Updated art adds flash to flamenco

At the beginning of her “Ay! Flamenco” program Thursday, dancer and company leader Yaelisa stood on the stage of the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre striking classic poses while her up-stretched hands rippled and curled with extraordinary intricacy.

But her characteristic delicacy and refinement didn’t last long. The art of flamenco is in a period of radical change, and nobody knows it better than Yaelisa, co-founder and artistic director of Irvine’s annual New World Flamenco Festival. As a result, her dancing quickly changed Thursday to something far more gutsy in attack and folkloric in style.

In the first act, Yaelisa danced a relatively somber, sculptural solo, but the deliberately rough-edged thrust and technical authority of her performance weren’t enough to keep the choreography from collapsing into a series of fragmentary effects near the end.

By contrast, her hearty, high-speed Act 2 solo (“Alegrias”) held together on the strength of sheer spirit and stamina.

Her interplay with the accompanists proved especially exciting, and the immediacy of her dancing reflected contemporary flamenco priorities with great assurance.

But nobody provided a more startling or personal update of flamenco style than guest artist Domingo Ortega. No elegant matador stances or polished execution for this stocky, ponytailed Spaniard.

Instead, Ortega punched the air like a boxer, lurching and staggering in and out of his choreography but always managing to drum the floor with fabulous rhythmic precision.

In his first solo, he passionately shredded a rose and dodged through all sorts of unexpected asymmetrical, off-balance gambits without missing a beat. In his second, he wore a black T-shirt over white slacks and let that split body line inspire a number of divided effects: flyaway arms over twisty jumps, for example.

There were lots of deliberately false starts here to fake you out, but also abundant percussive brilliance.

If Ortega seemed to be making up his dances as he went along, the four women of Yaelisa’s Caminos Flamencos company had to execute her formal unison choreography in “Bamberas.” And it didn’t work, mostly because flamenco exalts individuality, and these matched steps dramatized how much these women were holding back. Sometimes what you noticed most of were small personal differences: who lifted a shoulder and who didn’t, who looked down and who looked out.

Although the inspired rhythmic rapport between guitarist Jason McGuire (“El Rubio”) and box-drummer Sudhi Rajagopal eroded long before the end of their Act 1 duet, McGuire’s jazz-tinged technique and technical mastery found a satisfying showcase in his Act 2 solo.

The program also featured the powerful vocalism and deft interplay of Manuel de la Malena and Javier Requena.

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‘Ay! Flamenco’

Where: John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood

When: Today, 7:30 p.m.

Price: $28 to $45

Contact: (323) 461-3673