“My family is of Andalusian origin,” he said. “Although I was born in Barcelona, my parents have always been fond of Andalusian music and dance, and I was born with it. When I was only 4 years old, they enrolled me as a school extra to dance flamenco.”

Flamenco is a song, music and dance style that is strongly influenced by the Gitanos, but has its deeper roots in Moorish musical traditions. Flamenco culture originated in Andalusia, Spain, but has since become one of the icons of Spanish music and even Spanish culture in general, according to Arts Flamenco, a cultural center. It usually consists of singing with a flamenco guitar and toque, and dancers use rhythmic hand claps and foot stomping in their dance.

Gutierrez said he started dancing in a dance group in his town called Palau Solita y Plegamans, and now he is very proud to be the owner and director of the Barcelona-based Barcelona Flamenco Ballet.

“It is a beautiful profession but it involves a lot of implication and responsibility,” Gutierrez said. “Not just anyone can dance flamenco. You have to love the profession. To be able to represent the city of Barcelona around the world is a privilege.”

Flamenco music styles are called “palos” in Spanish. There are over 50 different styles of flamenco. A palo can be defined as the basic rhythmic pattern of a flamenco style, but also covers the whole musical and cultural context of a particular flamenco style.

The dancers constantly reconstruct the ambiances they produce onstage, building up a rhythm with repetitive motions, and then break it, instantly stopping, rupturing the established order, then beginning again. In this way, the rhythm itself is “reborn”—constantly renewing the dynamics of the performance, keeping it fresh and alive.

“Barcelona Flamenco Ballet has more than 40 people working in our company, all of them, musicians, dancers, technicians and production staff,” Gutierrez said. “For this tour in the United States, we present an exclusive and intimate format, formed by five artists. Three of them are musicians (a guitarist, a voice and a saxophone/flautist) and two dancers.”

With Barcelona Flamenco Ballet, they fuse three dance styles with which most people are all familiar—jazz, contemporary and, of course, flamenco—creating an electric tension of the metallic tapping sounds of the dancers’ footwork.

“We hope that the whole audience will enjoy an unforgettable night, that you will applaud a lot, and that it will be a memory you will never forget,” Gutierrez said. “We are looking forward to seeing you.”

For tickets to Barcelona Flamenco Ballet, go to theargyros.org.