Dorothée Munyaneza (Choreographer and Performer) 

Based in Marseille, Dorothée Munyaneza is a multidisciplinary artist who combines music, song, text and movement to explore rupture as a dynamic force. Drawing on real stories, she brings together the body, memory and the present to create spaces of resonance.

Her approach to creation and performance is rooted in the intensity of her lived experience. Her artistic research reflects her diverse cultural background—her extended family in Rwanda, 14 years in London, a move to Paris and, later, Marseille—but above all, it is driven by her desire for encounters.

Munyaneza has sung since childhood. She trained at the Jonas Foundation in London and studied music and social sciences in Canterbury, where she became convinced that music and sound would be central to her work.

In 2006, she met François Verret and went on to collaborate with him on Sans Retour, Ice, Cabaret and Do You Remember, No I Don’t.

In 2013, Munyaneza founded Compagnie Kadidi in Marseille. Its repertoire includes Samedi Détente (2014), Unwanted (2017), Mailles (2020), a capella (2022), Toi, moi, Tituba… (2023), a duet with composer Khyam Allami, umuko (2024), created for five young artists from Kigali, and Version(s), a portrait of Marseille-based boxer and poet Christian Nka, with  musician Ben LaMar Gay.

In 2020, Munyaneza translated Kae Tempest’s Hopelessly Devoted. Published in French as Inconditionnelles by L’Arche Éditeur, the text was commissioned for the stage by the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in 2021 and premiered in autumn 2024.

Munyaneza was an associate artist at Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse in Paris until 2026 and at the Maison de la Danse and Biennale de la Danse in Lyon (2023–2026). In 2024, she received in Lisbon the European Salavisa Prize for her work.

Khyam Allami (Music Composer)

An Iraqi-British multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, researcher and founder of Nawa Recordings, Khyam Allami focuses his research on the development of contemporary and experimental practice based on the fundamentals of Arabic music, with a focus on tuning and microtonality.

Born in Damascus, Syria in 1981 to Iraqi parents, and raised in London from the age of 9, Allami began his musical path by studying the violin. He moved on to guitar, bass and drums during his teens before continuing on as a drummer and then taking up the oud – his principal instrument – in his twenties

During the US/UK-led invasion and destruction of Iraq in 2003 Allami found himself to be “out of balance” with himself and his history and in 2004—aged 23—began to study oud, Arabic and Iraqi music with Iraqi oud master Ehsan Emam in London. A year later he enrolled himself into the B.A. Ethnomusicology degree at SOAS, University of London and graduated with a distinction in 2008. He then continued his research and oud studies across Istanbul and Cairo with Mehmet Bitmez, Naseer Shamma at Beit al-Oud, Hazem Shaheen and Abdo Dagher.

Resonance/Dissonance, his first solo album, was widely critically praised and led him to high profile performances across Europe and the Arab world. Following the release of the album, Allami began tirelessly performing and developing projects across the Arab world and Europe. He returned to drumming joining Tamer Abu Ghazaleh’s solo project, co-founded the band Alif and in 2014 fully launched his independent record label Nawa Recordings.

He has since composed works for film, theatre and dance. His recent commissions include Requiem for the 21st Century, an immersive oud-based installation for Opera North (Leeds, UK), and a string quartet for JACK quartet (NYC, USA).

Allami now lives in Beirut, Lebanon.