Tonight I saw the best flamenco dance ever... well, the star of the night was the lead dancer, Sarah Baras. Flamenco, when done well, is typically breathtaking. But Sarah was so mesmerising that she was, quite literally, heart-stopping. It beat description and beat commonsense - the feet are so far away from the head, but how can she control her feet with such minute precision? The answer is obvious: Her feet are much closer to her heart and when she dances, she becomes the rhythm and her feet, and her hands of course (which are quiet, therefore noticed less), are the mere externalisations of that tempo. As her hands wove an intricate pattern of lines and curves and thrusts and caresses in the air, in the spatial dimension, her other extremities tapped and thundered alternately on the hard floor, in the temporal dimension. It was a total and complete expression and, for the audience, a thoroughly absorbing and stirring experience.

When the show began, the curtain was raised. The musicians emerged from darkness and the two singers starting clapping, to beat time, as they would normally do. I guess people in the back rows didn't quite see that. They heard the clapping and thought - right, this must be the first round of welcome applause. They started clapping. When they started clapping, the rest of the audience felt compelled to join in.

The effect was good, though, and I think the performers found it heartening.