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Alexandra Tomalonis
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The Storm Of Flamenco Al Andalus

Alexandra Tomalonis
Special to The Washington Post
October 24, 2000; Page C10

As romantic nomads or wild, maligned outcasts, Gypsies have captured the imagination of storytellers and artists for centuries. Flamenco al Andalus, a tiny troupe from Seville led by "El Torombo" (billed as "the storm from Spain," but don't hold that against him), plopped a Gypsy encampment on the stage at Lisner Auditorium Saturday night. While folk dance performances often look like slicked-up halftime shows, with their colorful costumes and relentless cheer, El Torombo and his band (four dancers, four singers, three guitarists and three Moroccan musicians in tribute to flamenco's Arab roots) served up flamenco raw: passionate, unvarnished dancing and everyday scenes of work and leisure produced with noble simplicity and theatrical flair.

These are urban Gypsies. El Torombo (Francisco Jose Suarez Barrera) is famed as a street flamenco artist, and delivers the twists, turns and blinding footwork of his art with a rough, untamed and highly expressive style. Two other dancers, his sister (La Toromba) and Jairo Barrul, are also able soloists. Guest artist Farruquito, grandson of a legendary Spanish flamenco dancer, at only 18 gave an astoundingly mature performance in the more traditional, elegant style. If Suarez Barrera is a storm, then Farruquito is a tornado: a sleek, elegant funnel of movement twisting and twirling, his footwork so fleet it becomes a blur.

The program's long finale, "Essences of the Buleria," was the essence of Flamenco al Andalus as well. The segment begins with the company seated in a shallow semicircle. Each singer--with a hoarse voice, as if from the smoke of a thousand campfires--takes a turn, coming to the footlights and pouring out some personal or historic tale of woe, addressing the audience as directly as lawyers giving a charge to the jury.

In each song, a dancer is eventually, impetuously, drawn into the rhythm, dancing a kind of dialogue with the singer. The dancers are all very young, the singers all mature artists, and the result is like watching the most intimate moments in the life of a large, extended family. When it's over, the musicians sling their guitars over their shoulders and walk off into the night.

The company is nearing the end of its first U.S. tour, and will dance at the Mechanic Theater in Baltimore on Oct. 28.