DANCE REVIEW : New Works by Floricanto

Los Angeles-based Danza Floricanto/USA celebrated its 15th year of Mexican folklorico performances with speeches, a round of “Mananitas” and “Happy Birthday” and a gift to the audience at the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium on Friday night of a delightful new suite of dances from the state of Nayarit.

Artistic director Gema Sandoval’s “Potorricos Nayaritas” deftly mixed tender gallantry and good-natured bravado as bare-chested men courted women in tropically brilliant tiered skirts and beribboned blouses, the men’s stamping, machete-tossing bravado contrasting the women’s sweeping half-moon turns and flirtatious fans.

The ensemble radiated a freedom and fullness of movement conspicuously absent in the evening’s other premiere, “El Acabo Colimote,” also by Sandoval. Here, harvest festivities and courtship rituals found the women stiff and tentative, and the men, graceful and confident early on, began to fall apart in passages of fast footwork punctuated by more flashing and clattering machetes.

Musical interludes and accompaniment were splendid. Mariachi Mexicapan accompanied most of the dancing with exuberant musicality and polished professionalism. Conjunto Jarocho Hueyapan provided delicate, vigorous accompaniment for the company’s meticulous, joyous “Fandango Veracruzano.” Familiar works completed the program.