Black Umfolosi is an all-male singing and dancing ensemble from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. After coming together as schoolboys in 1982, they gone on to international success as performers and educators. Their message is peace, love and understanding between cultures, and their show a feast of stupendous South African dance routines and sublime a cappella harmonies.
They began by simply standing in a line and singing. If they had done nothing else all night they would still have brought the house down. Velvety harmonies undulated gently beneath a subtly evolving melody line, and soon the theatre was wrapped up in a warm blanket of sound. Without any prompting, the audience began clapping along, and two members of the group broke away from the line and began acting out an inscrutable little scene. The dance routines began to expand from simple hand gestures into graceful feats of choreography.
The first half of the show was dominated by spiritual-like songs about such diverse topics as errant children, steam trains, and the immorality of murder. The second half injected a dose of humour. Running bare-chested on to the stage, wearing hard hats and working boots, the performers began a boisterous routine involving feats of gob-smacking rhythmical coordination. Mock fights were acted out, while the dancers continued stamping the floor and slapping their boots in cross-rhythmic unison.
The group maintained a mischievous rapport with their audience, inviting us to get up and dance, while reassuring us they would not poke fun at our efforts. Then they threw themselves into a razor-sharp pastiche of a number of European dance forms, from ballet to the foxtrot. The show tumbled towards a bawdy climax, then finished with a rollicking multi-harmony version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, complete with audience participation.
Physical comedians, virtuoso dancers and beautiful singers, Black Umfolosi have got it covered. The phrase "fantastic entertainment for all the family" could have been invented for them.
· At the Ludlow Festival on Friday (01584 872150), then touring.
