‘Flamenco Fusion’ Ensemble Has the Right Chemistry

It hasn’t been proven yet that a flamenco concert can change the chemical composition of your brain, but it’s something aficionados instinctively know. There has to be the right combination of performers, of course--a lightning rod of a dancer like Laila del Monte, for instance, with her husband, Adam del Monte, on guitar, Maimon Miller making a violin gently weep and the reliably resonant singers Antonio de Jerez and Jesus Montoya. The result on Thursday night at the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood was as pleasantly energizing as getting good news.

The program is called “Flamenco Fusion,” because of Adam del Monte’s musical influences, among which jazz stands out. When he accompanies songs or dance, his feathery but firm style caresses you with familiar flamenco rhythms, but in his solos, the guitar jostles and leads you down a path full of unexpected detours and sudden exits.

Laila del Monte’s dancing made up less of the evening but left just as brilliant an impression. A dancer of astonishing concentration, she uses energetic swerves and crystallized movement to maximum advantage. When she halts in a defiant pose, then slowly lets gravity pull her into another mood, it’s like an icy statue suddenly coming alive in the sunlight. Very alive--her complex, inventive footwork chatters and shatters into a million slivers of sound.

As they usually do, De Jerez and Montoya send out their arcs of sound to vibrate in your throat or chest--or somewhere behind the eyes, where you both think and feel--De Jerez with his concise passion, Montoya pulling the Pavarotti moves with a more lingering style. Flamenco? Or mood elevation? With this program, it’s the same thing.

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* “Flamenco Fusion,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Tonight, 9; Sunday, 3 p.m. $30. (213) 663-1525.