2026 — Poubelles #5, Cobra Jaune, Brussels
29.03.2026 — Cabaret, Nelsons Pirates, Brussels
18.04.2026 — Crude Saturdays, TiC TaC Art Center, Brussels
28.04.2026 — Performances son et mouvement, Chapelle du Grand Hospice, Brussels
06.06.2026 — Crude Saturdays, TiC TaC Art Center, Brussels
PERFORMANCE & COLLABORATION
Sofia's practice has developed through long-term collaborations with musicians, dancers, visual artists and performers, in Belgium and internationally.
Rather than separating dance from sound, these collaborations form an important part of her artistic research into improvisation, instant composition, collective awareness and interdisciplinary performance.
Peter Jacquemyn
Ongoing artistic collaboration since 2013
Belgium · Germany · Italy · Greece · Netherlands · Poland · Portugal
A long-term collaboration around improvisation, instant composition, performance, experimentation, graphic scores, different spaces, forms and collective configurations.
Projects include
You Move I Move We Meet · Broken Bells · Here We Are – Love & Struggle · Bass & Voices · String Things and More · HOEZO!
Selected performances & projects
2018
04.10.2018 — Trio with Geraldo Si, S.M.A.K., Ghent
14–18.11.2018 — Duo, You Move I Move We Meet, ROOM Service, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne
2019
17.01.2019 — Bass & Voices, graphic scores, Belgium
10.05.2019 — Duo, You Move I Move We Meet ,Nuits BeauTas Festival, Brussels
15.06.2019 — Duo, Crude Saturday, TiC TaC Art Center, Brussels
10.08.2019 — Duo for the 1st anniversary of Tic Tac Art Center, Brussels
26.08–08.09.2019 — Choreographic assistant and performer for Davis Freeman's It All Comes Out at Night; duo Broken Bells, Germinal Festival, Cão Danado, Famalicão, Portugal
20.09.2019 — Music & Dance, 5 dancers / 5 musicians, with Gunda Gottschalk, Patrick Hagen, Ute Völker, Felix Bürkle, Kenji Takagi, Jean Laurent Sasportes
Ört / Peter Kowald Gesellschaft, Wuppertal
12.10.2019 — Duo, You Move I Move We Meet, Nuits BeauTas Festival, Brussels
15.09.2019 — Journées du Patrimoine, Ateliers Mommen, Brussels
08.12.2019 — Suoni Senza Confine, with Lelio Giannetto / Curva Minore, Biennale Archipelago Mediterraneo, Selinunte, Sicily
2020
30.08.2020 — Duo, Rallye 04Jazz au fil de l'eau, Liège
17.10.2020 — Triple Fish, with PM Zaleski, Gombrowiczowski Festival, Poland
2021
19–22.11.2021 — Duo, Here we are, ROOM Service, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne
17.09.2021 — Bass & Voices, graphic scores, Belgium
2022
21.04.2022 — Triple Fish, Château Jolimont, Brussels
29.07–31.07.2022 — Performances and Tools for Actions workshop, FreeFlowFest / SHARE Impro, Gravina, Italy
13.08.2022 — JazzBlazzt / Free Music Fiëst 2.0 / IMPRO Festival, Limburg
21.08.2022 — Duo for the 3rd Anniversary of TiC TaC Art Center, Brussels
29.10.2022 — Bass & Voices, graphic scores, Belgium
19.11.2022 — Triple Fish, Resonare Festival, PLOEF, Brussels
24–27.11.2022 — Duo, Love & Struggle, ROOM Service, Kunsthaus Rhenania, Cologne
03.12.2022 — Duo, Nuits BeauTas Festival, Brussels
2023
25.03.2023 — Quartet with Frank Van de Ven and Emilie de Vlam, Zonneklopper, Brussels
10.05.2023 — Duo, Here We Are, Tour & Taxis, Brussels
