Flamenco Adds Heat to Summer Night

It was a hot night--in temperature and talent--at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday when “World Festival 2000” kicked off its six-concert series with “Fiery Flamenco.” A blend of mostly traditional flamenco dance and music with some experimental fusion thrown in--not always for good measure--the program featured a number of sizzling artists who did live up to their billing.

Generating the most heat was Noche Flamenca, an 11-member ensemble from Spain that rocked with a six-number set. Particularly torrid: Bruno Argenta, a David Bowie look-alike whose solo, “Farruca,” moved from the deliberately slow and precise to a sweat-flying finale with a series of spins ending on his knees--his footwork, as complex as a Bach fugue. Soledad Barrio also raised the flamenco bar with her explosive taps and whipping turns in “Solea.”

The evening’s major disappointment proved to be Del Monte Flamenco/Anjani’s Kathak, a misguided attempt at cross-cultural amalgamation. The passion associated with flamenco does not jibe with kathak, a classical dance form of Northern India, no matter how much quicksilver foot-stamping and graceful arm work the two art forms share.

The mother-daughter team of Anjani and Amrapali Ambegaokar, when left to their own idiomatic devices, executed dazzling pirouettes and exquisite hand movements, as seen in “Kathak,” but when joining forces with the husband-and-wife team of guitarist Adam del Monte and flamenco dancer Laila del Monte, in “Fusion,” the combination was more distracting than unifying. The waning daylight--which robbed the dancing of drama--didn’t help matters.

When partnered by the red-hot Ricardo Chavez in “Seguiriya,” though, Laila cooked, as she did in her seething solo, “Alegria,” skittering across the stage determinedly. Augmenting the music: pan flutist Damian Draghici, guitarist Jose Tanaka, percussionist Patrick Oliver and wailing vocalist Jesus Montoya.

French Gypsy guitarist Thierry “Titi” Robin and his cross-cultural group Gitans completed the evening with a powerhouse set of rhythmically complex, terrifically textured music.