Jan Martens

Shrill and ugly: noise. This is how women’s voices were often described in cultural history in order to silence them. Giving them a voice that is not often heard is a core theme in the work of the celebrated Belgian choreographer Jan Martens, who was seen at the Festspielhaus in 2023 with the brilliant FUTUR PROCHE. Martens was inspired by the essay The Gender of Sound, in which the poet Anne Carson investigates how women’s voices have been marginalised through history. In VOICE NOISE, the choreographer now gives forgotten women’s voices a stage in a gripping dialogue of music and dance and asks: why do some voices belong to the canon while others don’t? In VOICE NOISE forgotten treasures can be heard from over 100 years of women’s musical history, repeatedly interrupted by silence filled by the dancers searching to express themselves artistically: “noise” becomes “voice” in all its many facets – singing, humming, whispering.