click for larger image / details © Joaquin Cortes interview Joaquin Cortes 'Live' reviews recent Joaquin Cortes reviews more Kevin Ng reviews

This highly entertaining show, which features only Cortes himself without an ensemble, possesses the best features of traditional flamenco - music with an insistent passion and a fiery energy provided by a distinguished ensemble of 15 musicians, and dancing from Cortes himself that is dramatically potent as well as beguilingly sensual. Seven different forms of flamenco are showcased in this show, according to the programme notes. The beginning was slightly melancholy with the dark lighting and the black Giorgio Armani outfits of Cortes, but the mood lightened up gradually in some sections.

Cortes is a glamorous star with charisma aplenty. Despite the narrow vocabulary of flamenco dancing and only a limited assortment of steps employed by Cortes which recurs throughout the evening, Cortes managed to whip up the audience's frenzy at every climax of the show with his stellar presence. He is an electrifying virtuoso dancer with a powerful rhythm, enhanced by the graceful movements of his arms and hands as well as his long flowing hair. His upper body is most vibrant and has a sculptural three-dimensional quality.

Joaquin Cortes ©

His dancing is always full-bodied. His fleet footwork was dazzling. Earlier on he did a dazzling circuit of turns round the stage, and later on he humorously parodied a matador at one point with his removed black jacket. His solos became ever more explosive towards the end when he danced bare-chested with sweat all over him.

However some brighter colours in the lighting and costumes to enhance the dim stage picture would have been welcome in this theatrical show intended to bring flamenco into the 21st century.

(This review first appeared in the South China Morning Post.)