DANCE REVIEW : Power, Spectacle From Spanish Troupe

The shapes, rhythms and spirit of traditional Spanish dance have so long been a part of classical ballet that a company such as the National Ballet of Spain can grow very popular by exploiting the border areas where techniques and repertories overlap.

In its first visit to Southern California since 1988, the company returned to the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Tuesday bearing a number of hybrid creations. Most prominent, of course: its well-known “Three-Cornered Hat,” a one-act character comedy danced in choreography by company artistic director Jose Antonio but using the fabled Pablo Picasso designs and Manuel de Falla score for the 1919 work of the same name by the Diaghilev Ballets Russes.

What Picasso, Falla and original choreographer Leonide Massine conjured up in 1919 was a sensual dream of Spain, brilliant in its simplification. The courtyard set broke intersecting planes of adobe with a huge swirl of an arch; the costumes used stripes and a flamelike motif to anchor impossibly intense patches of color; the score heated folkloric forms until only their essences remained; the choreography united classicism, ethnicity and star glamour.

It is exactly this sense of a familiar but heightened reality that Antonio’s adaptation lacks--except, perhaps, in the comedy mime scenes where the lecherous Magistrate attempts to seduce the Miller’s Wife.

Antonio dances powerfully as the Miller. Maribel Gallardo looks stiff in the dance challenges as the Miller’s Wife but exudes intelligence and charm whenever acting becomes paramount. Juan Mata embodies doddering lust as the decrepit Magistrate. However the dancing bogs down in little steps, static groupings, folkloric specifics and never belongs to the same world as the heady designs and score.

Elsewhere on the program, however, Antonio goes for high-concept ballet with a vengeance. Created two years ago for himself and former classical paragon Natalia Makarova, “Romance de Luna” piles on the effects: clouds of stage smoke, billowing parachute silk, gymnastic lifts, flashy turns and even some bullfight cape-maneuvers. Preposterous stuff, danced expertly with fake emotionalism by Antonio and with a kind of tasteful vacuity by guest Lola Greco.

“Romance de Luna” had its premiere in Leningrad on a program by the Kirov Ballet--a company that has also taken Antonio’s solo “Zarabanda” into its repertory. Both works feature music by Jose Nieto, with the latter score revealing sinuous Near Eastern roots. Aida Gomez artfully fused all its choreographic elements--the drifting hands, mobile shoulders, expansive turning leaps--but her dancing lost effectiveness from being placed much too far upstage, a problem afflicting nearly all the program.

The opening suite “Danza y Tronio” suffered especially from this gulf between dancers and audience. Choreographed by Mariemma in late 18th-Century style, this six-part, full-company vehicle contrasted the percussive footwork of dancers in heeled shoes with the springy, intricate steps of dancers wearing slippers.

The link to ballet technique proved illuminating here and, even with sound-system glitches, the taped music by Soler, Boccherini and Abril supported the sort of elegant yet warm performances that have always made Spanish dancers so appealing. But why keep them so far away from the public?

Gallardo, Gomez and Mata played principal roles, with Ana Gonzalez equally prominent and skillful. Gomez, Mata, Greco and Antonio also dominated a grandiose but occasionally electric “Flamenco” sequence, the only section of the program with live music.

Framed by overblown corps spectacle, the essential experience emerged in the fiery masculine challenges of Antonio’s dance drama “Martinete” (with hammers on anvils providing the accompaniment) and the complex matched heelwork of Juan Quintero’s “Farruca” (danced by Mata, Jesus Florencio and Jesus Cordoba).

The singing by Juan Cantero, Manuel Palacin and Juan Jose Alcala helped give the five-part suite a gutsy authenticity, but the house program’s claim that the work represents “flamenco in its purest form” really shouldn’t be taken seriously.

National Ballet of Spain continues in Costa Mesa through Sunday with some performances offering changes of cast in “Three-Cornered Hat” as well as other solos in place of “Zarabanda.”