16–18.05.2023 — Tanz/Raum/Musik – Ima Koko Watashi, Wuppertal / Brussels / Liège
22–23.09.2023 — Performances in the framework of Petr's Drawing First exhibition, OSK ART Gallery, Dilbeek / Blikfabriek, Antwerp
20.10.2023 — Performance with Peter Jacquemyn, Grégoire Tirtiaux and Jan Pillaert, Haekem Theatre, Brussels
29.10.2023 — Quintet, Drawing First finissage, OSK ART Gallery, Dilbeek
2024
03.10.2024 — IMPRO TIME!,with Frank Van de Ven and Emilie de Vlam and guests, DeVloer, Ghent
2025
13.04.2025 — Quartet with Peter, PM Zalseski & Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Parazzar, Bruges
23.05.2025 — Larger ensemble from Luca Sessions, Chapelle du Grand Hospice, Brussels
24.08.2025 — RUBIROCK II, with Tibo Vandenborre, George van Dam, Peter Jacquemyn, Misha Downey and Ide-Vanelle, Rubigny, France
20.09.2025 — HOEZO!, Duo, Cosmodelyk Anahata-Equinox Festival, Brussels
03.10.2025 — HOEZO!, Duo, exhibition "Onder met Melkwood, Leuven
16.10.2025 — HOEZO!, Duo, for the 5th birthday of Zonneklopper, Brussels
19.10.2025 — Larger ensemble, BILIA NA BISO / My Food, Gallery OSCAR, Dilbeek
09.11.2025 — Larger ensemble, BILIA NA BISO / My Food, Gallery OSCAR, Dilbeek
07.12.2025 — Duo with Jan Pillaert / Quintet with Pierre Borel, Tom Malmendier and Peter Jacquemyn, Cobra Jaune, Brussels
2026
29.08.2026 — Quartet with Peter Jacquemyn, Jan Pillaert and Frank Van de Ven, Het Godshuis, Sint-Laureins
19.09.2026 — HOEZO! Brussels
T.A.E.O.B. — THE ART ENSEMBLE OF BRUSSELS
Ongoing collaboration since 2015
T.A.E.O.B. is a collective of improvisers living and working in Brussels. Its research focuses on technique, instantaneous composition and performative action, bringing together performance, visual arts, noise and contemporary music.
Different constellations have developed over the years with Lazara Rossel Albear, Audrey Lauro, Peter Jacquemyn, PM Zaleski, Jan Pillaert, Sofia Kakouri and invited artists such us: Guillaum Maupin, Irina Lav, Yipoon Chiem, Paed Conça, Marijs Boulogne, Jan Dekeyser, Johan Vandermaelen
Selected performances
08.11.2015 — Duo Pockets, with Lazara R.A. Son Libérés Festival, Brussels
19.12.2015 — Duo Pockets / Winter Damage, Haekem, Brussels
20.05.2017 — Journées du Patrimoine, Ateliers Mommen, Brussels
21.06.2017 — PLOEF, Brussels
07.01.2018 — Rita McBride exhibition, WIELS, Brussels
20.01.2019 — KANAL-BRUT / Centre Pompidou, Brussels
15.09.2019 — Journées du Patrimoine, Ateliers Mommen, Brussels
19.10.2019 — PLOEF! anniversary, Brussels
07.07.2021 — Duo Pockets, TROUBLE Festival, Studio Thor, Brussels
26.08.2021 — Summer Bummer Festival, Antwerp
12.05.2022 — Duo Pockets, Zonneklopper, Brussels
01.12.2022 — PLOEF, Brussels
05.02.2025 — Ateliers Mommen, Brussels
24.08.2025 — Summer Bummer Festival, TRIX, Antwerp
21.02.2026 — Funeral of the Centrale for Contemporary Art, Brussels
01.03.2026 — Soirée ZO!, Zonneklopper, Brussels
09–13.09.2026 — Festival Ad Libitum, Warsaw, Poland
WORP / CROSS-MEDIA / SICHTLAUT
Ongoing collaboration since 2018
WORP is a cross-media improvising collective combining musicians, visual artists and dancers. With Peter Jacquemyn, Jan Pillaert, Klaas Verpoest, Vincent Caers, Geraldo Si and Lazar Rosel Albear.
