Season to season Zertuche selects varied themes governing subsequent company size; this year it was four artists with six musicians: two guest singers Silverio Heredia and Jose Cortes “El Muleto”; one guitarist and musical director Jose Valle “Chuscales”; a pianist, Alex Conde; a violinist and a cellist, Tregar Otton and Jesse Wolff. The atmospheric lighting, designed by stage manager Patrick Toebe, evoked through side lighting the contradictory, mysterious immediacy and timelessness in flamenco.

Zertuche’s companions were Christina Hall, Juan Siddi, with whom Zertuche frequently dances, and Manuel Gutierrez, a mercurial wonder of seemingly inexhaustible energy. Using traditional music and rhythms, the quartet danced nine “Nota”, starting Une Nota en Silencio save for pitos, then solos for each, pairing the women and then the men together, only briefly a couple engagement,with the two singers with pianist Conde on and off the cajon.

Christina Hall is small, delicate boned and blonde, making her an unusual exponent of Andalusian rhythms. In Una Nota para Tentar her hands and arms shot upward, outward and curled like geometric explorations, her body far forward or backward as impulse dictated. Just before getting too “modern dance” the curling and circling demands of flamenco softened movements initially stark and Grahamesque.

Juan Siddi’s Una Nota desde Dentro seemed brief, murky, enveloped in an atmosphere beyond knowing; it lead into a brief encounter with Zertuche who then segued into her pas de deux with Christina Hall under the title Una Nota para dos.

Hall and Zertuche both sported half of the garment cum train called bota de cola, and wielded them with frequent kicking flourishes, the difference in height and bone structure adding to the visual interest in the two. Not only because two women physically contrasted, dancing bare-footed, they completed their encounter employing their garment with surprising distinction, a set up for post intermission.

I was not prepared for the force and fervor of post-intermission dancing. In Una Nota en el Aire Manuel Gutierrez initially played the cajon warming up the tempo before Juan Siddi danced with pitos, dazzlingly fast heel work, smiling as the two men confronted each other, contesting, collaborating. Siddi disappeared and Gutierrez started to dance after several phrases on the cajon, striding across the front with light and smoky effects obscuring the depth of the stage. He is a master of stiff-legged pauses and on-the-dime pivots, crossing legs and feet as if changing direction, negotiating slippery stones in a gurgling stream. Near the end of the piece, he hopped on top of the cajon continuing his rapid heel work, dropping down to sit on it once more, ending the number with a swift strike on the cajon.

Carola Zertuche’s entrance in a dusty brick red bota de cola wrapped in the mantilla used in flamenco performances by the late Teresita Osta, provided Una Nota para Sentir with an unusual partner in her swishing and grasping the train. In measured and deliberate style she would clasp it as if having a discussion, examining an idea, or reacting with dislike. Tall for a flamenco artist although other tall women have distinguished themselves in this Iberian style, her approach was captivating and absorbing.

The two singers, Heredia and Cortes, sensitively supported by Conde, created an indelible musical interlude, Una Nota entre Todos, collaborating as if savoring some special sherry in their favorite cantina. Involuntarily, I gave the ultimate compliment: goose flesh.

The penultimate number prior to Una Nota de Alegria was Manuel Gutierrez dancing Una Nota para dos Pies. What he demonstrated with Siddi was expanded twenty fold. This baillerin devours space! He is restless, emphatic, wiry rather than arrogant and seems totally absorbed in his private messages; long monologues with intricate foot work, those amazing pivots, arms expanded like a bird rising in the air. He finishing a flourish before he says with torso and feet, “And one more thing I need to point out.” As in the finale when he was given the lions’ share of dancing, Gutierrez added several brilliant post-scripts, leaving one visually and mentally agape at his energy, variety and spontaneity.

It was an afternoon to relish.

Gutierrez, Hall, Siddi, Zertuche