Dorothée Munyaneza: Toi, moi, Tituba…

In the organizer's words:

How can we make something vibrate that is no longer there? How can the breath, life and dreams of those whose identity and existence were denied and destroyed by the slave trade and the colonial system be expressed? Through words? Through the body? Toi, moi, Tituba... is a 'collective solo': a multitude of voices and perspectives come together in a single body. Dorothée Munyaneza dances and sings on behalf of Elsa Dorlin's Guyanese great-great-grandmother, or Tituba, a Caribbean woman who was persecuted in the Salem witch trials. The music comes from oud player and electro producer Khyam Allami. Their interplay creates a living archive, a resonance chamber to make the traces of the erased, ignored or forgotten audible, visible and tangible.

With Toi, moi, Tituba... Munyaneza refers to the novel Ich, Tituba, die Schwarze Hexe von Salem (1986) by Maryse Condé and the text Ich, Du, Wir: "Ich, Tituba" und die Ontologie der Spur (2021) by philosopher Elsa Dorlin. She asks: How can I relate to my own history, of which there are no written traces, apart perhaps from some "historical erasures", to use Elsa Dorlin's words about the colonial administrative archives? Is it possible to establish a lineage for the time that a dance lasts? To enter into relationships with those whom history has forgotten, with our lives, but also with those who are yet to be born?

Dorothée Munyaneza is a multidisciplinary artist who uses music, song, text and movement to understand rupture as a dynamic force. Her artistic work draws on the diversity of her cultural heritage - her extended family in Rwanda, her experiences in London, her move to Paris and her subsequent settlement in Marseille - but above all on her desire for encounters. In 2013, Munyaneza founded the Kadidi company in Marseille. As a choreographer, she is associated with the Théâtre National de Chaillot, the Maison de la Danse in Lyon and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis.

Duration: 60 min.

English, French & Kinyarwanda with German & English translation.