s A R A T A n

s A R A T A n
contemporary dancer | performer | creator
brussels, belgium
who i am

with faith as small as a mustard seed...
From the small country of Singapore to the modestly-sized Belgium, I ventured, following the call to become a dancer, and while it seemed like a faraway fantasy, I'm thankful to be able to call Brussels a home that has made this dream a reality. My journey to Brussels began when I had moved here to attend P.A.R.T.S (Performing Arts Research and Training Studios), after which I simply ended up planting my roots, whilst still growing during my stay here.

A 4-year stint in the United States was made in between Singapore and Belgium, in another city of an exceptionally small scale called Stevens Point in the mid-western state of Wisconsin where I gained my Bachelor's Degree in Dance (Magna Cum Laude). Needless to say, there was quite an element of adjustment and challenge to be overcome, having just been transplanted out of a metropolis. But the dream was big and it was worth it.
hello, can you call me Welwitschia Mirabilis?
There is a plant that grows in the deserts of Namibia and Angola, which is not necessarily considered the most beautiful by most, nor might it even be selected to be planted in a home garden of even the greatest of plant lovers. What locals also baptise as “twee-blaar-kanniedood” (two-leave-can’t-die) is just testament to its 2 characteristics (possessing just 2 leaves and durability) that make it unique, and awe-inspiring to me, not to mention its otherworldy measurements and appearance.

Beginning its life with only 2 leaves, it keeps those very same leaves for its entire lifespan, which has been claimed to be up to 1000- 1500 years; it truly seems to be a plant that "can't die". The fact that it reaches to the gigantic size it does, sequestered in the desert, out of sight from anyone, sticking to its 2-leaved guns and surviving and thriving, inspires perseverance and a desire within me to cultivate a similar solitary inner strength.
ode to la danse.
I love this occupation of a dancer, where we get to play with forms and like auto-sculpting, put our own bodies into shapes, textures, and into different relationships with one another, always in search of new territories to, not necessarily even land on, but maybe to touch upon only then to depart again.

I can't help but feel though, that all this outward work of the tissues, fascia, muscles, skin, actually serves even more so, in the development of a rich inner life and deepens the well of creativity and imagination, and dare I say it, to eventually not even need to dance per se, for an embodied richness to be felt or communicated.

Like a welwitschia mirabilis – truly 'wonderful' as its Latin name bestows upon the plant, with its sheer presence, its being, transcending its awkward form (maybe that's why its often run over by 4x4s?) – I see dance as a wonderful means to an end, the end being an enhanced inner life that arouses curiosity, even if only for myself.

The person I hope to be influences the person I am today. And so, as I seek to keep moving forward in the direction of maturity, I look to my future self and hope to be as moved as when my imagination roams and sets its eyes on such a magnificent creature as the welwitschia mirabilis.
professional bio

After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in Dance from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (UWSP) in the United States of America (Magna cum Laude), I went on to attend the contemporary dance school in Brussels – Performing Arts Research and Training Studios (P.A.R.T.S) where I now intervene as their rhythm teacher.

I worked for a number of years with the Brussels-based choreographer, Michele Noiret, on 3 different creations, the first of which was a re-make of her seminal solo from 1989 entitled 'Vertebre'. Prior to that, I had spent some years with the French company, Kubilai Khan Investigations. I have also had the pleasure of being an interprete for Maria Hassabi, Eszter Salamon, Leila Ka, Eric Minh-Cuong Castaing (Cie Shonen), Thierry de Mey, David Drouard (Cie DADR), Youness Aboulakhoul, Christian and Francois Ben Aim, David Hernandez, Anne-Linn Akselsen (Human Works), Isabella Soupart, Harris Gkekas and Serena Malacco.
my artistic practice

passion
My artistic practice, if I can humbly say I possess one, has come out of more than a decade of my working in the dance field as a dancer, performer, collaborator, and my favourite of term, an interprete. This is my preferred of terms because I find that it speaks the most closely to the process of first entering the studio, listening to the choreographer speak about his/her vision, allowing the content and emotions of the words spoken to sink in, whether deeply or superficially, and allowing myself – mind, body, and soul – to interpret and translate those words into movement, gestures or other types of vernacular.

There is a kind of surrender that is required, which I'm learning to be more and more at ease with, where in a selfless manner of creative brainstorming, ideas get proposed, kept or thrown away, all for the greater good, so to speak. Diving in wholeheartedly and trusting the process, are tenets by which I approach my work as an artist in the role of collaborator, as I take active part in helping a choreographer's vision reveal itself, one step at a time.

I have had the wonderful privilege of working with a plethora of choreographers with approaches and styles as different as they come. And each project I've had the chance to be a part of stays with me and informs all future projects I enter into. Like a greater artist at work upon me, each project chisels away at me and creates new facets, angles and folds in my dancing body, my understanding, my embodied knowledge etc., only to reveal a continually complexifying individual, always in the process of learning and perhaps more significantly, unlearning.
know thyself
Where above I paid homage to la danse, I here want to do the same for le danseur/ la danseuse. The precious work we do as intermediaries may often be overshadowed or taken for granted, as we willingly surrender to the ultimate vision of the artist with whom we work for and with. And yet, we are more than just the clay, yarn, wood or paint which the artist manipulates or plays with – we are both object and subject with a whole range of creative agency. Having had the experience of working with dancers who know how to delicately traverse this boundary where the self does not always have a balanced place to settle upon, is inspiring and humbling, and I aim to learn from such examples.

