BALLET FLAMENCO DE ANTONIO CANALES.

BALLET FLAMENCO DE ANTONIO CANALES TEATRO COLISEO MADRID, SPAIN DECEMBER 6, 2000-JANUARY 7, 2001

The Nuevo Ballet Espanol, directed by Carlos Rodriguez and Angel Rojas, is one of the most promising Spanish dance ensembles in Spain these days. The sixth production in the company's five-year history reflects its growing artistic maturity. Furia (a term that means not only fury but also energy, frenzy or great enthusiasm) lives up to its title. A blue scrim downstage tears open dramatically as the first piece begins, and stark black beams divide the stage like some urban forest. Both are in play throughout the performance to create a variety of environments.

The NBE has a most contemporary point of view that informs its carefully constructed stage aesthetic. Its dancers are fashionably androgynous in their costuming, and the richly textured music, played live by the Grupo Mahera, reflects the current Spanish concern for fusion of musical roots. The company's style is contemporary Spanish dance, rather than pure flamenco--full of jazzy sinuosity, syncopation and angles. The patterns and group compositions created by Rojas and Rodriguez are fluent, competent and dynamic, but some careful editing would benefit the overall rhythm of the production. Their choreographic vision is sometimes thematic and motivated by striking images whose impact is then difficult to sustain. Such is the case with Del Aire, with its samurai imagery and oriental tones and Musa, where men and women in tuxedos surround a diva-like figure, who emerges from an enormous white bata de cola (train) with a red feather boa around her neck and evoking an air of 1930s Hollywood decadence.

Rodriguez and Rojas are splendid, immensely generous solo performers, each with his own particular style. Rodriguez is well rooted in classical Spanish dance technique, and contemporary dance influences are apparent in the feline smoothness of his movements. Rojas's dance language is firmly anchored in flamenco. The contemporary character of his dancing is more apparent in the jazzy complexity of the counterrhythms of his footwork than in body line. Judging from the audience's thunderously enthusiastic response, a bright future awaits El Nuevo Ballet Espanol.

Antonio Canales is a highly respected flamenco artist and, when the spirit is with him, an inspired dancer. In his flashy and very lengthy version of La Cenicienta (Cinderella), the fairy godmother is now a wizard (Canales) whose recurrent appearances onstage in long coat, top hat and handfuls of glitter leave poor Cinderella an almost peripheral role in the story.

Canales is at ease within a flamenco vocabulary, but his choreographic forays into contemporary dance are sadly cliched. Cristina Gomez's Cinderella, one tough cookie, is eclipsed by both her fairy godfather and her prince, Juan de Juan, whose virtuoso solo leaves his erstwhile love sitting on the sidelines for what seems an eternity. When the clock strikes twelve, Cinderella rolls off into the orchestra pit, leaving her shoe behind. The prince and his friends, dressed in black suits and hats, appear on a railway platform, trying to find Cinderella among the various women there. His reunion with her practically goes unnoticed.

La Cenicienta is full of striking visuals and campy flamenco send-ups, some of which are very clever. Unfortunately, they can't compensate for the lack of choreographic content and dramatic structure. This production desperately needs a director to give it some recognizable shape. With competent theatrical guidance, Antonio Canales is capable of giving truly memorable performances. Unfortunately, La Cenicienta remains in my memory for less admirable reasons.