The People of the Forest, a combined performance by Kings Lines Ballet (Artur Sultanov & Chiharu Shibata) and Nzamba Lela, a group of 16 musicians from the BaAka clan of the Central African Republic is touring the United States. It does not begin as sensationally as it concludes. Both the singing of the BaAka and Kings choreography seem to have a cumulative effect, pulling the audience in as they go along. When the curtain rises, the Pygmies sit at the back of the stage, both men and women wearing grass skirts and bells on their ankles. Before them, three women dressed in what looks like a pair of inverted white lampshades, dance. The dancing is lovely; the singing somewhat less so. Soon the dancers are joined by two men, one in Western dress; the second who dances with phenomenal physicality in a grass skirt. The disparate cultures are thus on display.