Reviewed by George Luke

For over 10 years singer/actress Patti Boulaye has had a desire to introduce African dance to the world - inspired partly by the way Riverdance introduced Irish dancing to the masses. Sun Dance was the culmination of that vision; extracts from it had previously been seen on television (most memorably during the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest) and the full project (of which this CD is a partial soundtrack recording) made its theatrical debut at the Hackney Empire in May this year. Sadly, the public clearly didn't feel the same way about the subject as Patti did, and the show was cancelled halfway into its run. Patti led a cast of 36 dancers and singers in the show - for which she also she wrote the songs, designed the costumes, led the team of choreographers and even did the poster illustrations. Rather than have one main storyline, each number is a self-contained scenario focusing on one aspect or other of African life - everything from the birth of a child, young love, marriage, war and death - with special emphasis on the importance of women in each area. Overtly Christian content comes towards the end, in the songs "The Lord Reigns" and "Rejoice". Another song (not included on this CD) had lyrics lifted straight out of 1 Corinthians 13. For all its shortcomings, Sun Dance was a sometimes-engaging piece of theatre, but listening to these songs devoid of the visual element doesn't quite work for me - especially knowing that some of the better songs aren't included here. A DVD would do the show a lot more justice than this CD does.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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