When the Mesgana Dancers perform, they maintain a confident gaze, shifting their heads side to side, undulating their shoulders and stomping their feet to ancient Ethiopian rhythms. On stage, the 11 girls, ages 7 to 13 years, radiate an unexpected power, one that betrays their otherwise small and slender demeanor, and the fact of their vulnerability back home, in Ethiopia.
Off stage, the girls quietly explain that in Ethiopia they are not permitted to walk outside alone, their parents fearful that they will be abducted and married off, or worse, assaulted. The nation’s laws render the girls helpless, since there are no consequences to such behavior. Ethiopian women are disenfranchised in their country, unable to prosecute their male predators for crimes punishable in most countries around the world.
The girls are likewise at a disadvantage when it comes to education most women expect to discontinue their education by age 16. Some parents use the excuse that it’s simply too dangerous to walk to school, the girls say.
These inequalities led Norm Perdue, a former photographer for the Utah Jazz, to establish the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund (COEEF). On a humanitarian trip in 2001, with his wife, Ruthann, a nurse, he learned it took only a few hundred dollars to provide a year’s worth of private education for a student. The couple paid the tuition for a student, then returned home to start their fund. Since its inception six years ago, COEFF reports it has supported more than 800 girls in 23 Ethiopian schools. The support of the Park City community has been crucial, Norm Perdue says, estimating more than a dozen residents have contributed to his cause.
The Perdues formed the Mesgana Dancers last year to raise awareness for their organization. The after-school dance program in Addis Ababa is held each weekend by dance instructors who teach the girls the techniques of nine regional dances.
“We have the permission from parents, but it took a little convincing They don’t have extra-curricular programs,” Norm Perdue explains. “They’re very practical.”
This year’s trip is expanded from 2006, largely from the buzz created by the girls’ last year in Maryland, Utah and California and a YouTube video presented by “the Voice of America.”
Since the beginning of August, Perdue and the dancers have traveled to New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Denver with the help of Ethiopian Airlines and SkyWest. He says this year, even nighttime talk show host David Letterman expressed interest in having the girls perform on his show.
Tonight, the girls will perform at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City, and on Tuesday night, at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City.
Ethiopian adults have praised the girls for their ability, according to Perdue, and when he hops a flight with the girls dressed in their light blue Mesgana jumpsuits, “it’s like traveling with the Rolling Stones,” he says. “They’re really rock stars.”
The girls call him “Mr. Norm,” and in Utah, they board at the Perdues home along with two Ethiopian chaperones.
Three of the dancers, Bethlehem Efirem, 11, Sofia Kedir, 7 and Selamawit Wondemu, 12, who have returned for a second U.S. trip, say everything is different in the United States the food, the street traffic, the weather are all foreign. In the summers, Ethiopia experiences its rainy season and life outside is practically non-existent, they say, and nearly none of them travel by car.
Last year, when the girls returned to their parents in Ethiopia, Norm Perdue remembers the parents’ overwhelming response at their health. “They noticed they gained weight for them that’s a good thing,” he says. Though the trip lasts until the early fall, the mothers and fathers are now convinced of its value and proud to send their daughters West, says Perdue.
The dancers say their parents are farmers and homemakers, and some struggle to pick up work when they can get it. The dancers, however, envision a different future for themselves: Four hope to be doctors, three want to be pilots, two would like to be flight attendants, one a model, and another a scientist ambitions their parents could only dream of.
Then again, the girls’ parents have never seen a dry American summer or buckled up for an airplane flight. Armed with that experience and an education, the dancers’ confident attitude on stage becomes less surprising. Their aspirations are no longer so far out of reach.
The Mesgana Dancers’ performance at the Egyptian begins at 7 p.m. Tickets to Tuesday night’s show are $20 for adults, and $10 for children under 12.
Visit www.egyptiantheatrecompany.org or call (435) 649-9371. For details, visit mesgana.com.