MUSIC AND DANCE REVIEWS : Warmth, Virtuosity From Morca Troupe

Beckman Auditorium at Caltech is not kind to flamenco dancers: A low stage and shallow rake prevent most everyone from having a clear view of flashing feet.

Yet it has the advantage of intimacy, and on Saturday night the four members of Morca Dance Theatre created a warm flamenco cafe mood, with all the spontaneous virtuosity and vibrant personality shifts that image evokes.

Based in Bellingham, Wash., husband-and-wife company co-directors Teodoro and Isabel Morca are veteran dancers whose skill extends to programming.

In the first act, everyone had a light touch, from Isabel’s swiftly fluttering arms and Teodoro’s graceful tattoo of tapping feet, to the stunningly soft, smooth voice of Oscar Nieto and Gerardo Alcala’s gentle persuasion of the guitar.

Teodoro Morca excels at this light “chico” style, although the second half of the program proved he could stamp out fire with the best of them. However, the elegant breeziness of his early solos left the afterglow.

Morca also has an impish comedic side, which got full play in “El Zapatero y las Botas Magicas,” a little “Red Shoes” number in which he’s a cobbler controlled by magic boots. It’s also reminiscent of Astaire’s “I’ve got shoes with wings on” number--in Morca’s case, an appropriate association.