Juan Siddi has assembled a winning group of musicians and mistresses of movement for his troupe’s second season in the intimate Maria Benitez Theatre at The Lodge at Santa Fe. Tuesday evenings performance, the opening salvo in an 11-week run, was cleanly organized, insightfully choreographed, and delightfully danced, with excellent support from the collaborating musicians. The happy audience acknowledged the performers’ delirious mix of passion and heart with regular bravos, more than a few oles, and a standing ovation or two, which were for once fully deserved.

Ecstatic isn’t a bad term for what was going on onstage (and reciprocally in the audience). The five company dancers are young but solid in technique, showed plenty of energy, and seemed to be having a good time as well. Even when serious of mien, they communicated excitement and pleasure in their work-- and, I suspect, in their gorgeous shawls and costumes, including some made from colorful Spanish print fabrics covered with lunares-- polka dots, to the uninitiated.

Guest artist Carola Zertuche, from Theatre Flamenco in San Francisco, has the profile of a proud falcon, burning eyes, and concentration so vivid you can almost feel it. Her solos, and her duet interactions with Siddi, offered a mix of flirtation, challenge, and authority. She was imperially grand in two solos choreographed for a dancer wearing the ruffled, long-trained dress called bata de cola.

Siddi himself is an intense, slender, and smoldering force of nature-- a two-legged centaur, if such a thing might be. He is clearly in deep touch with both his animal instincts and his artist’s discipline, and they united in a wonderful blend of energy and inspiration. His big solo number culminated in one of his most famous steps-- a zapateado stamping of great volume and unbelievable speed, and yet with a barely discernible movement of heels and toes. Eventually it reached an almost unbearable pitch of excitement, at which point Siddi suddenly began moving around the stage, his feet a blur, as if levitating while still being in touch with the floor. And let me assure you, the audience wasn’t sitting on its hands when that happened.

The musicians were on equal plane with the dancers: stunningly good. They are the fleet-fingered and heartfelt guitarists Jose Luis Valle Fajardo, known as “Chuscales,” and Ricardo Anglada; singer and percussionist Francisco Javier Orozco “El Yiyi” Fernandez; and the powerful vocalist Vicente Griego.