Dorothée Munyaneza
How can we make something resonate that is not there any longer? How can the breath, the lives and the dreams of those, whose very existence was denied and destroyed by the slave trade and the colonial system, be brought into expression? Through words? Through the body? Toi, moi, Tituba… is a ‘collective solo’: A multitude of voices and perspectives converges in one single body. Dorothée Munyaneza dances and sings in their place – for Elsa Dorlin’s Guayan great-great-grandmother, or for Tituba, a Caribbean woman who was persecuted during the Salem witch trials. The music to this comes from oud player and electro producer Khyam Allami. In their interplay, a living archive emerges, a resonant space, to make the traces of the extinguished, the ignored, the forgotten audible, visible, and palpable.
With Toi, moi, Tituba…, Munyaneza references Maryse Condé’s 1986 novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and philosopher Elsa Dorlin’s 2021 text I, You, We: “I, Tituba” and the Ontology of Traces. She asks: How can I refer to my own history of which no written traces bear witness, apart maybe from a number of ‘historic eliminations’, to use Elsa Dorlin’s expression that describes colonial-era administrative archives? Is it possible to create ancestry, for the duration of the time of a dance? Engage in relations with those history forgot, with our lives, but also with those who are yet bound to be born?
Dorothée Munyaneza is a multidisciplinary artist utilising music, singing, text, and movement in order to understand rupture as a dynamic force. Her artistic work draws from the diversity of her cultural heritage – her extended family in Rwanda, the experiences in London, her move to Paris and her subsequent settling in Marseille –, but most of all from her joy in encounters. In 2013, Munyaneza founded the Kadidi company in Marseille. As a choreographer, she is affiliated with the Théâtre National de Chaillot, the Lyonnaise Maison de la Danse, and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis.
Duration: 60 min.
English, French & Kinyarwanda with German & English Translation.
| Sat 15.02. | subsequent talk in the Foyer |
Original music: Khyam Allami, Dorothée Munyaneza; Costumes: Stéphanie Coudert; Based on a text by Elsa Dorlin; Lighting: Marine Le Vey; Sound direction: Camille Frachet; Production: Cie Kadidi, Virginie Dupray.
A co-production of Tanz im August - HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Chaillot Théâtre National de la Danse, Maison de la Danse Lyon - Pôle Européen de creation, DeSingel Anvers, Pavillon ADC Genève, TransFabrik Fund - a German-French fund for the performing arts.
Studio residency at CCN - Ballet National de Marseille, Friche Belle de mai Marseille, Centre d'art Montévidéo Marseille, DeSingel Antwerp.
With the support of the Fondation Camargo, Cassis, DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Montévidéo Art Center - Festival Actoral Marseille.
Dorothée Munyaneza is an associated artist at the Chaillot Théâtre National de la Danse, the Camargo Foundation, the Maison de la danse and the Biennale de la danse Lyon - Pôle européen de création. Supported by the Kunststiftung nrw. With the kind support of the Institut français and the French Ministry of Culture.
