INNOVATIVE PERCUSSION
for the musical and theatrical arts

Helene is an internationally renown innovative artist - percussionist, vocalist and musical conceptual artist.

Helene Amelia Jank is born into a musical family in East-Berlin, where she followed music education from a young age. In pursue of her passion for Brazilian Music she moves to Salvador- Brazil, where she gained musical and cultural traditional knowledge which formed her coming path. Back in Berlin, Helene Amelia was invited to performed amongst others with vocalist Bobby Mc Ferrin and percussionist Evelin Glennie at the Waldbuehne Berlin.

To deepen her musical quest Helene Amelia later moved to London were she collaborated as a performer of the group with STOMP Ldt London Ambassadors Theatre, West End, England. Since living in Amsterdam, Helene Amelia's work is expressed in a wide spectrum of transdisciplinary collaborations and several music projects.  

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She holds a Bachelor in percussion & voice of the World Music Academy in Codarts, NL and a Master in ‘Improvised Music for Vocals’, Bruckner University Linz. Jank studied theater and dance at the AHK (Amsterdam), PSA (Paris) and with Cedric Charron (Jan Fabre) and Arthur Rosenfeld (Pina Bausch). Her speciality is Latin Percussion, but her application diverse and orientated to contemporary approaches.

She has been creating performances amongst others with Sali Betinzane (Syria/ Austria), MAAS Theatre Company Rotterdam (Arthur Rosenfeld), De Stilte and LICHTBENDE Contemporary Visual Theatre Company Amsterdam (Rob Logister/ Marie Raemakers).

Besides creating her own ensemble "Amelia Jank & Jack Soul Samba" she joined the national tour of Senf Theatre's production "Here, There and Everywhere" in 2010. In 2012 Helene joined MAAS Theater and Dance Company and The Lichtbende Theatre Company, collaborates and performs with them on a regular basis. From 2015-2016 she has been a member of the cast in Stomp, Ambassadors Theatre – London. Helene has worked as a composer for the productions ‘Crimson Soil’ (Sali Betinzane), ‘Wild Thing’ MAAS Theatre Company (the Netherlands), “TUTU” Lichtbende Projection Theatre and the musical ensembles Ot Azoj, Nelson Faria (Brazil) and others. With the band Zulemax, Helene performed at Montreux Jazz Festival (2014) in Switzerland and she's recorded “Zulemax llegó” (2012), with original composition arranged by Cuban Grammy Award holder Joaquin Betancourt. In 2016 and 2017 Helene Amelia is asked to collaborate with Lichtbende Productions to create and perform in the contemporary performance "WEERLICHT", where she arranges and composes for the Nederlandse Zangtheater. In 2018 she tours the Netherlands with Izaline Calister in the show "Latin Diva" and collaborates with percussionist Alua Nascimento to create the program "Sound". In 2019 she is asked to co-create a theatre piece for the dance company De Stilte, "Do-Re-Mi-Ka-Do - the colour of sound" which premieres the same year and was sold to the most renown international youth-dance theatre festivals including 'Dance Umbrella London', IPAY Philadephia USA, 'Visioni' Bologna ao. In 2022 Helene and Katarzyna Sitarz created the Theaterpodcast [extra]ordinary THINGS, in 2023 Helene created 'eyecatchers' together with choreographers Gertien Bergstra and Femke Somerwil, followed by an international tour until 2025. Helene taught in the conservatory of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem. She is a world citizen, having mastered various styles of performance & music and is speaking six different languages fluently.