Flamenco Deities

There’s hot, and then there’s blistering, as was evidenced when “Flamenco! María Bermúdez Convivencias,” was presented to the nearly sold-out crowd at the Ford on Saturday night. Translated as coexistence, or building of community, the word proved apt, as the acclaimed performer and Flamenco ambassador—Bermúdez was recognized by the city of Jerez, Spain in 2022—took to the stage with 14 dancers and musicians from Spain and Southern California in an evening spiked with duende, or unmitigated soul.

Performance

María Bermúdez and company, choreography by each dancer

Place

The Ford, Los Angeles, California, September 12, 2026

Words

Victoria Looseleaf

María Bermúdez solo. Photograph by Madeline Oaklander

The sylvan venue, built in 1922 and open to the sky, with its bi-level performance area, terraced steps and lush trees and vegetation, also made for some exciting entrances and exits from either side, giving the intimacy of the Ford a tablao-like atmosphere. And while the musicians were amplified, the sounds echoing through the bucolic venue that’s situated in the Cahuenga Pass across the street from the Hollywood Bowl, made this concert somewhat Vegas-like, there was no mistaking the artistry on view.

Opening with the “Bulerías Suite” (a fast, rhythmic style of flamenco music and dance), Bermúdez entered in white and black polka dots, her penetrating footwork and filigreed fingers abetted by the rest of the superb cast, including the Parilla family. Composer/flutist Juan Parilla, his brother, violinist Bernardo Barilla and nephew Manu Parilla on electric guitar, along with percussionist Diego “El Negro” Alvarez, riffed with sounds ranging from resonant to piercing, as the dancers, including Timo Nuñez, Nino de Los Reyes and Carlos Menchaca, strutted their stuff to the musky-throated singing of Ismael Fernández and Carmen Grilo.

An embarrassment of riches, these performers offered a deep dive into the heart of flamenco, with Fernández then offering a solo, “Romance” that seemed to pierce one’s being before Carlos Menchaca (who performed the next night at the Fountain Theatre in its “Forever Flamenco” series), ignited the place with flying feet and beguiling turns, shredding the stage, in effect, with sublime confidence.

María Bermúdez and company. Photograph by Starl Amendoza

Ysabella Yturralde and Sabrina Ibarra then each took solos as if in a dance-off, deploying one-legged turns, swaying hips and firecracker feet, returning later in the evening in a chair-carrying duet before hurling them onto the stage. (Dances with chairs can sometimes be trite or overused—Liza Minelli in Cabaret crooning, “Mein Herr,” the exception), so, thankfully, these gals had no reconnoitering with furniture, and stagehands retrieved the props after the dance’s end.

Far from trite, however, was the flamencan force of nature, Nuñez in his solo, “Martinete.” This writer first covered him in 2009, when he was 25, dubbing him “a local heartthrob” that “could star on a Versace catwalk.” But back then, he relied too heavily on “the smolder factor,” and this scribe looked “forward to the day when depth trumps demeanor.”

That day has decidedly arrived (and no doubt did some years ago), as Nuñez mesmerized with quicksilver maneuverings, razor-sharp pirouettes and no-nonsense skitterings, his haughty demeanor now more a testament to the art form.

In a veritable change of pace, 10-year-old Kaili Kauka, sporting heavy theatrical makeup, proceeded to astonish with her prowess in handling the bata de cola (long train or tail) of her colorful dress, wielding the fabric like a seasoned performer.

Kaili Kauka. Photograph by Starl Amendoza

And so it was with a leather jacket-clad de los Reyes, who deployed a scorching solo, “Tangos,” the temperature rising with each bullet train-like step. Adding even more heat to an already sizzling evening, singer Pelé de los Reyes (Bermúdez’ husband, he’s also a composer, Latin Grammy nominee, founder of the group Navajita Plateá, and no relation to Nino), then wailed in his number, “Sueños.”

With heart-wrenching sounds seemingly coming from the lower depths of his being, this was a call to humanity, the audience responding to his otherworldly sonic journey, as if thunderstruck.

It seemed appropriate, then, to follow this howling sonata with the entire company, including musicians in “Tiempo,” where Menchaca again assaulted the floor with a sublime foot-stamping cadenza that could have been taken for an entire percussion section, his mercurial jumping turns also dagger-esque.

As various members wove in and out of each other in neo-Balanchinean style, hips swaying, hands clapping rhythmically and occasionally reaching skyward, this terpsichorean organism was responding to the equally mesmerizing music, which also featured the superb guest artist, Andrés Vadin on guitar. Talk about fever pitch!

Bookending her performance, Bermúdez deployed a shawl as her dance partner in “Solea,” retrieving it from a chair above the stage and wielding it like a matador, her white-hot ardor coalescing with flying feet and fluttering fringe, creating a firestorm of emotions before the “Fiesta Finale.” This rousing end featured all the performers, the dancers exploding with staccato bursts of blazing heel and toe tappings, in what was, well, peak flamenco.

Let’s face it: While there was once the “Kings of Dance” (male ballet stars performing to equally major choreographers’ bespoke works) and “Lord of the Dance” (Michael Flatley, who ruled his fiefdom of Irish step dancers, and sold out huge amphitheaters for years), there was, at least on this night, “Gods and Goddesses of the Dance,” accompanied by no less than musical deities. In a word, olé!

Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award-winning, Los Angeles-based international arts journalist who covers music and dance festivals around the world. Among the many publications she has contributed to are the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Dance Magazine and KCET’s Artbound. In addition, she taught dance history at USC and Santa Monica College. Looseleaf’s novella-in-verse, Isn't It Rich? is available from Amazon, and and her latest book, Russ & Iggy’s Art Alphabet with illustrations by JT Steiny, was recently published by Red Sky Presents. Looseleaf can be reached through X, Facebook, Instagram and Linked In, as well as at her online arts magazine ArtNowLA.

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