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Each year La Tania presents a program which reflects thoughtful and thorough preparation, emphasizing different guest artists. Last year it was two women exponents from Spain; the year before that it was a multi-generation family involvement; earlier it was inviting Andres Marin to participate.

A generation or two earlier La Tania would have been considered part of the Pilar Lopez type Spanish dancers. She is fairly tall, definitely authoritative, and she has an impeccable eye. But La Tania seems to have brought flamenco up to date in presentation and concept. Instead of those combs, roses and flapping pierced earrings she relies on the shape of her head and the intensity of her concentration to capture the audience. No castenellos this time around either and not a train in sight to kick with her feet, but two simple dresses, one lime color which became irridescent in the stage lighting [Matthew Antaky] and a black or plum color which seemed a dull contrast to what La Tania accomplished inside it.

La Tania's dancing guest from Seville was Rafael Campallo and a second singer from Andalucia, Jose Anillo. Antonio de Jerez has sung for her before and Roberto Castellon's guitar was augmented by the unusual inclusion of percussionist Sudhi Rajagopal, an enthomusicologist who has studied with Zakir Hussain and studied music recording at the University of Southern California. Cuban-born Castellon toured with La Tania in 1997 and 2000.

Because there were only two dancers, the obvious choice was slanted to fewer dancers and longer individual numbers, which seemed to make for a shorter but exciting program.The program was evenly divided between La Tania and guest, preceded by a Solea by the guitarist by Castellon and Fandangos de Huelva with Rajagopal. The musicians emerged from smoky cross lighting which momentarily impressed on as the murky confines of a cave. The instrumentalists were followed by Jose Anillo and Antonio de Jerez, who gave us a Cante beforeLa Tania provided Tientos, before Campallo gave us Solea por Taranto and the two dancers collaborated in a Bulerias. After intermission Jose Anillo provided a Cante, Campallo an Alegrias and La Tania closed the program with Solea.

Campallo apparently shares honors with Andres Marin and Alejandro Granados as a trio of innovators in flamenco. Marin and Campallo have eschewed the flamenco jacket and even the closely fitting trousers. Small, compact, he might easily be mistaken as just another young Spanish technocrat in casual clothes until he begins to dance. The dancing is precise, contained, and his taconeo has small, but spectacular flourishes. One such is the capacity almost to execute entrechats while providing appropriate heel and toe sound. After a brief, initial adjustment one knows the future of flamenco is in excellent hands. Like Marin, Campallo has gone for the meat, the essence, the feeling within the form. Discarding visual embellishments leaves them freer to astonish the audience with movement arabesques, the filigree of sound, an incredible use of the pause, the retard or acceleration of rhythm, the effect of the music upon the personal psyche.

I have no doubt that Campallo is as aware of the audience as any of his noted predecessors. But the sense of personal connection, of the inner dialogue between exponent and form is heightened and speaks to current sensibility. I said sensibility, not sensation!

With the snap of her fingers La Tania enticed us into her mood in Tientos. Her awareness of space and herself as part of that space is extraordinary. I was always conscious of the entire setting and not the usual passion and tatters. With her graceful arms and the spareness of the stage, La Tania's sense of the whole provides a continuous classical edge to her performance even when she is at her most sensual. With her feet at second position width and her hips undulating with erotic import, she manages to be earthy rather than vulgar, an extraordinary feat. Watching her, I forget what an astute student of flamenco once said to me that the formula was initially "parading around and showing one's self off, mesmerizing the audience before getting down to work..." One has the sense La Tania is working herself into the material rather than asking the audience to look at her. She permits us to share an exploration rather than demand we regard her as the phenomenon she is. Hard to describe, admittedly, but there is quite a difference. The difference makes for the art so abundantly hers.

Having studied a little flamenco, I am aware of its complexity. La Tania's incredible nuance and the feeling of examining space, music, mood and her own reactions is clearly her own, but deceptively understated. I am simply at a loss to attempt a further explanation.