JANUARY is typically a slow time for UK dance. Last year, however, Sadler’s Wells scored a hit with the first Flamenco Festival London. A second edition, which began on Monday and continues to the end of the month, confirms it as a new annual tradition.

The 2005 artists roster includes classy young dancer-choreographers such as Sara Baras and Eva Yerbabuena, plus top-flight singers and musicians. The Four Elements, a one-off opening event, showcased four Spanish dancers whose ages span three decades. Together they were a living illustration of the shifts between flamenco puro and contemporary “fusion” styles.

This reasonably entertaining evening began in sedentary neutrality, the initially black-clad performers hunched over on stools centrestage. Knees were slapped and arms raised imploringly. The dancers rose and drew apart, only to meld back together in a kind of flamenco version of primordial ooze. Once this introductory passage ended, each cast member got to strut his or her stuff alone.

Rocío Molina, 21 this year, is a buxom flamenca whose stout frame unleashes unexpectedly powerful and fluid undercurrents. In a long, blue ruffled dress with a spume-like white ring near the bottom, this youthful earth mother-type actually embodied water.

She began her solo with the dress accidentally undone at the back, exposing soft flesh. It must be difficult to focus when you’re hoping your strap won’t fall and turn you into a flamenco Janet Jackson. But Molina kept going with admirable aplomb, drawing us in. Of the four elemental dancers, she revealed the greatest and subtlest expressive range. Her performance was streaked with waves of feeling and precise physical flourishes — the body caving in on itself, say, then twisting round.

It’s worth noting here that Molina and her ensemble are presenting a programme of flamenco improvisation in the Lilian Baylis Theatre, at the back of Sadler’s Wells tomorrow.

Thirty-year-old, shaggy-haired Carlos Rodríguez is one of the directors of Nuevo Ballet Español, a company that made an auspicious London debut last autumn. His ballet training showed in a breezy, fast-spun solo representing air. This was classicism flecked with sexual vanity.

The older generation was represented by Alejandro Granados (earth), puff-chested in a russet-toned suit, and Carmen Cortés (fire) in a costume of flaming fringe. He displayed neatly rhythmic footwork, while she sizzled, shook and stomped with more convincing force than shading.

Directed by Jacqulyn Buglisi, a former principal dancer of Martha Graham’s, the show featured seven musicians. The two harsh, strong male singers were poorly miked, but a superbly intricate, rippling solo from the guitarist Gerardo Núñez hit the right spot.

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Flamenco Festival London ends Jan 30