Eva Yerbabuena, dance review: Flamenco star fails to make us feel

Eva Yerbabuena is one of the biggest names in flamenco and usually one of the most reliable draws of Sadler's Wells' annual Flamenco Festival. But this year's show, Apariencias, turns out to be an odd blip on that record. Very odd.

It brings a mishmash of symbolism and references, the reasoning of which remains opaque: female dancers in bald caps, skulls and masks used as props, images of refugees and wedges of cash projected onto one dancer's skirt.

These things may be explored in the Spanish text and lyrics, but with no translation it's impossible to know. "This is not about understanding everything," the programme says, "but about feeling." Sadly, there's nothing to feel here either.

There are some good performers: four men dance with the darting agility of fencers; singer Alana Sinkëy brings soul and a beautiful sense of pleading in her voice. But Yerbabuena herself gives a half-hearted, slightly awkward performance, a lot of shawl-swishing for the most part, and doesn't dominate the stage in the way she absolutely can.

Towards the end, she gives up on the concept, goes solo, and just gets on with her rapid-fire footwork, finding some subtlety in the rhythms before settling on a volley of hemi-demi-semi-quavers rattling from her feet.

This is a show that lacks direction and spectacle. Not Yerbabuena's finest hour.