Jeanine Claes

Jeanine Claes (1947–2019), nicknamed "l'Africaine", was a French artist, dancer, choreographer and teacher from the Fédération Française de Danse. She was born on 5 September 1947 at Clichy and died on 18 October 2019 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia).

At the beginning of the seventies, at the American Center (Paris), she became an instant sensation when creating from scratch an unprecedented class of African dance expression where, barefoot, she was supported by some of the world best drummers coming from various horizons.

Biography Early years (1947–1978) Born among nine siblings and growing up in a two bedrooms flat rooted in a no man's land on the outskirt of Paris (the Gennevilliers suburb), which she later viewed as an act of faith but also an act of permanent fight. Nine years later, she was running the dance class! Despite her young age, the dancing industry wanted her to be upgraded to enter l’École des Professeurs de Danse d’Irène Popard two years earlier. But she chose to keep on studying at college and later on registered at l’École Supérieure d’Études Chorégraphiques (in Paris) where she studied modern dance, rhythmic dance and jazz dance.

Still looking desperately for some pure energy, she kept on working alone on her own rhythms, her own steps. Then she came across the Haitian dancer Herns Duplan, a Katherine Dunham’s student, and his class of primitive expression. Finally, she had found her way, symbolic of an urgent organic need. Born again in dancing she now was able to not only express her emotions but also to exorcise her personal demons. using all the musicians in her troupe and taking as assistant the poet Tidjani Cissé, who later became, in 2010, the Arts Minister in Guinée- Conakry. And during the weekends, she gave workshops all over France, Europe or North Africa and was invited on a regular basis to take part to some international festivals. Jeanine Claes's classes attracted also the new wave of French actresses such as Isabelle Adjani, Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire (with her mum), Bernadette Lafont (with her daughters) and Valerie Kaprisky – her dancing sequence in La Femme Publique (Andrzej Zulawski) leaves no doubt about the huge influence of Jeanine Claes. In Paris, Jeanine was now a sought after celebrity.

Very hard on herself, Jeanine Claes was also tough on her students, her musicians and everything else, talk to Mick Jagger about it! In June 1978, promoting their new vinyl album Black and Blue, the Rolling Stones played four days in a row at the Abattoirs de La Villette (Paris). The Stones's singer asked Jeanine to finish their Europeans Tour with them. She was to be on stage in a brief dress but she refused telling Jagger it was too vulgar.

Around the world (1979–1985) From then on, Jeanine Claes's cervical vertebrae needed to be exposed on a regular basis to heat. So she started travelling around the world, looking for sunny and warm spots. First to the Casamance region, following the advice of her Africains musicians because on stage, the sight of ex-partner Guem unsettled her. So she went to live in a village where a marabout Unfortunately it would take her to a dead end road. She ended up in Sydney, at the Bondi Pavilion, where facing the Pacific Ocean she taught until 2001 before eventually dying in Tasmania.

Methodology For Jeanine, her African Dance expression is first a state of mind. After understanding the rhythm of the drum, you need to be able to communicate with it. This very own and long understanding of the drum will take the students to a better understanding of themselves. Failing to do so, the dance becomes a cliché. Jeanine Claes had the reputation to break down the steps for her students, and her priority was always to allow any of them, whatever its age or level, to start dancing straight away. Placed under the sign of improvisation it's very rare that the next show looks like the previous despite being named the same, being connected each time with the stage space, the number of drummers, the dialogue existing then between dancers and musicians.

L’Africaine, September 1990 (Kensington, Sydney). Shooting Star, August 1987. First created exclusively for the Performance Space of Sydney, this show will be play for about a year in the theatres and clubs of the capital of New South Wales. Rythme et Danse, 1980–1985. This show travel also in Europe and in Africa. A version of it with three drummers was performed Soleil, 1980 Voyage, in the seventies Tam-Tam, in the early seventies

Discography In 1980, to give an opportunity to her students to train at home, she composed and produced an album vinyl. Her rhythms are original and don't have anything traditional. The album was recorded in few days at the Studio 142, Rue Réaumur (Paris IIe), with two drummers, the backbone of her classes at the American Centre : the Senegalese Aziz N’Diaye et the French-West Indies born Philippe Lincy who later started his own group Doudoumba.

Soleil : Rythme et danse (1980, Jeanine Claes – JC 5947-1/Fr)