Dance Review : ‘Flamenco’ Puts Accent on Grandiose

If “Fuego Flamenco” truly capitalized on the intimacy of the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood, the series would be invaluable for presenting Spanish Gypsy music and dance in something like its original context.

However, with amplified accompaniment and dancers projecting to an imaginary fifth balcony, the season’s inaugural performance on Sunday scarcely offered flamenco at human scale. Led as always by Roberto Amaral, the program began appropriately with “Un Amor Inmenso,” a trio full of over-the-top theatricality and hyper-aggressive technical flamboyance. Inmenso indeed.

Solos provided comparatively down-to-earth showcases, with Amaral employing a cane or walking stick for exciting three-legged rhythmic effects at the start of “Alegrias de Cadiz” and later performing an impressive array of complex, high-speed percussive steps before the finale.

Executing Amaral’s choreography, Antonia Lopez could seem rushed or forced in bravura, but in other challenges she brought warmth and a mastery of expressive detail. Linda Vega looked prosaic and out of her effective range when trying for a sense of emotional weight and sculptural grandeur in her Seguiriya solo. But “Guajira” allowed her to cut loose with electrifying slave-of-impulse gambits and to display her prowess on the castanets.

Under the circumstances, the fine accompanists--singer Antonio de Jerez, guitarists Bruce Patterson and Antonio Triana, percussionist Patric Hetzinger--were almost as welcome for their humility as their expertise.

* “Fuego Flamenco” runs Sundays at 3 p.m. through Aug. 28 in the Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Tickets: $20-$22.50. Information: (213) 663-1525.