The Chocolate Factory Theater Launches Fall 2023 Season With A DISGUISED WELCOME...

The Chocolate Factory Theater launches its Fall 2023 Season with the New York premiere of A disguised welcome…, a new dance work by Wanjiru Kamuyu. Tickets may be purchased in advance at chocolatefactorytheater.org.

A solo exploration of the experience of displacement, A disguised welcome… draws inspiration from Kenyan-born, France-based choreographer Wanjiru Kamuyu‘s experiences in Africa, North America, and Europe; offering a bitingly satirical look at the notions of center and periphery, and questioning the notions of place, belonging and otherness: as a cosmopolitan on three continents, wherever she decides to set up home, is she considered an immigrant?

“Having lived on three different continents – Africa, North America and Europe - has provided me the privileged space and time to absorb diverse cultures and worldviews. The consistent current critically sensitive (im)migration issues at the forefront of worldwide political debates have inspired me to re-examine my personal (im)migration stories and consequentially cultivated a desire to examine the notion of and politics surrounding the privileged vs. unprivileged (im)migrant.”

A disguised welcome...is created and performed by Wanjiru Kamuyu in collaboration with Dirk Korell (producer, dramaturge), Laëtitia Ajanohun (writer), Jean-Philippe Barrios (composer, sound engineer), Cyril Mulon (lightning design & manager, technical direction), Birgit Neppl (costume designer); with the voices of Sherwood Chen, David Gaulein-Stef, Naïs Haidar, Karine Hanselmann, Wanjiru Kamuyu, Dirk Korell, Crystal Petit, Monika Schwarzl, Sean Seago and the stories of Tout-Monde. 

Wanjiru Kamuyu, native Kenyan based in Paris, France, is associate artist with Theater L’Onde (Vélizy, France) and a Live Feed artist with New York Live Arts (USA). Her career began its genesis in New York City. As a performer she has worked with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bill T. Jones, Molissa Fenley, Anita Gonzales, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nathan Trice, Dean Moss, Tania Isaac… and in Europe with choreographers Robyn Orlin, Emmanuel Eggermont, Nathalie Pubellier, Irène Tassembedo, Bartabas, Stefanie Batten Bland, director/writer Françoise Dô, visual artist Jean-Paul Goude and TV director Christian Faure.  Kamuyu has performed in industrials, television, and Broadway musicals The Lion King (Paris) and FELA ! (UK and Equity European and US tours).

Kamuyu founded the dance company WKcollective, which is associate company with creative production agency camin aktion (Montpellier, France). Her choreographic projects include tours in the US, Africa, Asia and Europe. Commissions include the musical À la recherché de Joséphine, director Jérôme Savary (Paris and International tours); Love is in the hair, director Jean François Auguste (France tour); Maître Harold, director Hassan Kassi Kouyate (Paris); universities (Mills College, University of Michigan, Wayne State University, Stephens College); artistic consulting/outside eye for choreographer Bintou Dembele’s ZH; choreographer assistant to Nathan Trice’s Their speech is silver, Their silence is gold; storyteller Nathalie La Boucher’s La Chevauchée du Gange); and community engagement projects with New World Theater (USA), choreographer Eun-mi Ahn’s project 1:59 (Festival Paris Quartier d’Été), Euroculture and the National Center for Dance project Assemblé (France).

Kamuyu holds a MFA (performance & choreography) from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). She has served as Visiting Guest Professor at Mills College (USA) and is currently core faculty for University of South Florida’s Dance in Paris semester and summer programs. 

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