Bursts of Fiery Energy

A day later than planned, National Ballet of Spain launched a six-performance engagement, and a three-city U.S. tour, at the Wilshire Theatre on Thursday.

According to Malaica Valiente of NYK Productions, the tour presenter, the delay was a matter of quality control: There simply wasn’t enough tech time to adequately prepare the six-part program, including two world premieres, for the original Wednesday opening.

As previously reported, mismatches between Spanish and American equipment didn’t help. However, lighting glitches in the first section of “Concierto de Aranjuez” on Thursday and sound imbalances throughout the evening suggested that further adjustments are in order.

The dancing, too, had its lapses, with artistic director Elvira Andres continually testing not only the company’s flamenco prowess but its mastery of Spanish classical dance. Performed to live music, the flamenco pieces reveled in percussive intensity even when some ensembles grew fleetingly ragged. The classical rep, however, featured taped accompaniments and often looked inescapably bland.

The courtly final sequence for eight couples in Pilar Lopez’s artful 1952 “Concierto de Aranjuez” made the strongest case for this traditional idiom. Fusing a sense of majesty with complex, effervescent heel-and-toe step combinations, the dancers wore their heritage proudly, linked to Franco-Russian ballet in matters of placement and certain steps, but distinctively supple and airy.

In the playful first section and in Victoria Eugenia’s charming “A Mi Aire” solo, Kira Gimeno proved well schooled in the use of fan and castanets, just as Mayte Bajo deftly wielded a mantilla and skillfully ornamented the score with castanets in the romantic “Aranjuez” second section.

But both these principals gave one-note performances compared with their deep, mercurial dancing in “Mujeres,” Andres’ superb tribute to Spanish womanhood.

Beginning in stifled, Lorca-esque alienation, this plotless, atmospheric and adroitly structured quintet used moody recorded music by Emilio de Diego and Victor M. Martin to support statements about female resilience, companionship and maturity.

In contrast Esther Jurado expanded a spitfire solo to forest-fire scale in one section of Antonio Canales’ exciting flamenco suite “Grito.” Volcanic in her shoulder and hip action, she remained a mesmerizing force of nature even when just walking.

It took three men to match her power, but in Mariano Bernal, Christian Lozano and Jesus Cordoba the company fielded artists who could dance in synchronization at any speed yet maintain the indomitable individuality flamenco embodies.

Cordoba also shared the spotlight with Jose Merino in one of the evening’s premieres: “Estampio,” reconstructed by Pacita Tomas and Joaquin Villa from a vintage flamenco showpiece by Juan Sanchez. As adapted by Andres, it may be overly symmetrical, with five men led by Cordoba relentlessly mirroring five men led by Merino. However, as in “Grito,” don’t underestimate the thrill of watching a corps dance at a technical level that only principals command in other companies.

And in “Entreverao (Farruca),” the other premiere, don’t underestimate the ability of a star to make everything and everyone else on the program seem an anticlimax. Francisco Velasco shares this flamenco solo with another dancer during the engagement, but his Thursday performance set an imposing standard of bravura technique, dramatic weight and an unpredictable ferocity.

Choreographed by Manuel Santiago Maya “Manolete,” to music by Jose Luis Monton, it alternated sensual and even delicate stretches and gestural detail with sudden, full out step-assaults, passages of rapid-fire heel work and sudden-death terminations, often ornamented with air turns.

Velasco danced it with so much arrogance that you almost wanted him to fail. Not a chance. This wasn’t just a performance, but a challenge--to every self-infatuated new-style flamenco star who likes to take off his shirt, shake his hair and pose provocatively but who can’t eat the dust of dancing like this.

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National Ballet of Spain continues at the Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. Today, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. $42.50-$75. (213) 480-3232.