It seems, at first, difficult to say exactly what 'Walk Together Children', playing at City Hall on Monday and yesterday as part of the Bermuda Festival, is.

Not fitting into the genres of play, musical, concert or dance performance, compiler/director Ruth E. Thomas called it "a collage of musical forms that presents a minuscule picture, through the performing arts, of how human beings have praised God; how they have dealt with adversity and were kept buoyant by hope; how while in captivity, they were motivated by a quest for freedom and refused to be weary; and how people used music to record history".

I would go one step further than Ms Thomas - or one step back, depending on your view.

I would say that 'Walk Together Children' is, quite simply, a pure and joyous celebration of music. History and stories about music are blended together with the music itself: Negro spirituals, gospel, blues and jazz. The roof was fairly lifted off City Hall at some points.

Of course, as some audience members noted, it helped if you were into religion, as nearly every song, no matter the genre (save the blues component) was some form of religious music. The history and heartbreak of slavery, however - brought dramatically to life by Ms Thomas along with Grace Rawlins, Gary Philips and Leo Mills - was more than enough to save anyone drifting off during the spirituals.

Gary Philips could barely contain the spirit inside him as he transformed himself into Nat Turner, a preacher. A collective shiver went around the audience as Grace Rawlins, with the wave of a shawl, brought to life a slave mother so desperate for freedom that she would rather kill her infant child than let it live a life of slavery. A cane and a scarf were all that was needed to convert Ruth Thomas into a stooped Harriet Tubman, energetically enthralling the audience with stories about her life as a freedom fighter and the Underground Railroad. And, to the delight of the audience, all Leo Mills needed to transform himself into a latter-day B.B. King-type figure was a pair of sunglasses, a hat, and (apparently) a broken heart.

The dramatists, however, although each and every one was a favourite with the audience, were not what caused mouths to drop. Every single singer onstage brought their own powerful flavour to their music. Sophia Ebanks and the Ensemble Singers' rendition of 'Wade Through the Water' was one of the highlights of the night, while the audience broke into spontaneous applause twice during songs by Grace Landy. Philip Spencer's 'There's a Man Going Round', coming on the heels of Grace Rawlins' performance as the slave mother, was haunting. The combination of Leo Mills and Conrad Roach for the blues component of the night seemed almost comforting after the fire and passion of Rejoice, the gospel group which it seems an understatement to call 'promising'.

The performing arts comprise one more component besides acting and singing, and that is dance. The National Dance Theatre of Bermuda, despite the small area they had to work in on a stage crowded by singers and dramatists, took care of dance as easily as balancing on one leg. Their performance, to the theme song from the movie 'Free Willy', Michael Jackson's 'Carry Me', lacked only one thing: smiles. It is a joyful song, after all. But, despite the lack of apparent joy, they performed their piece as fluidly and as beautifully as the rest of the performance warranted, celebrating the music with their bodies as expressively as the other performers celebrated with their voices and words. And with Wendell 'Shine' Hayward to open and close the performance, 'Walk Together Children' could do nothing but end - and begin - on a high note.

What carried the show most was the energy and obvious enjoyment of every performer. That is why I say 'Walk Together Children' is a celebration: because every person on stage so clearly loved their music and all that it stood for that their performance could be nothing less. Ruth Thomas has once again outdone herself. Langston Hughes, Nicolas Guillen, and all the other artists of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond would be proud.

SARAHTITTERTON