Sound receives a body.
Movement creates traces.
Form becomes sound.
A feedback game emerges, dissolving the contours between instruments, performers and materials.
Selected performances
26.01.2018 — Sound//Vision, International Film Festival, WORM, Rotterdam
14.10.2018 — LOVT, Brussels
20.10.2018 — Open Studio, Batiment A, Leuven
28.11.2018 — Show Research #7, Terrarium, Brussels
23.08.2019 — BAC Atelier, KU Leuven
07.10.2022 — Umbraphonics, BAC Art Lab, KU Leuven
04.11.2022 — Sichtlaut Art Center / TiC TaC, Brussels
05.03.2023 — PRACINHA / Playground Berlin & SichtLaut Belgium, Palais Acker Stadt, Berlin
INCLUSTER BRUSSELS IMPROVISERS
Ongoing collaboration since 2023
Free sound improvisation orchestra based in Brussels.
22.06.2023 — ZKcollective exhibition, Zonneklopper, Brussels
03.09.2023 — Roskot Festival, Atelier Claus, Aalst
08.12.2024 — Studio Grez, Brussels
23.03.2026 — P.A.R.T.S – ICTUS, Brussels
OTHER PERFORMANCE COLLABORATIONS
2026 — Trio with Erik Vermeulen and Arne Nuyts, SVDU19, curated by Willem Malfliet and Casper Van De Velde, Lord Byron, Brussels
2025 — IMPRO Sessions, duo with Manos Barkatsas, Le Laakam, Brussels
2024 — Improvised music and dance performance, guest of Les Canaris des Mines with Pierre Bernard, Paula Defresne and Chantal Levie, L'Armande, Liège
2023 — Grumô Cha! Sof, trio with Alice Boscq and Le Cha!, Haekem Theatre, Brussels
DANCE KAPOT
Dance Kapot brings together concert, dance, play, improvisation and direct interaction with the audience.
Performances
07.07.2022 — OPEN Streets, Brussels
14.07.2022 — OPEN Streets, Brussels
19.08.2022 — OPEN Streets, Brussels
25.08.2022 — OPEN Streets, Brussels
28.08.2022 — OPEN Streets, Brussels
A Small World
Creation 2023–2024 with the support of JazzLab, KAAP, Ultima Vez, W.E.R.F. Records and Culture Centrum Zaventem.
27.04.2023 — CC De Werf, Aalst
19.11.2023 — Jazz Brugge, Concertgebouw, Bruges
26.11.2023 — BRAND!, Kunstencentrum NONA, Mechelen
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS & RESEARCH
TREFFEN TOTAL / TOTAL
2016–2018 — Hamburg, Germany / Seoul, South Korea
International research into collaboration between 26 artists, including Rita Natalio, Jenny Beyer, Urisna Tossi, Pavlos Kountouriotis, Jin Young Park and others.
Open studios, performances and research around Humanimals Dance Dialogues.
2016 — Residency, K3 Tanzplan, Hamburg
2017 — Research residency, Seoul Dance Center, Seoul
2017 — Fragments of Experience, public performance and open workshops
20.07.2017 — Opening performance, Sudden Theatre: Our Bright Future – Cybernetic Fantasy, Nam June Paik Art Center, Seoul
FREEFLOWFEST 2016
08–10.10.2016 — Irsina, Italy
Performances with around 20 international artists and improvisers such as: Carlo Zingaro, Carlo Mascolo, Abdul Moimeme, Sylvia Corda.
Masterclass Humanimals Dance Dialogues, for local dancers around with a presentation within the festival.
HAWILA PROJECT
24.07–12.09.2015 — Copenhagen, Denmark
International eco-living and artistic research project bringing together around 30 artists and scientists aboard a cargo boat as an artistic platform.
Development of the first Humanimals Dance Dialogues workshop proposal, Jam Sessions in Sea Minor, poetic videos and live art installations, including collaborations with international artists, dancers and musicians.
