Flamenco Soloists Prove Dramatically Different

Joaquín Grilo demonstrated creative footwork at the Seventh Annual Flamenco Festival. (George Washington University)

Six flamenco soloists with six distinct personalities spiced up the Gala 2007: Bienal de Sevilla on Tuesday at Lisner Auditorium with a program that was, at various points, ferocious, delicate and charismatic. The artists served up seguiriyas, cantinas, soleas and alegrias, and the audience ate it up.

The artists on the program, part of the Seventh Annual Flamenco Festival, were all uniformly excellent.

At 39, the wild and charismatic Joaquín Grilo was the veteran of the group. His style is large and florid. When he flips directions his long hair flies, his jacket billows open and his large frame hurtles through the air like a projectile released by a catapult. His solea was majestic, sensual, spilling over with feeling, and filled with inventive zapateado , or footwork.

Fuensanta La Moneta, the youngest of the group, is the lioness of flamenco. With a ferociously commanding presence, her alegrias were gripping. True, her movements are sometimes imprecise and inelegant. But, oh, the impact. She makes you feel as if you've been punched in the stomach.

If this was a hard act to follow, then the petite Isabel Bayón was the perfect performer to do it successfully. Bayón is a dancer's dancer with a delicate, almost self-effacing presence and a virtuoso technique. Olga Pericet was elegant and intensely musical, Marco Flores tall and stately, and compact Manuel Liñán sliced the air with precision.

The stage was dramatically lit for all the dances, bereft of adornment and with musicians in a shallow half circle behind the dancers. This allowed for a truly six-star evening.

-- Pamela Squires