The self, which dance, in my case, allows me to gain a more refined understanding of, is balanced with the self born from a practice of non-preciousness, where this self is allowed to die many deaths in order to bring new birth of something/someone, as yet unknown, only then to die again and reinvent itself. Yet, the new territories roamed only serve to carve, even deeper, the original self from which these treks were made. And so, there is simultaneously a wandering and deepening of the source, both of which can only happen in function of one another.
my teaching philosophy
I have the great privilege of teaching Rhythm to the students at P.A.R.T.S during their first and second years. As a teacher with not yet that much experience of teaching in higher education (this being my first stint), I've come to find the space of my classes to be a thriving ground where experimentation and learning from both sides is welcome and very much encouraged. My posture as a teacher is not as someone who possesses greater knowledge than my students do which I try to impart onto them, but I see my classes as working spaces where information is shared. Seeing my students as my potential future colleagues, I feel a responsibility to sharing the experiences and information I've gathered thus far thanks to so many others before me who have in like fashion, taught and shared with me.
Using the frame of Rhythm, we explore embodiment and what that means by way of pursuing a deep connection and relationship to music and/or rhythmic structures. We work to identify, for each of us, where the source of pleasure to move comes from and seek to familiarise ourselves with the source so that we can draw from it on call, whenever we so need. I believe that a pleasure is big part of why we dance, or why we've started to dance at all, and I like to use my classes as a place to work on staying sensitive to that source, whether we choose to use it later or not.
Beyond teaching complex rhythmic structures to the students which they have to learn to sing, clap and step along to, an attention to the group and what lies beyond ourselves (ie, the architecture of the space, the other bodies in space, the soundscape, temperature of the air...) is something that we come back to each class. In so doing, I hope to share with them the importance of learning to play as an individual within a group, much like a musician in a band plays very much their role, their instrument while still attuning to the greater sound as a whole. I've found this to be an important skill to have as a dancer in the professional field, which I find is often not shared or spoken about enough.
Most importantly for me is that I try to empower my students in my classes such that they gain greater and clearer ownership of the skills they inherently have. By becoming aware of what we know so that we can view them as strengths, and naming that which we know, they can become tools which we can use later on command – this collection of skills is something I hope to help my students gather together for themselves.
photo gallery
photos by Sergine Laloux, Attilio Marasco, Bart Grietens, Sem Brundu, Pascal Fromage, Marie-Eve Heer, Laurent Thurin-Nal, Cléa Mbaki Mabolia, Bohumil Kostohryz (TalentLAB)
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current & upcoming projects

wish you were here
www.wishyouwere-here.com
several years in the making and still ongoing and growing, this is a personal, passion project made under the moniker saralio. wish you were here is a photographic project that features chairs, usually in pairs, found on sidewalks, in alleyways, backstage, at bustling markets and various other locations, in all manner of positions and compositions, all taken from different parts of the world we've been to.
in creation
Us by Maria Hassabi
Premiere at Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2026, Brussels, BE
sylvan or how i dreamt of falling
Dance and choreography: Sara Tan
Music: Eric Bribosia
Dag van de Dans 2024
Brussels, Belgium
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a5Yk3OrYW8
personal works
sylvan
Music by Eric Bribosia
Dag van de Dans 2024
Brussels, Belgium

SHWAG
Prize offered by the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB)
Improvisational performance with Eric Bribosia
18 June 2022
Brussels, Belgium

sylvan
Music by Eric Bribosia
Danse avec les Foules Festival 2021
Brussels, Belgium
https://espai.be/festivals/
https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/791bea95-3bf2-43ff-94db-7086be826f66/sylvan description.pdf?id=3703418
the blog
thoughts, musings, and ruminations.
Just for the JOY of it all
October 3, 2026
There's something touching to me about a certain coming-full-circle of things that happens every...
Sharing sylvan at Un Peu, Brussels (June 2024)
July 3, 2024
sylvan is a dance solo performed with the musical interventions of dear friend and talented...
sylvan – In conversation with my past self
April 30, 2024
This past Saturday, I had the wonderful privilege of performing my solo sylvan on the occasion of...
Dag Van De Dans 2024
March 20, 2024
As part of this year's annual Day of the Dance here in Brussels, I will be presenting "sylvan", a...
Series Mania 2024 Opening Ceremony
March 16, 2024
It was such a pleasure to get to be a part of this very fun and playful project that was dreamt...
calendar of performances

2027
5,6 January – Petty Bison / STUK, Leuven (BE)
11 February – Petty Bison / Roeselare (BE)
19,20 February – Us / Vienna (AT)
24 February – Petty Bison / Aarschot (BE)
16 March – Tendre Colere / Le Perreux-Sur-Marne (FR)
18 March – Petty Bison / Turnhout (BE)
19 March – Petty Bison / Deinze (BE)
20 April – Petty Bison / Geel (BE)
23 April – Petty Bison / Koksijde (BE)
24 April – Petty Bison / Merelbeke (BE)
Us tour still to be announced
2026
22 january – Petty Bison / Aalst (BE)
7 February – Petty Bison / Rosas Festival, Brussels (BE)
17-19 May – Us Premiere / Bozar (BE)
6 June – Petty Bison / Mechelen (BE)
19,20 June – p/\rc / Festival de Marseille (FR)
22,23 July – Us / Athens Epidaurus Festival (GR)
31 October – Us / Sharjah Cultural Palace (UAE)
3-7 November – Lignes de Fracture / Theatre Les Tanneurs, Brussels (BE) *as a replacement dancer
connect with me

arasnat@hotmail.com
+32 483 69 22 62