In umuko, award-winning choreographer Dorothée Munyaneza creates a sensorial performance about community, hope, and resistance, carried by young Rwandan dancers, musicians, and poets. A celebration of joy, love, and solidarity across generations.
A tree with vermillion-coloured flowers is at the heart of Dorothée Munyaneza’s work from 2024. Its name is “umuko”, traditionally considered a healer and keeper of stories, a symbol of the resilient ties between past, present, and future, and also a memory from Munyaneza’s childhood. Together with five young Rwandese dancers, musicians, and poets, the multidisciplinary artist celebrates the creativity, audacity, and freedom of a new generation: people who carry forward the memory of a common heritage while dreaming about the future and resisting the omnipresent danger of annihilation. umuko is a work of joy, love, and solidarity.
Artist’s note by Dorothée Munyaneza:
“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
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Based in Marseille, Dorothée Munyaneza is a multidisciplinary artist working with music, song, text and movement, exploring rupture as a dynamic force through real stories rooted in body, memory and the present. Originally from Rwanda, she moved to England with her family in 1994 and later trained and studied in the UK before settling in France.
In 2013, she founded the Kadidi company. Munyaneza has collaborated widely across dance, music and visual arts and has been an associate artist at Théâtre de la Ville (2018–21). She is currently associated with Théâtre National de Chaillot and Maison de la Danse / Dance Biennale in Lyon, was in residence at Fondation Camargo (2022–24), and received the Salavisa European Dance Award in 2024.
ARTIST TALK: Choreographer Dorothée Munyaneza and performers in conversation with Maji Claire
Thursday 17 September, 21:20 – Hallen
Maji Claire er en dansk/rwandisk multidisciplinær kunstner, der arbejder inden for bevægelse, skuespil og musik.
Med en bred kunstnerisk baggrund, der spænder fra forskellige street dance-stilarter til contemporary, har hun en omfattende erfaring fra den kommercielle dansescene, hvor hun blandt andre har arbejdet med kunstnere som FKA twigs, Christine and the Queens og Robyn. Hendes kunstneriske praksis tager udgangspunkt i bevægelse som et primært udtryksmiddel, og i de senere år har hun arbejdet med at forene forskellige performance-discipliner i et multikunstnerisk og æstetisk format.
Hendes arbejde har været støttet og præsenteret på markante institutioner som Det Kongelige Teater og Statens Museum for Kunst og har været omtalt i internationale publikationer som ELLE Magazine, Vogue Scandinavia og Eurowoman for hendes kunstneriske virke.
Derudover er hun en af de pionerende kræfter bag den danske ballroom-scene som en del af det internationalt anerkendte House of Miyake Mugler. Hun er blevet tildelt titlen “The European Princess of Seduction” af det internationale ballroom-miljø for sit bidrag til – og sin ubesejrede status i – ballroom-kategorien Sex Siren.
CREDITS
Artistic direction: Dorothée Munyaneza. Performance and artistic collaboration: Jean Patient ”Nkubana” Akayezu, Eric “Rud Bass” Hakizimana (since 03/2026), Impakanizi, Abdoul Mujyambere, Cedric Mizero. Performance and artistic collaboration (until 08/2025): Michael Makembe. Music: Impakanizi, Nkubana Jean-Patient, Michael Makembe. Sound management: Camille Frachet, Aude Besnard. Light & scenography: Camille Duchemin. Light Management: Camille Faye, Anna Geneste, Estelle Gautier. Costumes: Stéphanie Coudert. Production: Virginie Dupray – Cie Kadidi assisted by Nouria Tirou and Louise Mutabazi.
Co-production: Dance reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse, Paris, Maison de la Danse Lyon – Pôle Européen de création, PACT Zollverein, Essen, deSingel, Antwerp, Julidans, Amsterdam, Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Kaai Theater, Bruxelles, festival Oriente-Occidente, Rovereto.
With the support from: Institut français du Rwanda et du Goethe-Institut, dans le cadre du Fonds Culturel Franco-Allemand. DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.
Annual pass holders and members have limited ticket capacity and thus booking for OPENINGS. As always, ticket booking is on a first-come, first-served basis.
