© Asya Verzhbinsky 'Eva' reviews Yerbabuena in reviews recent Yerbabuena company reviews more Jeffery Taylor reviews Web version held on Ballet.co by kind permission of Jeffery Taylor and the Sunday Express Express Website

The show titled simply, Eva, is billed as a woman's dream of liberation through dance and Eva is discovered alone with just her dreams and a trumpet gramophone. This is woman as victim and Eva's husband Paco Jarana s guitar is backed by sobbing strings as she settles down to dream. The three male dancers whose strictly ensemble dancing lends a muted air to dance that is usually spectacularly individual, introduce Eva s first solo. The long flounced tail of her dress is part of her body, rooting her to the stage as her arms and torso twist and strain to find expression.

Eva Yerbabuena and company discovering flamenco roots
Photograph by Asya Verzhbinsky

The first half closes with Eva leading the dancers in a display of bottled passion in strict formation before embarking on an extended solo as she discovers hidden depths. Dressed in a black, ankle length granny gown with long sleeves and high neck, she crouches and arches her way to victory with grasping hands and stabbing feet hammering her way to death or glory. She finds release in the power of her body and the ecstasy of love, and talk about getting back to basics - it's all very, very sexy.

In the second half Eva appears in pale blue and again in vivid turquoise with rifle shot heels and roses in her hair. A woman's lot is clearly more cheerful than we were led to believe and though there is more of the stern, no touching disciplined dancing from the group, when their passions hit the buffers of restraint they, and we, erupt. The show closes with Eva alone again with sobbing strings and lonely gramophone, even the relief of a clap happy finale is denied us. But that lurch in the pit of the stomach says more for Eva's impact than any amount of synthesised music and computerised lighting.