Clara Saito

Clara Saito is a performance artist based in Amsterdam. Her work splits between chaotic personas—including drag king Kurt Dickriot, rockstar Lady Dada, and the melancholic Sadsato Claclown—playing with themes of transformation, dissociation, and identity as a fluid, embodied process. Rooted in improvisation and anarchic movement practices, Saito’s performances draw from her multicultural background (Brazilian, Swiss, Japanese) and her long-standing involvement in Amsterdam’s queer and DIY scenes. She is the initiator of Impro Drag, a playground for collective experimentation in drag and dance, and a member of Jacuzzi, an artist-run performance space. She has performed internationally with artists like Michelle Moura and Florentina Holzinger, while continuing to build spaces where art, community, and political imagination meet.

Watch Clara Saito’s 20 minute presentation for AEROPONIC ACTS 2019 ~ growing roots in air  at Silent Green in Berlin ~ May, 2018,  entitled:  Towards anal - a performance by Lady Dada.

Learn more about Clara Saito’s written MA thesis (DAI, 2019): Dissociative Performance: Anarchic Bodies and the Politics of Improvisation

Follow Clara’s ‘Life after DAI’ by means of Clara’s website