Dorothée Munyaneza / Cie Kadidi

Dorothée Munyaneza / Cie Kadidi

Umuko

Dorothée Munyaneza / Cie Kadidi

Umuko

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.
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


At the heart of the Rwandan choreographer Dorothée Munyaneza’s new creation stands umuko, an ancestral tree with vivid red flowers, traditionally seen as a healer and a guardian of stories.

Together with five young Rwandan artists — dancers, musicians, and poets — Munyaneza celebrates the creativity, audacity, and freedom of a new generation. This generation, born after the genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, that tore the African country apart in 1994, carries the memory of a shared heritage while dreaming of the future and resisting the precariousness of everyday life.

umuko is a work of joy, love, and solidarity.

Dorothée Munyaneza / Cie Kadidi - umuko (teaser)
© Pierre Gondard.

14 NOV 2025
FRI 21:00

15 NOV 2025
SAT 19:00

Buy Tickets
Emílio Rui Vilar Auditorium
16€ (discounts)
Duration 1h10
M/12

The language of the songs and poems is Quiniaruanda, which is not required to understand in order to be able to understand the show.

Talk after the show in English
15 NOV

Part of Alkantara Festival

Alkantara Festival

Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, under the CommonMOB strand of the Common Stories project

Cofinanciado União EuropeiaCommon Stories

Presented with the support of the Institut français Paris and MaisFRANÇA, a programme of contemporary French creation in Portugal.

Institut FrançaisMais França

Artistic direction

Dorothée Munyaneza 

With

Jean Patient Nkubana, Impakanizi, Cedrick Mizero, Abdoul Mujyambere, Michael Makembe 

Costumes

Stéphanie Coudert

Music

Impakanizi, Jean Patient Nkubana and Michael Makembe 

Lighting and set design

Camille Duchemin 

Illustration

Maya Mihindou 

Sound direction

Camille Frachet ou Aude Besnard 

Light direction

Camille Faye ou Anna Geneste 

Production

Virginie Dupray, com assistência de 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 creation, PACT ZollVerein Essen, Julidans Amsterdam, deSingel Antwerp, Tanz im August – HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin funded by the Capital Cultural Fund, Kaaitheater, Oriente-Occidente Festival

Support

Institut français Rwanda, Goethe-Institut, Franco-German Fund for Culture, DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur / Ministère de la Culture, Institut Français Paris

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