With a dual vocation for exhilarating performance and community outreach, Flamenco Vivo is the nation’s most accomplished flamenco and Spanish dance company. Founded in New York, it established a Durham branch in 1996 to serve the Triangle’s growing Latin-American community. Led by the redoubtable choreographer Carlota Santana, the company performs traditional flamenco alongside original work: an extravagant display of whirling garments, dramatic narratives, and expert live musicians that earns rave reviews wherever its feet stomp down. Santana “wants to bring the flamenco language into the mainstream of dance,” says the News & Observer. “With offerings like this, she is bound to succeed.”