Adventurous Music Highlights Flamenco Program

To guitarist Jose Tanaka, Spanish Gypsy style is disarmingly bright, buoyant and, for all its technical intricacy, always dominated by folk vigor and urgent forward momentum.

Produced by the Fountain Theatre, his “Soniquete Flamenco” program of music and dance at the L.A. Theatre Center on Friday proved most persuasive when most convivial: in his duet with breath-defying singer Jesus Montoya and, particularly, in passages of interplay with flute and sax wizard Pedro Eustache.

Indeed, far from trying to sound emotional or exquisite, Tanaka and rhythm guitarist Makoto Saito seemed content in “Cosmos” to set up a structure of toneless, hard-edged strumming for Eustache’s creative embellishment.

The musicianship retained a flamenco base but ranged from jazz to the Middle East in influences. Dancers of comparable versatility might have matched its ideas, step for note, but the three women on view worked a far narrower gamut.

Although they responded meticulously to the rhythm of their accompaniments, Abigail Caro, Jennifer Larsen and Cecilia Romero looked merely efficient in trios emphasizing honed unison technique. And you can argue that synchrony is always less interesting in flamenco ensemble choreography than contrast or counterpoint.

Wearing a curiously shapeless costume, Romero capitalized on dramatic presence and technical authority in her extended solo, getting deeper into flamenco than anyone else in the company.

Gifted with a sinuous line, Larsen’s solo exploited bold juxtapositions--between tempo extremes and assaultive versus decorative choreography, for example. Initially a whirlwind of gusty, flyaway attacks, Caro’s solo eventually gained a stronger center and even a sense of some secret, informing vision.

* “Soniquete Flamenco” can be seen at May 27 at 1 p.m. in the Central Library, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach. $7.50-$15. (714) 374-1655.