It is a stimulating evening, often beguiling. Paco Peña’s new show Flamenco sin Fronteras – brand new on Tuesday night at Sadler’s Wells – has as its theme the contrast between Spain ’s flamenco and this music al and danced tradition as it was translated, transformed in Latin America . So we see a stage divided between Peña’s company and a group of music ians and a dancer from Venezuela . What results is an interchange of ideas and experience, an exploration of rhythms and attitudes altered by new societies, a conversation between two views of the central fact of flamenco.

As always with Peña, the staging is honourable in its simplicities – or so it seems at first. No fuss: dance and music given in vivid performance during the first half of the evening. Rhythms dominate. Energy burns them on our understanding, and splendid are the music ians and the dancers Charo Espino, Angel Muñoz (especially when his demons take charge) and Ramón Martínez. The Venezuelans (with their danseuse, Daniela Tugues, who has Loie Fuller moments of floating draperies) offer the delicious sonorities of mandolin and cuatro, proposing flamenco that owes something to Africa in dazzling percussion effects.

THERE have been many attempts to explore the Latin American roots of flamenco and drag them into an entertainment that fuses the disparate styles.

Unfortunately, this has often resulted not so much in fusion as confusion. Paco Pena’s new show, however, driven by a music al intelligence and curiosity that equals that of Ry Cooder, is an unqualified success.

Pena’s focus on Venezuelan and Peruvian music allows for a complex interplay of styles. He mines music al and dance traditions steeped in the Afro-Latin influences that flamenco artists encountered in the early 1900s when Spanish music ians and dancers toured Latin America and found themselves bringing back as much as they delivered.

Simply but effectively staged, with Pena’s music ians and singers in black on one side and the Venezuelans in white on the other backed by a set of huge white silk scarves descending from the roof, the show begins with an intricate solo by Pena alone in a dusty spotlight.

It next opens out to reveal the singers, music ians and dancers as they swirl into the opening number, a traditional two-men-and-a-girl flamenco which is pure, uncluttered and free of sub-Carmen cliché.

From then on, an aesthetic trading route is opened between the two cultures which at first reveals the differences between the disciplines – the passionate, almost tortured bull’s blood flamenco colliding with the sunnier disposition and earthy, life-affirming joy of the Venezuelans.

His London fans have been cheering the great Andalucian guitarist Paco Peña for decades. At its world premiere, his latest work, Flamenco sin Fronteras, bore all the hallmarks of his previous hits. Peña has an alchemist’s gift when it comes to mixing the strands of dance, song and soul that throb through flamenco’s passionate emotions. Here, Peña and his director, Jude Kelly , have taken a searching look at the way flamenco evolved in Latin America during the early decades of the 20th century.

Focusing mainly on Venezuela , the immediately obvious observation is that the South Americans are far sweeter folk than their ancestors; they love to sashay while the Spaniards prefer to suffer.

Peña, now in his mid-sixties, has long been in the enviable position of surrounding himself with nothing but the best. That’s exactly what he’s done for Flamenco sin Fronteras. Every one of the dancers, singers and music ians is a standout. The four dancers — especially the two men, Angel Muñoz and Ramón Martínez — are riveting, with the women providing a stellar contrast. The elegant Charo Espino

Flamenco sin Fronteras is a cultural performance which transcends any of the clichés attached to this form.  Searching South American culture for connections between Flamenco and Venezuelan music and dance provided the thematic content of Paco Pena’s latest show.  Opening with a signature guitar solo the audience was left in no doubt that they were in the presence of greatness - to say nothing of the supporting music ians or the dancers!

For Flamenco sin Fronteras Pena brought his outstanding music ians and dancers back to the Sadler’s Wells stage, plus extending an invitation to a group of Venezuelan music ians and dancer, Daniela Tugues .

Pena kept to his customary simple staging; music ian’s semi circling the stage creating an intimate dance floor, literally setting his cultures on opposite sides.  With a backdrop of ragged white material, like sails of yesteryear looming behind the action, an idea of travel was evoked.

Act 1 was flamenco dominant, with Angel Munoz and Ramon Martinez visualising the complex rhythms on offer.  Charo Espino was a tour de force of feminine flamenco and a vision in white.  Espino’s fluidity, elegance and technical rigour dominated the stage, most noticeably in duets with Venezuelan dancer Tugues.  The dancers’ footwork, whether responding to Spanish or Venezuelan rhythms, acted as response to the music ’s call.  Above the knees where the main stylistic differences between the two art forms, with the traditional rigor, angles and posture of flamenco being cheekily adapted through grounded hip isolations and flirty skirt movements by Tugues.

The closing number of Flamenco Sin Fronteras is as joyful an exchange of cultures as its title promises, a larky fiesta that sees Paco Peña ' s Spanish troupe partying with six Venezuelan dancers and music ians. The two groups volley catcalls at each other, exchange percussive riffs and steps; their lead singers compete in a mocking duet, while the flamenco dancers flutter their hips and waggle their fingers as flirtily as the Latin Americans.

Peña ' s thesis is that Spanish dance and music had a significant impact on South America at the turn of the 20th century and that the two cultures still share fascinating links of style and expression.

Concentrated passion pounds through Paco Pena’s new production, Flamenco sin Fronteras - a fascinating fusion of flamenco traditions with the sounds of Latin America and Afro-Venezuelan folklore.

From rich opening guitar solo to the jubilant finale, the stage is taut with focused energy. Interestingly, this energy does not extend far beyond the proscenium arch. Instead it feels as though we are voyeurs at a family party - looking in and observing the energy, excitement and understanding shared between those involved.

The stage is set with a simple semicircle of music ians clustered around the central dancers - elegant white sheets draped and layered behind them. Such a minimalistic setting forces the spotlight on to the astonishingly natural synthesis of sounds, as Afro-Venezuelan beats join in ebullient harmony with traditional flamenco guitars.