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Photos by Rosa Verhoeve |
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Jo began working in Ethiopia
in 2003. She works with Adam Benjamin to support the development
of the Adugna Potentials, a group of eleven disabled dancers in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who are training and working as performers
and teachers of dance to integrated groups.
Adugna (meaning “fate” or “fortune”)
Community Dance Theatre began with a project in 1996. International
choreographer Royston Maldoom and his Anglo-Ethiopian team worked
with over a hundred disadvantaged young people in Addis to create
a dance/drama performance which was seen by over 200,000 people.
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Under the auspices of the Ethiopian
Gemini Trust and led by Royston Maldoom and Mags Byrne,
a core group of 18 young people from this cast trained in
Ethiopian, African and contemporary dance for five years.
In December 2001, they graduated with credits from Middlesex
University, London.
The members of Adugna Community Dance Theatre
now teach workshops and lead projects with hundreds of participants
each week. They work with young people, police, prostitutes,
artists, the elderly and other diverse groups to communicate
about issues, which concern them, including the spread of
HIV and police brutality. The group have worked with many
international choreographers and members of the group perform
and choreograph internationally.
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In 2000, leading integrated
dance practitioner (and co-founder of CandoCo Dance Company),
Adam Benjamin began working with Dance United and Gemini
to develop an integrated branch of the Adugna Project –
the Adugna Potentials.
Jo has worked with the Adugnas and the Potentials
in a variety of ways, choreographing a piece and a film
in collaboration with them, artistic directing collaborative
shows, co-developing the training in inclusive practise
and advocating and fundraising for their work.
To download Jo’s diary of her first
visit to work with the Adugna project in PDF format click
here  .
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