WEEKEND REVIEWS / Dance Review : Colorful Folk Dancing Falls Short on Creative Footwork

Gema Sandoval, artistic director and founder of the 24-year-old company, Danza Floricanto/USA, believes the heart of Mexican folk dance is footwork and heel work. And while her new, evening-length opus, “Zapateados y Taconeos: The Full Story,” is well-intentioned--indeed, teeming with stomping aplenty--the 2 1/2-hour program that premiered at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday felt mechanical and redundant, failing to set off seismic sparks.

Hoping to appeal to a wider audience as a Mexican “Riverdance,” the nearly two dozen works (many restagings) amounted, instead, to an endless parade of swirling skirts, pasted-on smiles and a blur of unvirtuosic, if competent, footwork.

The evening began with the company performing Sandoval’s restaging of “Jarabe Largo Ranchero,” a round of dances culminating in the Mexican hat dance. Accompanied by guest performers--the rousing Mariachi Mexicapan--the 12 dancers moved from languid waltz-like steps to lively coupling. The men, hands firmly fixed behind their backs (as opposed to at their sides like Irish step dancing), also brandished sombreros, with the women dipping in colorful skirts.

“Luz y Sombra,” a Tex-Mex duet staged by Rodolfo Castaneda Trujillo and danced by him and Aileen Rolon to taped music, was a vigorous, if uninspired, cheek-to-cheek duet. In another pairing, Valentina Shibata and Rafael Valpuesta danced Sandoval’s 1990 “La Majahua,” in which Valpuesta displayed a bit of saber-tossing while his partner whirled like a top. “El Caballito” showcased Becky Quintero and Joel Sandoval in Sandoval’s new, metronomically precise duet.

Also new: “Al Son de la Marimba,” wherein Quintero, Shibata, Sonia Perez and Sandoval’s daughter, Gema M. Sandoval, effortlessly glided across the stage like plumed birds. More stilted was “Campeche Medley,” wherein the company, in another Sandoval restaging, limply tapped on small boxes.

The second half of the evening, “Bailando con el Ritmo del Pasado al Compas del Futuro/Dancing With the Rhythm of the Past to the Beat of the Future,” saw guest artists Agua Luna Dance Company in Gustavo Gonzalez’s previously reviewed “Flor de Mexico.” “El Porque,” Gonzalez’s 1999 duet with Sandoval’s daughter, offered the only true sizzle of the night, a blend of ballroom and modern dance, punctuated with passionate lifts.

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More new works from Sandoval: “De la Falda al Rebozo/From the Skirt to the Shawl,” in which women make nice work of flounced skirts, turning the stage into rolling waves of fabric; while fluttering fans drove “El Abanico.” In the finale, “Del Corazon a las Tablas/From the Heart to the Floor Boards,” and in the restaged “Huapango,” the tireless company let loose with a barrage of footwork, each dancer taking a solo turn, although no “lord” or “lady of the dance” managed to stun with anything resembling rhythmic complexity, nor were there any heart-stopping leaps.

Other guest artists: Alissa Simon (congas and flute) and plaintive singer-guitarist Pina Islas. As always, Francisco Sandoval’s costumes enlivened the stage. Gema Sandoval, who provided narration in Spanish and English between numbers, proved informative, though the impact of the long evening left one more numb than enlightened.