Led by the most prominent dance artists in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Dance Art Association is poised to represent Ethiopian dance globally and to become conduits of national and international exchange.

Ethiopian Dance Art Association’s goals are:

  • to support the development of dancers in Ethiopia and protect their rights as professionals,

  • to conduct and disseminate research about the rich dance heritage of Ethiopia,

  • to facilitate collaboration among Ethiopian dancers, as well as exchange between Ethiopian dancers and artists/organizations around the world.

 

A Manifesto of

Ethiopian Dance

Historically, movement has always been part of our life and work, spiritual and communal rituals. Ordinary people in Ethiopia have engaged in “chefera” (loosely meaning playful dance) for ages, extracting movement and gestures from daily life and work. Our religious and spiritual traditions also make use of either improvised or choreographed movement, along with music, to express and embody our connections to the divine.

Currently, dance in Ethiopia is a diverse, growing professional field, encompassing traditional Ethiopian dance primarily distilled from indigenous movements as well as forms that are primarily influenced by Western traditions. Despite differences, we all agree that our shared field of dance needs cultural validation and institutional support. 

Although dance artists make essential contributions to the social fabric of Ethiopia, we and our art forms are grossly undervalued by society.

Our profession is a modern formation that has developed along with the building of the Ethiopian nation since the turn of19th and 20th century. The traditional dance forms we know today have resulted from governments in the 20th century investing resources to research, synthesize, and stage the diverse indigenous movement traditions in Ethiopia.

This investment has declined significantly since the 1990s, and the social and economic status of dance professionals have suffered as a result. To advocate for ourselves and to uphold the profession, we established Ethiopian Dance Art Association in 2018. This was a historic step when dance’s contribution finally gained recognition by the government. 

We now have the ability to participate in civil society and policy making at national and international levels. In 2019, within a year of establishing EDAA, we participated in a UN forum on cultural policies held in Addis Ababa. Now we are engaged in a UNESCO project to build our organizational capacity.

Our capacity building involves expanding membership to include dance artists from many regions of Ethiopia, strengthening leadership and financial accountability and developing research expertise. This work is being done with volunteer work from the founding members of EDAA, with support of international professionals knowledgeable about civil society organizations and dance research, and with UNESCO IFCD funding.

Through our collaborations and conversations, we are gaining more clarity as to what a vibrant field of dance in Ethiopia needs. What we express below is a necessary vision that will guide the work of dance professionals in Ethiopia in the coming years. We also hope that this vision will shape how the Ethiopian public and government think about the value and place of dance in our society. 

To develop dance into a professional field, we need concerted effort from the government, the private sector, citizens and dance artists, with a shared vision.

Our vision is based on the premise that dance contributes to the wellbeing of the entire society by expressing our cultural identities, facilitating our social connections, maintaining health and healing from traumas. The dance field can only thrive if dancers are supported.

Therefore EDAA has taken the charge to facilitate professional development, social recognition, and economic security of Ethiopian artists regardless of gender and age. Our ultimate desire is to contribute to the peace and prosperity of our country. 

    • Ethiopian society recognizes dance as an essential cultural resource for expression, for healing, and for social cohesion.

    • Dancers are recognized as professional artists and guaranteed economic and social security (good salaries, life and health insurance, and retirement benefits) through their professional work, free of debasement and harassment, regardless of gender, age, class, and ethnicity.

    • A formally recognized school of dance, preferably incorporated into the university system. This school will not only teach students to dance and choreography, but to think and write about dance and to conduct dance research, including both research in the humanities and scientific research about dance and its benefits.

    • A national Ethiopian dance library and archive, including print and digital resources, such as Amharic and English publications on dance and compilation of digital archives of Ethiopian dance.

    • A comprehensive, multi-level curriculum of dance based on the research done at the university level, and drawing from the national archive, to be adopted by universities and schools alike.

    • Government investment in the existing state theaters and new performance companies that pay dancers decent wages, offer them employment benefits, and protect them from debasement such as sexual harassment.

    • Funding of dance and dance research by the private sector and individuals.

    • National and international dance festivals that signifie and facilitate international recognition of Ethiopian dance, and our engagement with international dance organizations and artists.

    • Numerous skilled Ethiopia dance artists working in the country and in the diaspora.

    • Existing state theaters and local groups.

    • Existing media and public interest in dance as means of entertainment and fitness.

    • International supporters with expertise on organizational capacity and dance research.

    • Existing dance archives that document the history of Ethiopian dance development.

    • Dedicated EDAA leadership to engage with the government, private sector and other stakeholders.

    • To continue to reach out to dance artists around the country to build consensus about the future of the field.

    • To talk to the media, the public, government, and tourist sector in order to raise awareness of our vision.

    • To raise funds and develop expertise to build a comprehensive dance and dance studies curriculum, with the school to follow in the future.

    • To engage with the diaspora and internationals interested in strengthening the dance sector in Ethiopia.

    • To establish an EDAA library. Support our library project with Books for Africa.