Wanjiru Kamuyu’s An Immigrant’s Story is inspired by her own story, which meets at the crossroads of fellow travelers’ stories.
The intitmate sharings, testimonies, of others allow for self-examination and inspire seizing opportunites despite obstacles faced — external factors, societal and familial pressures, legislative constraints and personal choices — while building home a new.
The question of accessiblity arises. How do we render our collection of stories, constantly evolving and growing, the most accessible possible?
Currently we are in the development stages of rendering the work accessible to both the hearing and visually impaired communities.
For the hearing impaired audience, a second dancer who masters the French sign language, Nelly Celerine, joins Wanjiru Kamuyu on stage. In collaboration with Sign Language coach and translator Carlos Carreras, the translation of the text (performed and in the soundscore) into French sign language is being poetically interwoven into a choreographic tapestry transforming the solo into a duet.
After the company’s first residency at micadanses (coproducer/ Paris) in July, we were hosted for two weeks by Montpellier Danse, as part of a residency, with the support of the Foundation BNP Paribas, at The Agora, Cite International de la Danse.
September 29th, we opened up our rehearsal doors to share the work in progress with Montpellier Danse’s audience and the community of camin aktion’s integration program #JE•SUIS. Additionally, we welcomed into the space, a primary school class of 25, 8 year olds, to witness and share our creative process.
Through Accès Culture, who offer excellent conditions for the visually impaired audiences, we are in collaboration with audio-description specialist Julie Campans.
The premiere of An Immigrant’s Story (version LSF – French Sign Language) is at The National Historical Museum of Immigration (Paris) on November 19 and 20, 2021 followed by a performance in festival Fait d’Hiver, February 1, 2022 at Espace 1789 (Saint-Ouen/Paris) in co-production with micadanses.
At Pôle Sud // CDCN Strasbourg, we shall present the version LSF (French Sign Language) and audio-description on January 25 and 26, 2022.
Photos © Naïs Haidar
Art work by primary students, grade 2