Benitez's teatro flamenco.

[NY] Maria Benitez, half-Hispanic and half-Native American, has danced most of her life on tour, bringing flamenco dance and the Spanish classical tradition to towns across America. After several years' absence she returns to The Joyce Theater with her Santa Fe-based company of musicians and dancers November 25-30. As a choreographer she has always pushed the boundaries of flamenco beyond its purist roots. This season she transforms Cordoba, composer Isaac Albeniz's sad and lilting solo, into a modern vision of flamenco, ceding the heavy footwork numbers to company members. Benitez, whose long, stunning body pays tribute to the Americanization of Spanish dance, says she believes that personal expression speaks through an attack of the feet and a flowering of the hands in conversation with one's partner.