Last Saturday we drove down Iffley Road, and, to our surprise, found ourselves in a ‘pena’, one of those intimate Spanish nightclubs devoted to flamenco, where the performers are so close that you can almost touch them. The lower part of the seating in the Pegasus had been removed, and instead of watching in neat rows, we sat at round tables scattered casually around the dimly-lit space, candles flickering in the gloom and a bar conveniently placed to the side. Until you looked back at the remaining seating, the theatre was unrecognisable; it had become a night-club, and I take my hat off to this transformation, which created just the right atmosphere for the show.

Flamenco Intimo featured the singer Lola Rueda, guitarist Juan Ramirez, and the Oxford-based flamenco dancer Amarita Vargas (pictured). The show began with a long, intricate guitar solo from Ramirez, which was followed by Rueda’s opening song, performed unaccompanied with a world-weary, seen-it-all melancholy, which made we wish there had been a programme-note to tell us its meaning, and also the subjects of the songs that followed.

Lola Rueda is a performer charm and authority, and also a fine flamenco dancer, and would often break into dance during the performance. However the credited dancer was Amarita Vargas, tall and stately, who gave us several long and varied solos, illustrating the variety of material that can be performed in this style. She also danced a couple of duets with Rueda, with Juan Ramirez continuing to do fine work on his guitar — and, at the close, showing us that he too can do a few nifty steps in his Cuban-heeled boots. Finally, Amarita, who is a great communicator with her audience, taught us all how to clap out a couple of flamenco rhythms, which we did, while the dancers reprised some of their steps as a finale to an enjoyable evening.