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Over the past 20 years, AIDS and war have claimed the parents of 2.4 million Ugandan children. When Alexis Hefley first visited the country, in 1993, she saw the orphans' grief, but the former Texas banker also spotted "a world of possibility." She watched as they danced for tourists to earn money, and she had a thought: If people in America could see them perform, they'd support them too. She also saw hope for a country that typically gets less than its share. "I kept wondering, Did community exist? Did intimacy exist?" she says. "I found it in these orphanages -- saw magic."
The children's passion and talent inspired Hefley to work with the nuns at the Daughters of Charity orphanage in Kampala to organize a traveling dance troupe. The goals: to give the problems in Uganda a human face, to raise awareness and to raise money. The first tour touched down at six American cities in 1994. Today, the 22-member troupe, known as the Spirit of Uganda, travels across America every two years and helps support hundreds of orphans back home. Children must audition for the ensemble, and of those who make it, some earn scholarships to attend U.S. colleges, then return to their country to help rebuild it. Douglas Menuez first photographed the troupe in 2006 -- a project that became a mission and led to his new book, Transcendent Spirit, from which these images are drawn. At each performance, the dancers radiate pure joy, quite an achievement given the adversity they've faced. "They look to the future, not the past," explains Menuez. "They embrace beauty and good in the world." As one dancer puts it, "People think, These children have lost their parents. They've had so many problems. But then they see us perform. They see our smiles. And they learn that life goes on."
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