Warmly though the Town Hall Theatre audience received Increpaci≤n Danza's FGL (o∅dos de Lorca) at its sole performance on Tuesday for the Galway Arts Festival, I believe they would have appreciated it still more had there been a printed programme with translations of the poems and songs the dancers were reflecting. A brief biography of Lorca might also have helped, since the ambitious 60-minute suite of dances, which sought to recreate Lorca's world through his own music and that of his time, assumed more knowledge than the average non-Spanish audience might have.That said, the five dancers showed an ability to convey both grief and comedy, as required by choreographers Montse Sβanchez and Ram≤n Baeza, and performed both Flamenco and contemporary dance more than adequately. For me, however, the two styles made uneasy partners, just as the music of AlbΘniz, Granados and de Falla seemed at odds with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

In their embroidered plum-coloured dresses, the dancers emerged by turn from behind hanging cloths, like great tree trunks, to undulate in mourning over their fans or cross and recross the stage, playing their castenets to the point of monotony. When they finally leapt, turned and spun, however, I wished they had been given more such moments, and when they performed pure Flamenco, I longed for a live guitarist and singer and raw gipsy passion. But then again, perhaps if I had understood Spanish . . .