A musical rhythm, accompanied by the pounding of 24 feet against a dance floor, fills the hallways of Robinson Center on the Kansas University campus.

Passers-by press their nose to the glass windows of the studio where the sound is coming from. The music and dance are in a style known as flamenco, characterized by an intense, fast pace and a passionate beat.

KU professor Michelle Heffner Hayes, whose doctoral dissertation was on flamenco, is working with 10 students in the University Dance Company and two professional artists who specialize in flamenco to set a series of dances for the company to perform in its April concerts.

Niurca Marquez and Jose Luis Rodriguez have choreographed and worked with Hayes before, in Miami, and have been in Lawrence since Feb. 10. Now an associate professor at KU, Hayes wanted to bring the pair of flamenco artists to KU and help show her students about that particular style of dance and music, which was created and nurtured in Spain.

“Flamenco is a conversation between the song, the guitar and the dancer. The guitar is the base, the dance lends illustration and the song is at the root of it all,” says Marquez, who lives in Miami.

Flamenco has its roots in Spain of the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s influenced by Jewish songs and Gregorian chants, as well as the strong Arabic culture that grew up in Spain when the Moors controlled the area, Marquez says.

Rodriguez, a flamenco guitarist who lives in Spain, and Marquez, return to their homes today, but in the past week they’ve spent almost every waking moment with students. Hayes joked that they’ve practically lived on campus.

The pair of artists, however, wanted it no other way.

“Flamenco is often approached like any other dance, like a technique,” Marquez says. “It needs the context.”

And the context, plus the music and moves, are exactly what the dancers are getting.

As they stood in two neat rows, mimicking Marquez’s every move, their instructor mixed in comments about what makes a particular move distinct: how the precise taps and crisp gestures make all the difference.

“Flamenco is a lot about your own personal dance spot,” Marquez says. “You have to take it into your own body.”

Liz Wagner, a KU junior from Lawrence, says she wanted to soak up all the artists’ knowledge.

“It’s so fresh and new,” she says. “It’s really exciting to experience a new culture.”

Marquez taught the dancers one set of three dances during her week in town. She insisted that the women were taking to it quickly.

“It’s been hard, but she’s been breaking it down,” says Meggi Sweeney, a senior from Carrollton, Mo.

When Marquez and Rodriguez leave, it’s up to Hayes to keep the dancers honing their routine and to make sure they’re ready for their performances in April.

“I’m the rehearsal mistress,” Hayes jokes. “She sets them, and I drill them.”

Marquez and Hayes also have been working together over the past year on a dance for Hayes to perform. It will debut at the April concert as well.

Flamenco has found a home in popular culture, though whether that home fits with the conventional notion of flamenco is widely debated.

“It’s very tricky when you start to delineate what is and what isn’t flamenco,” Rodriguez says as Marquez translates.