Music: Hit from Africa

The performance opened with a thud of tom-toms and the calls of masked, grass-skirted witch doctors exorcising spirits. It closed with an exuberantly costumed rain dance that compares in color and good humor to New Orleans' Mardi Gras. The show: a fast-moving, two-hour demonstration of native dances by Les Ballets Africains, a troupe of skilled amateurs from newly independent Guinea. The 28 dancers have won raves all over Europe, last week dazzled Manhattan audiences and critics.

As in most folk dancing, the women were mostly decorative, while the men made the main contribution...

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