Flamenco Artist Follows Her Heartbeat

The relationship between flamenco and formal choreography has always been a troubled one--if the dance’s erratic spirit is reigned in too tightly, blandness results; but if dancers depend solely on the spirit moving them, there are deadly lulls when the spirit doesn’t show.

And as more group dances join the traditional solo format, the key question is how not to mimic show dancing, with its decorative passes and meaningless patterns.

Cecilia Romero has one answer--harness the rhythm and let it take you there--wherever the amplified heartbeat can go. In two pieces for her group in “Cerca Hermosa” (Beautiful Patio) on Thursday night at the Fountain, she showed a gift for structure and dynamics, using familiar flamenco moves in concise ways that made you see them in a fresh--and refreshing--light.

Mostly, she uses unison movements, which often look like a multiplication of the solo figure; the six dancers in “Presentacion” and four in “Tientos,” although of uneven technical and dramatic skills, become a moving force.

In silence or when there is music by guitarists Rafael Aragon and Jose Tanaka, percussionist Makoto Saito and singer Jesus Montoya, the beat is always clear, varied and compelling.

The French-born Romero, who lived in Spain for many years before moving here recently, is also a revelation as a dancer. Her two solos feature footwork that’s like a dainty but lethal strategic attack.

But more than this, they seemed put together as intellectual puzzles: Romero’s gaze is keenly alert and introspective, as if she were working out higher math by tapping numbers into the floor. Her concern with the intricacies of whatever she’s figuring out draws you in and, by looking so carefully at the process, you feel a sense of discovery and release.