But virtuosity alone doesn't cut it for this dark-haired beauty of American-French descent. Though she has ample respect for tradition - having learned flamenco at the feet of her dancer-mother - La Tania wants to add to that tradition, while using flamenco to satisfy her own artistic cravings. Her dances are not plotted out or dependent upon commercial concerns, even though tourist-fare flamenco (polka-dot dresses) would probably be more lucrative. Rather, La Tania's dances begin with the finest the tradition can offer and then she takes the audience on a highly personal and more challenging journey.

As we saw in "Abrazo", performed last year at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, her original flamenco creations in many ways break the mold. Her dances tell stories and use unusual musical forms; she and Marin adopt abridged positions, using almost a free-form style at times. Though Marin is a flamboyant dancer, La Tania chooses to deliver the most difficult, astonishing steps so stingily it's almost frustrating.

And like many dance artists today, she is interested in creating almost mixed-media dances. Her latest piece, "Passage of the Muse," which was performed Friday night at Saddleback College, was inspired by, and relies upon, the paintings of her grandmother, Judith Deim, and the poetry of Garcia Lorca.

Re-creations of Deim's expressionistic artworks were projected on panels, sometimes in front but more often behind the dancing. The beautifully expressive actress/dancer Teresa Vallejo stalked the stage with the dancers, reciting excerpts from Lorca's poetry in Spanish, interacting with the dancers like a one-woman Greek chorus. The five sections were richly imagistic; audience members who understood Spanish certainly benefited from additional layers of meaning and emotional impact. Still, this was a work of powerful feelings and charged dancing. A sexually explosive duet for La Tania and Marin ("Secretos-Secrets") was a highlight, the choreography taking advantage of the dancers' opposing cool-molten temperaments. In "Recuerdos," we were rewarded with La Tania's undulating body style and quick, high kicks - a traveling step that was fabulously exciting. Marin thrilled us here and in the first half with his impossibly tiny and excruciatingly fast footwork - so fast he creates the illusion of floating inches off the ground.

The final section, "Viajeros-Travellers," was an uptempo flamenco jam session, affording a joyous conclusion. The evening began in a post-modern vein: the musicians standing beside the dancers, everyone dressed in black, and illuminated with overhead spots. La Tania's "El Poder de lo Invisible" was a sensuous number of perfectly articulated foot stamping and nearly-straight arms topped by twirling hands. She neatly kicked the tail of a jet-black flounced dress.

Marin's solo was a carefully drawn out exercise in stakes-raising. He danced in quick sequences of successively more intricate choreography, taking brief walks or stretching for breaks, before clapping out the beat again for the musicians.

McKinney Theatre's small size was perfect for this show; the dancers were clearly moved by the enthusiastic applause and shouts in Spanish from the audience. The biggest disappointment of the night was the sound quality, which was tinny for the amplified foot stamping and uneven for the singing and instrumentation.