Appearing in Australia for the first time in eight years, Noche Flamenca gives audiences a rare chance to experience the beauty and intensity of flamenco in its purest form.

The performance is incredibly earthy and spiritual, passionate and sensual. Consisting of equal parts guitar performance, dance and poetry (although unless you speak Spanish, the latter will be lost on you), the show kept the audience captivated for the entire two-hour performance.

Not only was headliner Soledad Barrio impressive, her male counterparts were equally powerful and entertaining in their individual styles.

Given that this particular performance was inspired by poetry and stories written by refugee children, I was disappointed there was not an English translation available. Artistic director Martin Santangelo has explained that Camino reflects the strength, hope and beauty that can arise from those who are faced by unfathomable hardship. It goes some way in understanding his description of flamenco as a "primal scream". Flamenco, he says, is "... an essential cry to express the joy, sorrow, comedy and tragedy of individuals and groups who are repressed by some form of limitation".

Widely considered one of the most important contemporary interpreters of flamenco, Soledad Barrio is a commanding presence on stage: a diminutive figure conjuring volcanic, chthonic drama to the percussive rhythm of guitars, the cantaor's melodic poetry, and the emboldening affirmations of her companions. It felt like being present for an archetypal quest, the mythic struggle for independent assertion of the heart and soul. And Barrio may have been destined for this task. Her first name, translated into English, means "solitude".