Sensuality Infuses La Tania’s Flamenco

Wearing a fringed, mint-green gown that grew translucent under intense backlight, La Tania made her opening solo at the WaterCourt in California Plaza on Friday a forthright declaration of the distinctive approach to flamenco that she has come to embody since her first appearances in America eight years ago.

Other dancers may emphasize the drama and technique of flamenco, but La Tania’s performances champion sensuality, musicality and elegant physical design--qualities evident in the rolling hips, insinuating step-rhythms and formal arm sculpture of “Tientos.”

Throughout, with her hair flying free at the back, she created the illusion of impulsive release, camouflaging the rigorous control in her stylized gestures and meticulous heelwork. Even when the singers’ gutsy “Ay, yi, yi” launched an explosion of hip action at the end, her actions fused with the music in a collaborative cadenza.

Those singers provided the primary emotional statements of the evening: Jose Anillo with his poignant crying tone, and Antonio de Jerez with his passionate coloration of key words in a song. The amplification gave Roberto Castellon’s guitar a spiky sound, but he and percussionist Sudhi Rajagopal (who also played for Yaelisa in Irvine earlier in the week) did not so much merely accompany La Tania as define the key issues that she explored in her choreographies.

Their primacy proved especially vivid in her severe closing solo (“Solea”), in which her extended buildup of steps and continually upthrust arms physicalized the ever-accelerating music with ingenuity and flair.

Only once here--in a brief passage of slow-motion suspensions as the music raced onward--did she isolate herself from its pace and power. However, an earlier solo from “Sonidos Negros” found her venturing urgent and even defiant outbursts of self-expression within choreography otherwise focused on formal oppositions: slashing versus circular gestures, for instance, or wide versus narrow stances.

Unfortunately, her “Bulerias” duet with guest dancer Rafael Campallo drew nothing from either of them other than proficiency and politesse, but Campallo’s own solos displayed remarkable weight and clarity.

In “Taranto,” this nobly proportioned native of Seville used his large hands to dramatically initiate recurrent passages of reflective, almost private expression, though eruptions of vehement, virtuoso heelwork and stabbing kick-steps were never far away.

His final “Alegrias” solo confirmed his technical skills and offered proof of his musical sophistication, but its signature pointing gestures took him into John Travolta/”Saturday Night Fever” territory--unnecessary given his own charisma, and questionable in the context of traditional flamenco aesthetics.

Yes, a growing list of flamenco artists do enjoy pop star status in contemporary Spain, but audience courting is always obnoxious in dance and, in any case, Campallo had already generated squeals from his WaterCourt fans Friday long before resorting to stale disco moves.