Invisible Wounds

It was apropos that I attended choreographer Wanjiru Kamuyu’s latest work, “Fragmented Shadows,” just before Halloween. In many ways, the work felt like watching a horror movie—the dancers’ often contorted bodies and facial features looked as if they were exorcising internal demons. The piece was also meditative and reflective in parts, and those disparate elements combined to create a unique and powerfully visual and emotional experience.

Performance

Wanjiru Kamuyu/WKcollective: “Fragmented Shadows” by Wanjiru Kamuyu in collaboration with Sherwood Chen and Elodie Paul

Place

Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio, October 22, 2025

Words

Steve Sucato

Wanjiru Kamuyu/WKcollective in “Fragmented Shadows” by Wanjiru Kamuyu. Photograph by Metlili

Kamuyu, a former dancer with Urban Bush Women, based the hour-long abstract contemporary dance work on epigenetic and psychosomatic research. This research explored the intersection of environmental and psychological factors that may influence gene expression and impact biological and physical health. Informed by this, the piece, says Kamuyu, sought to investigate invisible wounds—personal, ancestral, and societal—that imprint on our bodies and shape our well-being in both visible and invisible ways.

The piece, performed by Sherwood Chen, Elodie Paul, and Kamuyu, began alarmingly with a loud sonic buzz that tore through the silence of the Wexner Center’s black-box Performance Space, jolting the audience to attention. It was the first volley in a cacophony contained in French composer Lacryoboy’s (Jean-Philippe Barrios) brilliant, atmospheric, and cinematic soundtrack. The sound set Chen into motion, who began rapidly stamping his bare foot on the stage before easing into a slow, deliberate solo of articulated body movements.

Chen’s intensity and emotional expression set the tone for the remainder of the work, where differing states of being would surface for each performer.

Wanjiru Kamuyu/WKcollective in “Fragmented Shadows” by Wanjiru Kamuyu. Photograph by Metlili

Kamuyu seemed to embrace discomfort as a form of liberation in this work, for both performers and audience members. For instance, we sat through an unnerving three to four-minute stage blackout, the only thing cutting through the darkness was the soundtrack of electronic pops, clicks, and low-frequency rumbles. As light began to return faintly, the dancers, started to move on all fours as the sound of ocean waves could be heard.

The dancers’ states of unrest came suddenly and often throughout the work. One such nightmarish state of unrest came in a solo performed by Kamuyu late in the work. In it, she could be seen with clenched teeth, bulging eyes, and distorted facial features; sometimes, uncontrollably shaking while executing a mix of contemporary and traditional African dance movement.

“Fragmented Shadows” concluded with another test of discomfort taken to the extreme in search of liberation, as the dancers spun in circles for eight minutes straight, first rapidly in place, then spinning in individual circles as they moved in a large circle around the stage, before coming together in a tight-knit cluster, arms around one another, and slowing to a halt. It was an anti-climactic end to a piece that was otherwise impressive in its evocative imagery, emotional intensity, and its trio of performers' riveting dancing and stage presences.

Steve Sucato

Steve Sucato is a former dancer turned arts writer/critic living in Cleveland, Ohio. His writing credits include articles and reviews on dance and the arts for The Plain Dealer, Buffalo News, Erie Times-News, Dance Magazine, Pointe, Dance International, and web publications Critical Dance, DanceTabs (London), and Fjord Review. Steve is chairman emeritus of the Dance Critics Association and the creator of the arts website artsair.art.