Greco Displays Flamenco’s Bravura but Little of Its Art

Even after a delay of 45 minutes due to technical difficulties, the first half of the program by the Jose Greco II Flamenco Dance Company fell prey to major lighting and sound glitches at the University of Judaism on Saturday. Happily, those problems vanished in Act 2, but the evening remained essentially a pumped-up showcase of flamenco bravura, lacking a sense of the art’s unique drama and atmosphere.

Now in his mid-30s, Greco dances with a dazzling mix of intelligence and daring, punctuating his spectacularly intricate percussive footwork with multiple leaps and turns derived from ballet. In his stylish “Farruca” solo, he began with abrupt shifts between classic flamenco poses: very aristocratic in line and also very startling in his sudden-death terminations. However, after tossing his jacket into the wings, he dropped the extreme severity for a hyperaccessible and even occasionally comic approach, effortlessly adding ballet fireworks and a few tap-dance innovations at speeds way too high to clock. As a whole, the piece juxtaposed old and new flamenco--the archetypal body language at its most distinctive versus the eclecticism and experiment dominating the scene today.

However, Greco’s only duet turned out to be a vaguely competitive, dramatically ungrounded “Solea por Bulerias” opposite the promising Raul Prieto. (Who were these men supposed to be: Deadly rivals? Estranged lovers? Contestants at an audition?) Moreover, his group choreography usually subordinated emotional values to geometry, turning flamenco toward neoclassic formality at the expense of its unmatched expressive heat.

His big sister, Carmela Greco, danced with sweetness and mastery of gestural nuance throughout the program, with her mercurial “Taranto” solo providing the evening’s most sustained immersion in the complexity and depth of feeling that flamenco embodies at its purest.

Amplification problems left guitarist Antonio Gabarri virtually inaudible and singer Alfonso Gabarri sounding tubby and remote in their “Tiempo Tiempo” showpiece, but they demonstrated their power and dexterity in dance accompaniments later on, with Prieto often supplementing them on box drum. The other dancers were Maite Revilla, Lourdes Sanchez and Jose Greco II’s wife, Cristina--all at their best in gaucho hats, tight skirts and bolero jackets for Greco’s unassuming but invigorating “Zapateado.”

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* Jose Greco II and company dance Tuesday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. in Gindi Auditorium, University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Bel-Air. $22-$27. (310) 476-9777, Ext. 201 or 203.