DEAD DANCE ZONE
2014 & 2018 — Hamburg, Germany
Dancer in the multimedia project by Yolanda Gutierrez, with projects presented at Kampnagel and the MARKK Museum.
RESEARCH & TRANSMISSION
HUMANIMALS DANCE DIALOGUES
Research and workshop practice around movement, sound and improvisation
Humanimals Dance Dialogues is a research-based workshop practice centred on the dialogue between movement and sound, interior and exterior, individual and collective, composition and improvisation.
It is an open form of dance in which participants explore their own movement and voice in relation to the group, space and time.
Through warm-up exercises, scores and collective experiences, the practice develops listening, improvisation and instant composition.
Contexts
2015–2016 — Hawila Project
2016 / 2018 — TREFFEN TOTAL
2016 — FreeFlowFest
2016 — 123 BokallRoyal
2017 — TOTAL, Seoul
2018 — LAMAB
2019 — Soma Dance Studio
2022 — Tools for Actions, FreeFlowFest / SHARE Impro
EDUCATION
Hellenic State School of Dance — KSOT
Athens, Greece — Graduated 2010
Professional dance training including:
Classical Ballet · Martha Graham · Release · Partnering · Cunningham · Choreography · Rhythmic / Dalcroze
RUH Yoga Teacher Training
Bangalore, India — 2018
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training.
Academy of Music of Etterbeek
Brussels — 2014–2017
Musical improvisation, music training and pocket trumpet studies with Michel Massot.
AWARDS
2002 — Second prize, group choreography, contemporary dance category, national Greek competition Terpsichoris Erga, Heraklion.
2003 — First prize, solo choreography, contemporary dance category, Terpsichoris Erga, Heraklion.
2010 — Award for solo choreography Illusions, performed by Natali Mandila, KSOT Open Studio #7, Athens.
FURTHER EDUCATION / MASTERCLASSES
2023 — David Zambrano, Soul Project
2023 — Frank Van de Ven, Body Weather
2023 — Adam Barley, Tao of Loving
2021 — Meg Stuart & Mark Tompkins
2020 — Iva Bittová
2020 — Horacio Macuacua
2020 — Edivaldo Ernesto
2018 — Laurent Blondieu, trumpet masterclass, TrompetMania
2018 — Marie-Sophie Talbot, voice workshop, Sysmo / Studio Saint-Gilles
2017 — Sunmudo, Korean meditative martial art, Golgulsa Temple, South Korea
Since 2017 — Katsugen with Ai Suzuki, Brussels
2016 — David Zambrano, Passing Through
2015 — David Zambrano, Dancentrum Jette, Brussels
2015 — Sten Rudstrom, Performance Tactics 2, Mime Centrum, Berlin
2014 — Frank Van de Ven, Body Meets Imagination, Brussels
2014–2022 — Linda Kapetanea & Jozef Frucek, Fighting Monkey
2013 — Inaki Azpillaga, Muriel Hérault & David Lorenc, Vandekeybus vocabulary, Brussels
2012 — Gyohei Zaitsu, Butoh, Ateliers Mommen, Brussels
2012 — Abel & Junko Coelho, Butoh, Byrh / Weaves Project, Brussels
Since 2008 — Contact Improvisation jams, performances and workshops with various practitioners
2013–2016 — Vocal improvisation workshops with Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Cosmophonics and Les Inaudibles, Brussels
Since 2016 — Tai Chi Chuan, Brussels
ARTISTIC SKILLS
Dance & Movement
Contemporary dance · Improvisation · Contact Improvisation · Action theatre · Somatic practices · Martial arts · Yoga · Aerial practices
Sound & Music
Pocket trumpet · Voice · Percussion · Objects · Musical improvisation · Sound making
Creation & Collaboration
Choreography · Graphic Scores · Instant composition · Collective awareness and intelligence · Teamwork · Adaptability · Interdisciplinary research
Transmission
Yoga and movement instruction · Humanimals Dance Dialogues · Tools for Actions · Group workshops
Other
Organisation of events, workshops and jams · Collective living · Outdoor and adventurous practices
LANGUAGES
Greek — native
French — professional
English — professional