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umuko

DOROTHÉE

MUNYANEZA


2024

“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


Dorothée Munyaneza left but always returned, tirelessly, to her motherland. She returned to listens to those who make the Rwanda of tomorrow, but who nevertheless do not forget, these "brand new ancients" to borrow the words of Kae Tempest: Akayezu Jean Patient who, from the height of his twenties, plays the Inanga marvelously, 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 Abdoul Mujyambere, Cedric Mizero and Michael Makembe.

She brings them together under the umuko where ejo, yesterday and tomorrow in Kinyarwanda, meet and speak through the body, poetry, music, inanga and song. umuko, the ancestral tree, guardian of stories, heals to weave links between what is preserved, what resists oblivion and what is to come. It is the tree of memories, the tree of vermilion flowers that illuminates this creation-celebration based on love, solidarity and joy.

Artistic direction

Dorothée Munyaneza


In collaboration with

Jean Patient Nkubana

Impakanizi

Michael Makembe

Abdoul Mujyambere

Cedric Mizero


Music

Impakanizi

Nkubana Jean-Patient

Michael Makembe


Sound management

Camille Frachet, Aude Besnard


Light & scenography

Camille Duchemin


Light Management

Camille Faye, Anna Geneste


Costumes

Stéphanie Coudert


Illustration

Maya Mihindou


Production

Virginie Dupray - Cie Kadidi

assisted by Nouria Tirou


Coproduction 

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.


Past touring dates and venues:

28 → 29 March 2025 

PactZollVerein, Essen


21 → 23 March 2025 

ADC Pavillion, Genève


18 → 19 March 2025 

Maison de la danse, Lyon


14 → 15 March 2025 

KVS, Bruxelles


6 → 7 March 2025 

Le Tandem / Hippodrome, Douai


4 March 2025 

L'échangeur, Château Thierry


26 → 28 February 2025

Le Maillon, Strasbourg


21 → 22 February 2025 

deSingel, Anvers


19 February 2025 

Concertgebouw, Bruges


1 September 2024

Festival Oriente-Occidente, Rovereto


15 → 17 August 2024

Tanz im August, Berlin


7 → 8 July 2024

Julidans, Amsterdam


3 → 4 July 2024

Festival de Marseille


15 → 18 May 2024

Théâtre national de Chaillot, Paris


23 February 2024

Kigali Triennale, Rwanda

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