Bassist lights the way for the dramatic ‘Noche Flamenca’

Out of the darkness emerges the deep song that is the essence of flamenco. But it is not a human voice making it, nor even a guitar, although the sounds are guitar-like.

It is bassist Luis Escribano, isolated in a spotlight on the dark stage of the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Friday at the start of the “Noche Flamenca” performance.

By bouncing the bow against the strings and dexterously manipulating his left hand, Escribano transformed the bass voice of the string family into a larger, even more visceral guitar.

Slowly, lights came up on singer Manuel Gago and dancers Soledad Barrio, Bruno Argenta and Antonio “El Chupete” Rodriguez, then on the other musicians of Martin Santangelo’s Madrid-based “Noche Flamenca” company.

Thus began a serious, intense and passionate evening of music and dance.

Argenta and Rodriguez were contrasting kinds of dancers. With his David Bowie good looks, the tall Argenta maintained the ideal, stretched line of the Spanish male dancer.

His posture was plumb accurate, his body perfectly balanced no matter how asymmetrical the position, his impulse of movement distributed evenly without strain or apparent source.

Rodriguez was dramatically divided. His shoulders and upper body were weighty, tight and almost clenched, his arms had independent life, his peppery legs had a surprising lightness and speed.

Argenta’s solo “Farruca” was a showpiece of amazing technique, full of abrupt shifts in speed and attack. Rodriguez’s “Solea por Bulerias” consisted of emotional events, chapters of an interior life.

Barrio, co-director of the company, was a dramatist too.

In her solo, she moved with compact, dignified intensity, reaching into the heights with her arms and conquering the earth with rapid, percussive footwork.

She kept her story a mystery but left the audience feeling wonder.

Heightening all of this was Gago’s wailing, exceptionally expressive tenor. The rest of the musical team was strong too. Arcadio Marin was the virtuoso guitarist.

The other musicians were David Rodriguez, percussion; Roberto Castellon, guitar; and artistic director Santangelo, palmas (rhythmic hand-clapping).