MFAEIP Summer Hothouse | August 12-14, 2026
The MFAEIP Summer Hothouse offers reliable physical and social space for current Duke Dance graduate students and esteemed alumni to gather in community for a long weekend of dance and choreographic strategies. Established in summer 2020, with the inaugural MFA/Dance – EIP cohort, the Duke Dance Summer Hothouse provides MFAEIP students and alumni with a lifelong invitation to return each summer to the air condition-less Ark to continue to expand their approaches to movement and creative process without the pressure of a "product" in sight.
This summer, attendees will join morning classes led by Valarie Samulski and afternoon creative practice workshops with Wanjiru Kamuyu.
Guest Artists
Wanjiru Kamuyu
Dance Artist, Choreographer, Teacher
New York City Dance and Performance Bessies Award winner 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, Stefanie Batten Bland, Bartabas, Dean Moss, Emmanul Eggermont, Anne Collod and more. Kamuyu 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.
Since 2017, Kamuyu has created four major works (two solos and two trios) plus adaptations for alternative spaces and young audiences. Additionally, in 2020 she created her first dance film, La visite, directed by Tommy Pascal. Her works have been internationally acclaimed in the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Kamuyu has also worked as a choreographer with directors Jérôme Savary (France), Hassane Kassi Kouyaté (Burkina Faso), Jean-François Auguste (France); several US based universities; dance company InkBoat (USA) and has developed projects for refugees with New World Theatre (USA) and Euroculture. Additionally, she has also served as artistic consultant for choreographer Bintou Dembele’s (France) work, Z.H.
Kamuyu teaches workshops in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa.
Kamuyu’s company, WKcollective, is an associate company with the creative agency camin aktion (Montpellier). For seasons 2023-25, Wanjiru Kamuyu was associate artist at the National Choreographic Center, CCN Nantes. As a 2023 artist in residence with the Villa Albertine, Kamuyu continues to receive their support in the touring her work in the US. She was also a Live Feed Artist with New York Live Arts for seasons 2023/24 and 2024/25. From 2020/21 through 2023/24, she was associate artist with L’Onde Théâtre Centre d’Art, Scène Conventionnée d’Intérêt National – Art et Création pour la Danse (Vélizy, France).
Workshop Description:
Creative Process workshops with Wanjiru take place Thursday August 13 and Friday August 14 1-4pm in the Ark
What moves you? What motivates you? What inspires you?
Bring all this with you and let’s gather to explore and experiment our individual physical aesthetics and performative relationship to our bodies. Our bodies as spaces where stories are stored, archived, shared or not shared. Come play with taking risks into your unknown to reframe, construct, deconstruct and reconstruct your known. Through the use of different modalities (theater, visual arts, music, writing), the activation of the imagination and guided improvisations, as portals to our personal movement poetics. Let us investigate, collaborate and support individual and collective creative inquires and all while having FUN!
Valarie Samulski
Artist, Teacher, Healer
VALARIE SAMULSKI is an artist, teacher, and healer. She graduated summa cum laude from Duke University in 2001 with degrees in Medical Sociology and Dance. Over the last 25 years she has been mentored by Clay Taliaferro and Ava LaVonne Vinesett. Her artistic collaborations include 2 Near the Edge Dance Company, Magbana Drum and Dance, Ase Dance Theater Collective, The Prosodic Body, social choreographies with Ernesto Pujol, and independent projects featuring her original work. Some of her best dancing has been done in the NYC underground house dance community where the elders christened her with the nickname Lady V. Valarie holds teaching certifications in Pilates, Yoga, and Meditation alongside continuing studies in Qigong, Somatic Therapy, and Shamanic Culture. She was a Master Teacher and Teacher Trainer at Yogaworks, and has been a guest faculty member at The Packer Collegiate Institute, Friends Academy, and The Manhattan School of Music. She currently serves at The Hospital for Special Surgery helping clinical orthopedic patients return to health using mindbody movement modalities. Valarie is the creative center of Sacred, a wellness practice that inspires transformational healing for people of all ages and abilities through private sessions, classes, workshops, and retreats. Her writing has been featured in books and articles focused on dance, performing arts, movement science, and embodied consciousness. Her greatest endeavor to date is the devotional practice of parenting her son, Khair.
Workshop Description: BODY OF KNOWLEDGE: SCIENCE, SOMATICS, AND SACRED WISDOM
Sessions with Valarie Samulski: Thursday August 13 and Friday August 14 10:30am-noon the Ark
Explore your body as a field of experience through interdisciplinary movement practice and improvisation. Our focus will be centered on cultivating the bodymindspirit connection. We will develop our awareness from the ground up; integrating anatomy and physiology, embodied consciousness, and multicultural mysticism. We will nourish our breath in order to release previous paradigms and reveal new possibilities. We will create a corporeality that allows us to serve as a conduit for universal energy, transforming inner intelligence into inspired action.