ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of integrated dance in Ethiopia beginning with the collaboration between Andrew Coggins and Royston Maldoom in a community dance project in Addis Ababa in 1996, and the visit of Adam Benjamin from the UK in 2000. It reflects on how these British practitioners impacted the establishment and development of Community Dance Theatre in Ethiopia, particularly via the Adugna Dance Company. It then analyses how second-generation artists and companies built on this foundation, beginning with Meseret Yirga who continued Adugna’s work with women, homeless people and people living with disabilities. It then considers the social enterprise Destino Dance Company Ethiopia who use dance as means to empower and create awareness around sociopolitical issues specifically with young people, and Addis Guzo Dance, which emerged as an aspect of the Addis Guzo NGO in 2018. Finally, it traces the work of Amanuel Solomon and Katim Inclusive Dance, set up in 2017. Key findings of the research include the impact of individual Europeans and European cultural organisations that fund inclusive dance either as one-off events or more extended projects, and the resilience and creativity of African dancers on the ground who take training from a diversity of sources and shape their own ways of working with their abilities and continue dancing with very few resources. We have employed a collaborative approach to the research throughout; thus artists with disabilities have been central to the co-production of this chapter.
