WKcollective | Wanjiru Kamuyu || associate company

Wanjiru Kamuyu, born in Nairobi/Kenya, obtained a Master of Fine Arts at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA). Based in Paris since 2007, she started her career in New York with such notable dance companies as Urban Bush Women and Molissa Fenley and Company. As a dancer, she developed a rich and diverse background that fostered her choreographic development and teaching.

Between New York and Paris, on international stages, she has worked with contemporary choreographers including Jawole Willa Jo Zollar/Urban Bush Women, Bill T. Jones, Irène Tassembedo, Robyn Orlin, Nathalie Pubellier, Anne Collod, Stefanie Batten Bland, Bartabas, Dean Moss and more. Wanjiru collaborated with Jérôme Savary (À la recherche de Joséphine), Bill T. Jones (Broadway show FELA!) as well as the film director Christian Faure (Fais danser la poussière) and visual artist Jean-Paul Goude. She was in the original cast of the Paris Production of Julie Taymor’s Broadway show, The Lion King.

She has created three major works since 2017 (two solos and a trio) plus adaptations for alternative spaces, young audiences, as well as for the hearing and visually impaired. These pieces have been internationally acclaimed in the USA, France, Italy, Ireland, Taiwan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Burundi South Africa, Rwanda, and Mozambique. Her works have been developed in residencies in France, the USA (on a Villa Albertine Residency), and in Ireland. Additionally, in 2020 Kamuyu created her first dance film, La visite, directed by Tommy Pascal. The film was commissioned by the Etablissement public du Palais de la Porte Dorée, in partnership with Théâtre de la Ville-Paris. The film has been distributed in France, the Netherlands, Cote D’Ivoire, Burundi, Mali and the US.