Dancing to a better future in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (Reuters Life!) - Music echoes through an overcrowded neighborhood in the Ethiopian capital, drawing dozens of children off the streets to get a glimpse of another world -- the world of dance.

Inside a garage transformed into a dance studio, the floor crackles at every jump and sunlight pours from huge holes in the tin roof.

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, joining the dance troupe that rehearses in the studio was an escape from hopelessness.

"Most of us were working on the streets," said Jemal, now, 23 and one of the choreographers of the Adugna contemporary dance company. "They give us this contemporary dance and they believe that we can do something for the future."

At the age of 12, Jemal was one of 18 street children picked by the troupe to receive dance instruction in one of the world's poorest countries.

After five years of intensive training, Jemal became a world renowned professional contemporary dancer, receiving the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative award for his choreography.

Founded in 1996 by international choreographer Royston Maldoom, Adugna is Ethiopia's only professional contemporary dance troupe.

Leading choreographers from Europe and Africa come to teach in the company and its members have gone on to perform at international art and dance festivals.

None of Adugna's professional dancers have left their homeland to live abroad. They hope to introduce the world of contemporary dance into the traditional African beats and movements and use their experience to give hope to others.

When they are not in the studio rehearsing for upcoming performances or festivals, Adugna's dancers are involved in community projects, such as teaching dance to disabled children and youngsters with the AIDS virus or other diseases.

At one session, children, some of them in wheelchairs, move to the beat of Greek music in a dance composed by wheelchair-bound Israeli choreographer Hai Cohen.

With funding from the Israeli embassy in Ethiopia, Cohen volunteered to lead a project known as "Adugna Potentials," which groups 11 disabled dancers with 14 dancers from the professional company.

"It's the first time in Ethiopia and they work together amazingly," Hai said.