DANCE REVIEW : Uneven but Uplifting Folklorico at Barclay

IRVINE — Translating essentially spontaneous, personal and participatory impulses into calculated, corporate and objective acts is the central trick in folklorico productions of Mexican regional dance such as those of Danza Floricanto/USA. Gema Sandoval’s accomplished group turned it several times in an uneven program Friday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

The most individualistic and idiosyncratic style on the program spurred the most creative set, a conchero sequence choreographed by Sandoval and Miguel Diaz. After the entry of four men from the rear of the auditorium, blowing conch shell fanfares, the music was solely the primal pulse elements of drum, rattles and thudding feet.

The unforced formations--cramped a bit in width but not depth on the Barclay stage--allowed room for group bravura, whipping feathered headpieces accenting the speed and power of the turns, as well as individual prowess, culminating in the battle of interlocked spinning warriors. A fierce joy filled the performance, catching the heart as well as the eye.

The rest of the five-part program mined regional variations on social dances. The “Los Californios” segment demonstrated the group’s roots in the quadrille style, which with an Anglo accent became square dancing. Only in the culminating contradanza, however, was there any real lift in the movements of the company developing the prim patterns.

“Los Californios” at least had the benefit of live--if stridently amplified and out of tune--music, from the virtuosic Violeta Quintero and the stolid Greg McHenry, and a painted hacienda backdrop. The opening “Fiesta Tapatia” left the dances of Jalisco looking rather wan on a bare stage, and was harshly driven by canned music rather disingenuously described in the program as “public domain.” Rafael Zamarripa’s choreography for “Las Olas” did make a strong connection with the early California dances, however, and the company women provided some striking, swirling skirt work.

A Tabascan segment was also danced to taped music, against a promenade backdrop. There, though, the dancers brought life to the endlessly looped maneuvers for flirtatious couples, energized by the demands for florid footwork.

The final “Fandango Veracruzano” had the very real advantage of the clean, quick live music of Conjunto Jarocho Hueyapan, which also held the stage easily in a pair of solo numbers. Here too was an emphasis on staccato footwork, delivered with a companywide consistency not always apparent elsewhere on the demanding program.

As usual, company director Sandoval prefaced each part of the concert with engaging comments providing important elements of cultural context and some frank insights into her choreographic grapplings with living traditions.