Fuego Flamenco Troupe Offers Intense Solo Displays

Apparently dissatisfied with the merely coruscating rhythms of his rapid footwork, Roberto Amaral added another level of varied beats by pounding the floor with a wooden cane during his brilliant solo, “Ritmos de Cadiz,” at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood on Friday.

“Ritmos,” one of the solos Amaral danced on a concert by his troupe, Fuego Flamenco, was part of the “Cafe de Chinitas” sequence that made up the second half of the program.

The idea, apparently, was to portray an evening of what might have transpired at a legendary 1940s flamenco cafe in Seville. To this end, Amaral’s notion of having one dancer become jealous of and fight with another because of his attention toward her seemed a bit self-serving and strained.

But the overall frame served splendidly as an opportunity to offer solo displays by his fine dancers and to recreate an intensely intimate environment.

In her avid seizing of the stage and projection of emotional vulnerability, Pepa Sevilla, the woman who becomes jealous of Amaral’s apparent flirtation, served notice that magnetism and voluptuous appeal are not matters of youth.

Indeed, contrasted with that, mere physical beauty, even that of the luminous Lourdes Rodriguez, the object of Amaral’s attention, could barely compete. In her “Solea,” Rodriguez danced with statuesque calm and vivid, sturdy footwork, but not with the rending, nerve-exposed quality of Sevilla.

Of the other dancers, the willowy Irene Heredia and the powerful Valeria Pico offered a fluent shawl dance (“Sevillanas”); and Antonia Lopez danced a “Tientos” characterized by vibrantly controlled rhythms.

Providing accompaniment of deep and fiery temperament, as well as several expressive solos, were singers Antonio de Jerez and Yorgo, guitarists Antonio Duran and Benito Palacios and percussionist Patric Halago.