Flamenco

The best praise is reserved for music that calls to our best selves, that connotes a touch of grandeur or conveys an intimation of nobility. Pianist Don Pullen delivers this exalted vibe on his aptly named Ode to Life ( ), his second Blue Note release investigating the African- Brazilian connection. Pullen began in this vein in 1990 during a two-week stay at the Yellow Springs Institute in Chester County, and the first fruit of his experience came last year with the release of the well-regarded Kele Mou Bana.

Sunday Matter of conscience In John Patrick Shanley's layered and engrossing 2004 drama, Doubt , a nun at a Bronx Catholic school in the 1960s becomes suspicious of a parish priest's attention to a troubled altar boy. Is she right to be mistrustful or are her perceptions the result of the threat to her own rigid beliefs by the progressive pastor? The Tony Award-winning play goes on at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m Sunday at the Walnut Street Theatre's Independence Studio on 3, 825 Walnut St., and continues with shows at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 2:30 and 7:30 p.m Saturday and next Sunday.

The holidays are long past and you've entered full winter slump. The sofa by the fireplace is starting to seem pretty cozy, and who cares if you don't move for the next few weeks? Ah, but there are at least two more months of chilly weather, and bike riding on the ice just doesn't cut it. Bathing-suit season looms large - and unless you are graced with an overactive metabolism, you can't just eat all you want and not have it show. Even if you could, it wouldn't do much for your health.

As a longtime flamenco aficionada, I practically wept with joy when I heard about the forthcoming First Philadelphia Flamenco Festival, a two-week-long orgy of flamenco performances, classes, discussions, and films that begins Monday and runs through April 1. To be fair, this won't actually be Philadelphia's first such festival; alert readers may recall the Ferias de Sevilla en Filadelfia (springtime Seville-style fairs) held some years ago at International House, that also included flamenco performances, classes - plus Spanish food.

Flamenco: It isn't just for aficionados anymore. We've come a long way from mistaking the word for the name of a pink bird or from baby-boomer memories of Jos? Greco on The Ed Sullivan Show. In Spain, of course, flamenco festivals, competitions and celebrations have been around for decades; Madrid's prominent daily newspaper El Pa?s employs a full-time flamenco critic, and international flamenco Web sites are so jammed with information that it's difficult to keep up with them.

Flamenco Ole's performance at the Movement Theatre International Saturday night emitted a fiery energy. Graceful hand gestures and staccato foot stomps make flamenco a uniquely subtle and symbolic style of dance. Add a guitarist - playing sounds from gently lyrical to full-throttle strum - to accompany and punctuate these movements. On Saturday, a hand drummer provided extra accents. A male singer's plaintive vocals embodied the soulfulness of a cantorial chant joined with the theatrical passion of an operatic aria.

Here's what you have to do between now and next Wednesday: Forget the NFL referees' strike, and stop fantasizing about the fall television season. Instead, go see Noche Flamenca at least two or three times. Seriously. It's that good. This eight-member troupe, which has played to sold-out houses the world over (including the Wilma Theater in January and June 1999), is back in town for a series of shows at International House. If you care anything at all about flamenco, you should not miss this opportunity to see some of the best dancers, singers and guitar players in Southeastern Pennsylvania, their home city of Madrid, or anyplace else.

The flamenco group that danced at MTI Tabernacle Theater last night proved that you don't have to brood on a grand scale or burn holes in the floor with tempestuous stamping to call yourself a flamenco dancer. The special pleasure of this group, which is led by the dancer Julia Lopez and the guitarist Carlos Rubio, is its avoidance of the stereotypic. Although the program is called Flamenco Ole!, the dancers go blessedly easy on the "ole" factor. The sheer delight of dancing is what counts here.

The man who many believe is the main reason for the 76ers' disastrous season appears to be taking things in rhythmic stride. Weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on both knees, Andrew Bynum can be seen treading lightly through the vigorous Gypsy dance in a 41-second video clip Cafe de Chinitas in Madrid, Spain, posted Monday on its Facebook page. Judging by his moves, the Sixers center appears to be recovering well from surgery. There's no harm in dancing on vacation.

With the aid of film, lighting, fabric and their bodies, Kathy Rose and partner Luis Montero presented a miniature theater of marvels over the weekend at the University of the Arts' Drake Theater. Because few contemporary choreographers mix media as passionately and to the same ends as does Rose, the creative force behind the program, it might be useful to describe her work in terms of a more famous choreographer. Think of Alwin Nikolais, and the magical abstract pictures he makes with costumes and lighting, and you get some idea of what Rose is up to. A better but more esoteric comparison would be a cluster of Soviet and German visual artists in the 1920s and 1930s, who used fabulous geometrical costumes as a way of transforming their bodies into animated abstract paintings.