With passion and emotion, the seven members of the Noche Flamenca dance troupe gifted the near-capacity Bermuda Festival’s Saturday night audience with a dazzling performance, Although the entire programme was in Spanish, language was no barrier. The guitars, the song and the dance created a universal idiom that was easily understood at heart level.

Noche Flamenca, the troupe, is composed of three dancers, Soledad Bario, Maria Elana and Antonio Jimenez; two guitarists, Eugenio Iglesias and Salva de Maria; and two singers, Manuel Gago and Miguel Rosendo; each outstanding in their own right. Kudos must also be given to the lighting master whose name was not provided, but whose lighting choices added an atmospheric dimension that often captured the feel of sitting around a campfire, evoking the Romani, or gypsy, origins of this ancient dance/music form.

The Roma tribes historically emigrated from India to all points of the globe, assimilating aspects of the cultures where they settled. Within the music of Flamenca, which originated with the Romani of Andalusia in Southern Spain, can be heard influences from India, Byzantium, Israel, the call of the Muslim muezzin, even the chants of Native American — haunting, minor key laments that touch the soul.

The evening opened with ‘Amanecer’ (Dawn), the stage dark with just one spot, illuminating a seated woman in red, and the sound of two acoustic guitars. She slowly rose, moved to centre stage and began to move, striking out the rhythm with her feet. She was joined first by another woman, this time dressed in white, then by three men, one of whom joined in the dance, and the other two who began to sing and beat rhythm with their hands. This set the tone for the rest of the evening. Guitars, both solo and as dance accompaniment, complicated hand clapping rhythms, haunting voices and much very quick feet were the order of the night.

It is difficult to name any one of the performers at “the star of the show”, but certain aspects of the programme stand out in particular: the ‘Solea por Bulerias’, a duel between guitar and Antonio Jiminez’ lightning fast feet where it was impossible to discern who set the tempo in this fiery and flamboyant unchoreographed spectacle. The ‘Solea’ performed by Soledad Barrio, just as fierce and intense, displayed more of the graceful arms and hands, the regal carriage and passion associated with gypsy queens of lore. The only thing missing from this writer’s point of view, were the castanets, which, upon further research, were revealed as not traditional to Flamenco but rather to Spanish folk dancing.

Also worthy of additional mention were the cantaores (singers). Here, the relationship to Arabic and East Indian tonalities with ‘traces of Byzantine, Jewish and Christian religious music’ was unmistakable. Their songs, all sung in minor key hinting of deep sorrow and bitterness, were sung with power, precision, and great musicality, the melodies slipping and sliding around the scale in a style reminiscent of the Muslim muezzins’ calls to prayer.

Most beguiling of all were the palmas (hand claps and finger snaps). Complicated, syncopated rhythms with each participant hitting a different beat, juxtaposed against the tapping of the dancers’ feet, made the music compelling. In another, less formal setting, I it is highly likely that more than a few of the audience would have been on their feet, joining in the dance. At the very least, I imagine many would have enjoyed feeling free enough to clap in conjunction, although perhaps not brave enough to risk disrupting those fascinating rhythms.

The last scheduled piece on the programme, ‘Esta Noche No Es Mi Dia’ the programme reported, was performed as a tribute to a recently passed fellow performer. At its fiery conclusion the audience demanded, and was treated, to an encore which brought many to their feet in admiration.

From the commentary overheard as we departed, the evening was an unqualified success.