Invoking the umuko, the healing tree, the ancestral tree, the guardian of stories, Dorothée Munyaneza invites five young artists, poets, dancers, musicians, from the Rwandese scene who are weaving the legacy of the past with the creativity and the audacity of the future, so stubborn in the precariousness of daily life.
“It's been 28 years since I moved away from my native land.
28 years that I live in new lands.
28 years that I root myself elsewhere.
First, London, then Paris and today Marseille.
28 years that I haven't forgotten umuko, that tree that illuminates my childhood. That tree that resonates only in the native language. That bright red tree, earth red, which links me to what begins, to what is lost and found again, when I return, to what continues...”
Dorothée Munyaneza
The time to listen to those who make the Rwanda of tomorrow, but who nevertheless do not forget: Nkubana who, from the height of his twenties, plays the Inanga marvellously, the traditional stringed instrument celebrating the epics of the past, Impakanizi, an "Intore", a chosen one, who carries traditional dances and songs with the lightness and detachment of a young man of this millennium and the seriousness of an old master, listen to Cedric Mizero, Abdoul Mujyambere and Michael Makembe…
Artistic team:
Artistic direction: Dorothée Munyaneza
In collaboration with: Jean Patient Nkubana, Impakanizi, Cedrick Mizero, Abdoul Mujyambere, Michael Makembe
Music: Impakanizi, Jean Patient Nkubana and Michael Makembe
Light & scenography: Camille Duchemin
Costumes: Stéphanie Coudert
Light management: Anna Geneste
Sound management: Camille Frachet
Production:
Virginie Dupray, assisted by Nouria Tirou / cie Kadidi
Coproduction:
Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Chaillot Théâtre national de la danse, Maison de la danse Lyon - Pôle européen de création, PACT ZollVerein Essen, Julidans Amsterdam, deSingel Antwerp, Tanz im August – HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin funded by the Capital Cultural Fund, Kaai Theater Brussels, Oriente-Occidente Festival Rovereto
With support from:
Institut français Rwanda, Goethe-Institut, Franco-German Fund for Culture, DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur / French Ministry of Culture, Institut français Paris.
Performances supported by CommonMOB, as part of Common Stories, a Creative Europe programme funded by the European Union.
Performances
- Culturgest, Lisbon, in the frame of Alkantara festival, 14 to 15 November 2025
Dorothée Munyaneza, artistic direction
Based in Marseille, France, Dorothée Munyaneza is developing a fiery body of work.
Originally from Rwanda, she moved to England with her family in the summer of 1994 at the age of 12. She studied music at the Jonas Foundation (London) and social sciences at Canterbury, before settling in France.
In 2013, she founded her own company, Kadidi. Samedi Détente (premiered November 2014 at Théâtre de Nîmes), Unwanted (premiered July 2017 at Festival d'Avignon), Mailles (premiered October 2020 at Charleroi Danse) and the solo Toi, moi, Tituba... in 2023, in dialogue with musician Khyam Allami, were created. With music, song, dance and text, Dorothée Munyaneza starts from reality to capture memory and the body, to carry the voices of those who are silenced, to make the silences heard and the scars of history seen.
In 2020, Dorothée Munyaneza translated Hopelessly Devoted by Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest), published as Inconditionnelles by L'Arche Éditeur, which she directed at Les Bouffes du Nord in autumn 2024. Associate artist at Théâtre la Ville - Paris from 2018 to 2021, Dorothée Munyaneza is now associated with Théâtre National de Chaillot and Maison de la Danse, and with the Biennale de la Danse in Lyon since September 2023. She was awarded the European Salavisa prize in 2024 for her work.
