ETHIOPIA: Street children in Ethiopia dance to a better future

Music echoed through one of the dusty and overcrowded neighbourhoods of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, drawing dozens of children off the streets to get a glimpse of another world -- the world of dance. The studio floor crackled at every jump and sun rays beamed in from huge holes in the tin covered roof. But the 15 square meter garage transformed studio was an only resort for Junaid Jemal who like millions of other children in Ethiopia sold goods on street corners hoping to make enough money for a warm meal. "Most of us were working on the streets," said 23- year old Jemal, a veteran dancer and choreographer of the Adugna contemporary dance troupe. "They showed us...they just collect us and give us this contemporary dance and they believe that we can do something for the future," he added For Jemal, the dance troupe is a story of hope rather than despair which often characterizes street children in the Horn of Africa. Founded in 1996 by international choreographer Royston Maldoom, Adugna is under the auspices of the Ethiopian Gemini Trust - an organisation developed by Doctor Carmela Abate to support women and families with multiple births. Leading choreographers from Europe and Africa came to teach at Adugna dance troupe, the only professional dance troupe in Ethiopia today, and several of its members have since gone on to perform at leading art and dance festivals. At 12 years of age Jemal was selected as one of the 18 children of the 100 street children collected off the streets of the capital of one of the world's poorest countries, to join the dance troop. With five years of intensive training, Jemal became a world renown professional contemporary dancer and was awarded the Dance Protégé award as part of the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative for his choreography. But none of Adugna's professional dancers have left their homeland. They want to introduce the world of contemporary dance into the traditional African beats and movements and use their experience to give hope to others. When their not in the studio rehearsing for upcoming performances or festivals, Adugna's dancers are involved in community projects, such as, teaching dance to children with HIV or other diseases, creating activities for children of multiple births and providing opportunities for the disabled as a form of expression in a society that has little tolerance for the disabled. Some disabled dancers move to the beat of songs from a tape player in a dance composed by 34-year old wheelchairbound Hai Cohen, an Israeli choreographer who began his career in dance in 2001. "Here disabled dancers is something...it's the first time in Ethiopia and they work together amazing, I really know everybody like a small family," said Cohen. With funding from the Israeli embassy in Ethiopia, Cohen, like other international choreographers volunteered to lead a project with the dance group known as "Adugna Potentials", which consists of 11 disabled dancers and 14 dancers of the professional troupe.

ITN Source | March 31, 2007

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