Meseret Yirga

2nd March 2018

From 12th -17th March the company will be hosting Ethiopian dancer/choreographer Meseret Yirga. From Addis Ababa, Meseret is
a leading figure in the dance development movement that has put Ethiopia and Africa at the forefront of innovative, capacity building development initiatives.

Like many young Ethiopians, she left the formal school system aged 12 to help support her family. Her experiences selling used clothes in Mercato, the largest market in Africa, immersed her in the world of the city’s estimated 50,000 street children. She was one of the original members of Adugna Community Dance Theatre, an initiative from which DU Dance (NI) was born. Over the past seventeen years, Meseret has used dance to support some of the most vulnerable people in Ethiopia, including sex workers, disabled people and street children. Her work has taken her all over Ethiopia and internationally to Kenya, Senegal, Britain and now to the island of Ireland. Here she will be working with three groups from DU Dance (NI)’s Youth Engagement Project.