(59 min) Dege Feder is a choreographer, dancer, and musician and recipient of the Israeli Ministry of Culture Prize for Young Dance Creators in 2018. She is the manager and choreographer of Beta Dance Troupe. Dege joined “Eskesta” dance troupe in 1999 and performed in many international festivals in Germany, France, Columbia, Croatia, South Africa, USA (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago) and more. She also performed on the main stages in Israel. In 2010 she founded “Wozewaze” dance troupe that combines Ethiopian traditional and contemporary dance. Among other places, she performed with “Beta” in Ethiopia where she was invited to teach workshops in the Ethiopian National Theater. She performed in 2018 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and taught dance workshops in the USA. Dege works also as a dance teacher for empowering women and young girls in the Ethiopian community.

Dr. Shula Mola is a civil and human rights activist in various voluntary and professional frameworks. Shula served as chairperson of the Association for Ethiopian Jews (AEJ) for 10 years, prior to which she worked at the organization in various strategic positions, including Executive Director. Shula is a current scholar in resident at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute.

The Studio Israel conversation series was inaugurated in the fall of 2020, in partnership with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, and the Vilna Shul, and is made possible by generous support from Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP). Studio Israel is also cosponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England. This peer-led series invites audiences to join leading artists, academics, and community leaders for a panoramic journey through the landscape of Israeli art, dance, food, fashion, and more, that investigates the diversity and nuance of Israel’s variegated social, cultural, and political aspects through the lens of the arts.