The problem with The Four Elements, as so often with flamenco, is in the packaging. This opening show in Flamenco Festival London boasts four of the art form's leading dancers. Yet rather than letting the talents of Carmen Cortés, Alejandro Granados, Rocío Molina and Carlos Rodriquez speak for themselves, they've been shoehorned into a witless concept whereby each represents a different element.
The idiocy of the concept begins with the costumes and props. Cortés, the most austere of flamenco divas, is forced to advertise her role as Fire in a dress that trails orange threads - some of which shed distractingly as she dances. And in case we fail to grasp that Granados represents Earth and Molina Water each has to mime a solemn act of communion - she with a conch shell and he with a pile of soil that he crumbles with the haunted desperation of a farmer in a bad summer.
But not only does the concept undermine the performers' dignity, it interferes with their dancing. You can close your eyes during the brief routines when they unite in a cosmic quartet, writhing around in self-consciously slow motion. But the labels attached to their solos are so arbitrary as to be distracting. There are, admittedly, superficial reasons why Molina dances Water. Her soft rounded arms coil with a rippling delicacy and she creates a froth of elegant effects with her fan and skirt. But just as distinctive are the force of her footwork and the pugnacious gaiety of her kick. And while Rodriguez (Air) cultivates a gravity-defying speed in his turns and a trailing gracefulness in his arms, his feet drill into the floor with no less power than that of the official Earth dancer, Granados.
Cortés, with her bone structure and temperament, looks most attuned to her element. Yet she is the one who most proudly transcends the production concept - reclaiming the stage as her personal arena. No technical fireworks are necessary for her domination - simply the hieratic drama of her dark profile, the brace of her arms and the crooning and then thundering music of her footwork. She affirms that there is serious dancing in this show - as long as you can be bothered to tear off the wrappings.
· Ends tonight. The flamenco festival continues until January 30. Box office: 0870 737 7737.
