The flamenco performance included other genres of music, such as jazz.

With an almost 400-year history at its stamping feet, Flamenco needs no introduction.

Taken from the Spanish word for ‘flamingo’, a bird not exactly known for its shy and retiring nature or plumage, flamenco is loved worldwide (there are officially more Flamenco schools in Japan then there are in Spain) for its whipping of Andalusian and Romani music and dance styles into a flamboyant frenzy which is not for the shrinking violets of this world.

Established in 2000, Alegria Academia and Dance Company is Malta’s sole Flamenco school and is completely dedicated to helping students “become aware of their personal psychological and spiritual frequencies within a style that most suits them”.

The company has also sought to push its own boundaries by embarking on a project that fuses the Spanish art form with Maltese folk music, thus creating an extension of an essentially Mediterranean sound, expressed in flamenco dance.

Brought to mind the strength and solitude manifested in pure essence of deep soul

Indeed, the performance shown at the Salesian Theatre in Sliema remained very true to these ideals as dancers of all ages and sizes trooped up and down the stage in rhythmic banter that kept the audience’s eyes glued to the stage for the duration of the different segments of the show.

What kept the viewers interested was not only the dancing itself, which was both frenetic and energetic, but – in the spirit of giving us a taster of the full range of the Aire Flamenco – the evening was divided into two main sections: Aire de Pasion and Aire de Duende.

The former encapsulates short dances, mainly related to the theme of passion, while the latter focuses on dances which evoke physical and emotional reaction.

Adding extra depth to each performance was a short description of each dance right before it started, which was shown on a screen at the back of the stage.

This enabled audiences to interact and understand what they were seeing. Particularly intriguing was the Aire de Cuba dance, which was arranged by Ingrid Sciberras.

Dancers performed in the guajiras style, a 16th-century song and dance of Cuban origin that found its way back to Spain and had a languid, coquettish style.

The style lended itself to the use of fans by the dancers and the interesting interpretation of extracts of the Bharat Natyam, a classical Indian dance that originated in the Temples of Tamil Nadu and was known for its grace, purity, tenderness and sculptural poses reminiscent of the Hindu god Shiva, who is considered to be the god of this dance form.

However, admittedly, my favourite performance came towards the end of the Aire de Duende section, when the dancers wore black from top to toe and performed in a line of dramatic uniformity.

This gave the audience the illusion that they were seeing the movement of one solitary wave, instead of many individuals.

Indeed, the Duende section was particularly poignant and wistful, as there were two performances dedicated to two contemporary legends of the Flamenco world: Malta’s very own Sharon Sapienza, a renowned dancer of much international acclaim who died in early 2013 and Paco de Lucia, who was a leading proponent of the New Flamenco style and one of the first Flamenco guitarists to successfully cross over into other genres of music such as classical and jazz.

The Con Alma, which was dedicated to Sapienza, was the true embodiment of Duende, as it undoubtedly brought to mind the strength and solitude manifested in pure essence of deep soul.

Of course, no dance would be complete without the music and both Jose Calderon on percussion and guest saxophonist Walter Vassallo succeeded in enhancing the night’s emotions with their melodious tunes.

All in all, my expectations were far exceeded and I feel that Aire de Flamenco truly did achieve what ultimately all dance forms set out to do: the celebration of life in its rawest forms and the collective bringing together of peoples’ emotions to create something intimately beautiful.