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28 March 2007
Adugna Community Dance, an organization that was started as an experimental project using children of the urban poor, held a dance show at the Addis Ababa City Hall on March 22, 2007.
The show was sponsored by the Israeli Embassy in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MoCT) and the Ethiopian Gemeni Trust.
In the presence of Mohammed Dirrir, minister of Culture and Tourism and Yaacoov Amitah, Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia, the 22 core dance group members along with around nine disabled young men and women, put on a modern dance performance that was one of a kind.
The entire event was coordinated and choreographed by Israeli choreographers Hai Cohen, himself disabled, and Alexandra Shmurak.
The show launched with a short improvisation piece by Alexandara Shmurak, Junaied Jemal and Addisu Demessie. The three did a contemporary piece evincing the problems of the urban lifestyle and the common abuse that the residents of the capital experience on a daily basis.
Rather than using traditional plots that could be explained easily, they used their dancing to manifest the negative feelings and the sense of entrapment and abuse that is experienced by females as well as by the urban poor on the streets of the capital.
The next showing involved all the dancers in the troop coming on stage and using various props such as chairs to do their dance steps. The most fascinating aspect of the group dance was that there were many members that were handicapped and on crutches, there was even a young lady in a wheelchair.
They too were not only part of the performance with defining roles of their own but were also used by the other dancers as props in certain parts of the performances.
Addisu Demessie one of the dancers said that the effort that the troop was making with the help of their Israeli colleagues would be the first of many steps to make the society more aware about the nature of disabilities and make them more tolerant towards the disabled.
"This is contemporary dance, reasonably new to Ethiopia, and it helps express the feelings that are inside a person, so being disabled or not does not matter, you are able to express yourself," said Addisu.
He added that the common misconception that the disabled are unable to work and are able only to eat and sleep could be erased with shows and troops such as this one.
The troop has an outreach programme that it conducts two times a week in order to help raise awareness in the society.
Mr. Amitah on his part stated that Israel was keen on helping and supporting the disabled.
"Israel understands and respects the different cultures of the world and wants to work with all of them to attack the problem of disability and the negative attitudes towards it."
The Minister on his part found that the programme went beyond the limitations of the imagination in terms of body movement.
"In a short period of time, given the opportunity, the disabled can provide quality leadership and guidance on social issues," he added.
At the end of the dance kids accompanied the Adugna dancers singing "Mariye Chacha."
Tim Clark, ambassador to the European Union called the performance spectacular and unique, admitting that the concept has never even been seen in Europe or the US.
By BERHANU MEKONNEN - FORTUNE STAFF WRITER