Dorothée Munyaneza left Kigali with her family in 1994 and moved to the UK. She studied music at the Jonas Foundation in London and social sciences at the University of Canterbury before moving to France. In 2004 she wrote and performed the soundtrack for Terry George’s film Hotel Rwanda, and in 2005 performed on the album Anatomic by Afro Celt Sound System. In 2010 she released her first solo album, recorded with the producer Martin Russell, and in 2012 she worked on the album Earth Songs by the composer James Brett.
She establishes a dialogue between music and other means of expression, for example combining Afro-folk, dance and texts by Woody Guthrie when working with the guitarist Seb Martel, or mixing dance, poetry and experimental music with the musician Jean-François Pauvros, the choreographer Ko Murobushi and the composer Alain Mahé. Also with Alain Mahé she has worked on in situ performances at the Pompidou Centre and at the Mucem, as well as creating original choreographic pieces.
In 2006 she met François Verret and performed in Sans Retour, Ice, Cabaret and Do you remember, no I don’t. Since then, Dorothée Munyaneza has worked with Alain Buffard, Alain Mahé, Stéphanie Coudert, Ko Murobushi, Rachid Ouramdane, Maud Le Pladec, Jean-François Pauvros, Radouan Mriziga, Maya Mihindou and Ben LaMar Gay.
In 2013 she founded her own company, Kadidi, and presented Samedi Détente at the Théâtre de Nîmes. In 2017, she created Unwanted, her second show, premiered at the Avignon Festival. Both pieces have gained significant international acclaim and continue to tour in Europe, South America, the United States and Africa.
As associated artist at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, in May 2019 Dorothée Munyaneza presented a concert and performance entitled Woad as part of the Chantiers d’Europe festival, along with musicians Benjamin Colin and Daniel Ngarukiye and the flamenco dancer Yinka Est Graves. She was a member of the jury for the Danse Elargie competition in 2014 and Africa Simply the Best from choreographer Serge-Aimé Coulibaly’s Ankata laboratory in 2019.
