Photo Credits: Kingsley Hurbs, Jim Dawson

· Briefly tell us about yourself.

In short, I am the possibility of Passion, Fun, Love and Artistic Expression. I stay open to what’s possible while still focused on a few things that move me deeply. Learning never ends so I always look for ways to grow. I was born in Ethiopia and grew up there till 17 after which I moved to the States for college. Then I moved to Toronto to join my family and have been here since.

· As an immigrant here in Canada, what is your story? What has your Ethiopian background brought to the world around you?

I’ve lived in Toronto for the last 6 years and I wasn’t expecting to do so. I thought I’d be here for a couple years and move back to the States, but you know what… Toronto is just an amazing pool of people from everywhere with a great vibe of being open to one another. So I stayed. Interestingly culture shock for me happened while I was still in Ethiopia and not so much after I moved to North America. For high school, I had joined an American-run International Community School where everyone was from all over the world and even the Ethiopians seemed like foreigners. My Indian elementary school or my Ethio community did not prepare me for that one past teaching me English. Actually, on second thought, even the English was foreign again…

· What is Nouvel Exposé? Tell us how you got started into dancing and how you inculcated it to the modern hip-hop style.

Dancing has been with me since I was little. I used to stand in front of the TV imitating any dance shows that ETV aired from all over Ethiopia and Africa at large. My cousins, siblings and I used to have dance sessions and attempt creating our own choreographies. I used to put on shows for my uncle and did some stints in high school as well. But, I never took it any seriously until I joined the Franklin & Marshall College African Dance Group in the States. The teacher was Sonya Mann-MacFarlane from Imani Edutainers. I studied some West African dance while there and worked on some Ethiopian and Congolese dance as well. Sonya has been my inspiration in showing me that there’s actually a life possible in dance. In Toronto, I continued to take classes and workshops in Hip Hop and African dance. I also studied my all-time curiosity, Belly Dance, with Yasmina Ramzy and Denise Mireau of Arabesque, where I now teach and perform. In essence, I have a hard time picking just one style of dance. They all somehow connect to each other and I always find myself moving between them when dancing or choreographing. I love it and it makes me a strong dancer in this day when versatility is key.Upon moving to Toronto and looking for African dancers to work with, I found the then-newly formed Nouvel Exposé Dance Troupe. Now I dance, choreograph, and manage Nouvel Exposé. It is an African performing company dedicated to various dances rarely taught or performed in North America. Currently, we work on Ethiopian, Eritrean, Congolese, Belly Dance and more. We use it as an opportunity to learn and stay connected with motherland, while edu-taining everyone we come across. We perform traditional dances, but many of current African pop songs also have other influences. This gives us an opportunity to work with original fusion styles. We bring in Hip Hop, Reggae, Jazz and anything inspirational into the mix. The African diversity is amazing and we definitely celebrate it.

· Dancing is an art, was it natural to you or did you receive any formal training before you got started?

I would say it was natural for me first. Music and movement are what my instinct goes to first regardless of what I’m surrounded with. I’ve had training in various styles of dance. But as my friend John Chernet says, any training I’ve done is to “develop and see clearer the nature that I already have”. It’s like when they say you have to know the answer first to know what question to ask.

· What’s life like as a dancer and a teacher?

I’m grateful for it everyday. It’s a very joyful experience and I cannot see my life with out it. It requires discipline in every aspect, which for an indulgent person like myself can sometimes be tough. I never thought I had the patience for teaching, but the day I realized I cannot take it personally, then everything opened up.

· What are your achievements and favorite moments?

Being able to have people question, “Really? What’s Ethiopian dance like?” and to be able to represent it on the revered dance stages. Enough already think so negatively about Africa, so it’s great to have the opportunity to shatter that image. My favorite shows have been opening for Papa Wemba on Festival Bana y’Afrique, presenting live Ethio-Eritrean music and dance at Dance-Ontario Dance-Weekend, and a surprise belly-dance gig with my girls Voula and Mary for Mic Jagger’s birthday.

· Your CV stated that you are also a Graphic Designer. How do you juggle through both careers?

Let’s just say thank you to those who invented the Internet, Cellphone and PDA; can’t live without them. It’s tough and a lot of times I feel torn apart, but it’s doable. See a dancer’s life is all glamorous on stage and screen, but it’s not always that the dough keeps rolling in so we gotta be able to bake some more. For me (and a good lot of us), it’s a double life.

· What were (if any) the stereotypes and challenges you faced as an African dancer?

One of the really weird ones is when people somehow think dancers are not smart. The irony is it takes a good amount of mind-body training to be able to command the body to move with the speed, strength, rhythm, isolation, passion and grace that dance requires. It just may be a different form of wiring than what people need for reading or math. It does take the same kind of effort and dedication to master it just like anything else. African dance is understood as West African dance here in the West mainly because people are not really exposed to most other styles. Yet, Africa is so large and so diverse, while also changing and moving ahead. There’s so much that comes out of the continent than people are able or willing to look at.

· Do you think African Culture is getting any recognition at all?

It’s a yes and no question. It gets recognition but not enough. In Africa, it definitely gets it. But, at the same time it kind of tends to get a lot of rap as people are getting overwhelmingly inundated with other cultures. Africans are always having to choose between what to let go and what to keep; what’s outdated and what’s still practical. This definitely affects the kind of music and dance that’s created as well. In addition, with news by default meaning bad-news and so many NGOs advertising, the rest of the world is primarily getting all the negative images. This clouds the chance for actually appreciating African culture or its people on a different level.

· How would you encourage fellow Africans to embrace their culture more, knowing that some of us don’t identify with our roots.

Educate yourself in any way possible – read, talk to people, travel. Just because it’s not in the school books doesn’t mean it’s non-existent or wrong. After all, a good amount of our education is westernized and we have to go an extra mile to find out about ourselves. So for the youngsters, if your parents seem to always yell that you have to know your lingua, trust me, listen to them. Take the opportunity to travel in the continent; get to know what kind of world is out there. And of course, don’t close your eyes just because of what you see on the news.

· Apart from dancing, how else do you express yourself?

I used to do some drawing before, but of late I haven’t made the time for it. Hopefully, I won’t forget it by the time I retire so I can draw and paint my memories. …Or I’ll have to go back to school then too, I guess.

· What's it for you next? Where would you like to be in 5 years time?

You’re catching me at a crossroads. I’m looking at what new possibilities are out there or I can create right now. I’ll be here for a couple more years creating more opportunities for Nouvel Exposé’s projects of working with master dancers, music videos, and some live music choreographies. I’ll continue to dance with Arabesque as well. I really want to get into film/tv/video work with choreographing, dancing and acting. I’m looking to travel back to Ethiopia as well as Paris and/or Kinshasa to reconnect. I’ll definitely have to master Lingala by then!