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Dorothée Munyaneza
Five years ago, Dorothée Munyaneza met Christian Nka for the first time in the Foresta Park in Marseille’s Quartiers Nord. Christian is a former boxing champion and a local legend who has never left his neighbourhood. He radiates immense power, with his tall body, large hands, and full beard. And wisdom.
Three years after their first meeting, Christian and Dorothée decide to create a performance together. He speaks freely about his childhood, his parents, and the violence that has marked his life on the margins of society, but against which he also rebels. He teaches her boxing moves, looking out at the sea. And he dances.
The composer Ben LaMar Gay (with whom Dorothée has often collaborated) created the music for the performance. A portrait of Christian Nka emerges through his notes and words – an unflinching portrait that questions what masculinity, violence, and fatherhood (and what we inherit of all these things and what we pass on) can mean.
• Choreographer, writer, musician, and artistic director Dorothée Munyaneza (Kigali, 1982) is developing a passionate oeuvre. Starting from reality, she aims to capture memory and the body, carry the voices of those we silence, give heed to the silences, and reveal the scars of history. Munyaneza has previously appeared at Kaaitheater with Mailles, Toi, Moi... Tituba, Umuko, and Inconditionnelles.
• Christian Nka, born in 1978 and raised in the northern suburbs of Marseille, is a boxer, educator, mediator, resistance fighter, and survivor, but also a poet who conveys a unique vision of the world through words. He began boxing at the age of 17 on the advice of a teacher, to channel his violence. He discovered the “noble art” and soon established himself as a contender in regional and national amateur boxing competitions, in almost all boxing styles.
• Ben LaMar Gay is a composer, cornetist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and poet. He conveys a radical range of sounds, colours, and spaces through the universal language of folklore. From the iconic South Side neighbourhood in Chicago, where he grew up, to Brazil, via Nigeria, France, Italy, and Germany, Ben LaMar Gay composes music closely connected to daily and political life, drawing inspiration from other cultures to create extremely rich, urgent, and unclassifiable sounds.
artistic direction Dorothée Munyaneza⎟text, artistic collaboration, performance Christian Nka⎟music/performance Ben LaMar Gay⎟documentation, artistic collaboration Maya Mihindou⎟light Camille Duchemin⎟sound Camille Frachet or Aude Besnard⎟light management Paul Brunat or Camille Faye⎟costumes Stéphanie Coudert⎟production Virginie Dupray / Cie Kadidi, assisted by Louise Mutabazi⎟coproduction Théâtre National de Chaillot, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Maison de la Danse Lyon – Pôle européen de création, en soutien de la Biennale de la danse 2025, Centre Pompidou – Les Spectacles Vivants, Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble dans le cadre de l’accueil studio 2025, Fondation Camargo – Cassis⎟with support from DRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur / French Ministry of Culture Département des Bouches-du-Rhône Lieux publics, Marseille L’Assemblée, fabrique artistique, Compagnie du Bonhomme, Lyon
Good to know
This performance contains strobelights and loud music with deep bass.
