By JACK ANDERSON

Children of Uganda offered the most heartwarming dance performance in many months on Jan. 18 at Lehman Center for the Performing Arts.

The troupe of dancers and musicians, directed by Frank Katoola, is made up of Ugandan children between the ages of 8 and 18. All live in orphanages and their biographies in the program revealed that many of their parents had died of AIDS, a leading cause of death in Uganda. Yet, though these children had experienced hardship and grief, they radiated unalloyed joy on stage.

Their presentation, produced by the Uganda Children's Charity Foundation as part of the Fleet Community Celebrations Series, featured traditional songs and dances, some based on history and legends, others celebrating communal life. Peter Kasule, the company's production assistant, was a genial narrator, part anthropologist and part village storyteller.

Several dances featured forward thrusting movements, with many shakes of shoulders and hips. In one work, girls danced in this manner while balancing pots on their heads. The pots, Mr. Kasule explained, symbolized innocence and must not be broken. A dance in praise of Uganda's long-horned cattle was filled with gliding steps for the girls and big jumps and heavy stamps for the boys. The sways in still another dance supposedly imitated the lurchings of a tipsy monarch.

The accompanying instruments ranged from booming drums and a gargantuan xylophone to harps and one-stringed fiddles. When the children sang, they could sound piercing, if a song so demanded. Yet in other songs their voices blended in the sweetest and gentlest of harmonies.

During one number Mr. Kasule instructed the audience how to clap along in response to the complex musical rhythms. By so doing, he taught a music appreciation lesson. At the same time, he made spectators and performers part of a single festive community.

Source: New York Times