Sara Baras is one of the classiest, most contemporary flamencas, respecting the traditions of her chosen art form while smoothly and surely pushing it into modern times. This sleek, powerful 37-year-old dancer from Cádiz is capable of hammering out incredibly subtle gradations of percussive rhythm with her heels. But that is not all she can do. As the head of her own company, Baras choreographs as well as designs the costumes and (here with Fernando MartÍn) the lighting for its shows.

Sabores (Spanish for flavours) was first seen at Sadler’s Wells in the 2006 edition of the venue’s annual Flamenco Festival. Since then Baras’s polished production has toured the world, topped by a record-breaking five-month run in Madrid last year. At close to two hours with no interval, it makes for a long but absorbing evening. Although she receives excellent support from guest soloists José Serrano and Luis Ortega, an acutely disciplined ensemble of ten dancers, a handful of musicians led by the composer and guitarist José MarÍa Bandera, plus two superb male singers, Baras is the night’s undisputed centrepiece.

Forget gaudy polka-dot dresses and long ruffled trains. Baras has no interest in reanimating tired flamenco clichés. Instead we are offered a slick compendium of the genre’s different palos, or styles. Although these cover a range of inevitably passionate emotional states, the programme is essentially abstract in nature. It also looks and feels gratifyingly up-to-date.

The audience’s love affair with Baras starts early on as she, Ortega and Serrano share the stage. Curling around each other like smoke, they suggest a strict yet sensual ménage à trois. Baras, strikingly handsome in a tight grey-to-black dress, dips and ducks around and between the men. She unfurls her skirts in a furious rush of swirling silk.

The thin, stately Ortega later accompanies his own sober dancing with castanets. Peppered with plenty of rat-a-tat-tat footwork, Serrano’s solo reveals a more expansive spirit. But, again, it is Baras who dominates with dancing that is avid and stringent, fiercely strong yet marked by graceful flourishes. She, like the show built around her, is well worth seeing. If you miss her now, she and her company will be supporting José Carreras in a one-off performance at the Albert Hall on December 11.

Box office: 0844 4124300. To July 12 2008

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