MADRID—The curtain opened on a darkened stage where three musicians gently strummed their guitars. A wide-brimmed straw hat trimmed with a black band hung from the back of a wooden chair, and flamenco shoes and a violin lay on the floor nearby.

Ten stately dancers — five men wearing black pants, vests, and white shirts, and five women in silky white dresses — slowly made their entrances, greeting one another before adjusting their costumes. One woman, however, especially caught the eye: Sara Baras, the star and choreographer of the new hit show “Sabores” (“Flavors”).

No flamenco dancer in Spain today commands more love and respect than Ms. Baras, a dark-haired beauty with delicate features. Ms. Baras’s popularity with flamenco fans is matched only by that of another flamenco star, the glamorous singer Estrella Morente. Beginning Saturday, both women, who hail from flamenco’s heartland of Andalusia, will perform in New York as part of Flamenco Festival USA. Ms. Morente, 26, will make her American debut at Town Hall on February 3, and Sara Baras Ballet Flamenco will perform “Sabores,” a suite of traditional dances, at City Center on February 17 and 18.

At the time of Ms. Baras’s performance in mid-December at the Teatro Nuevo Apolo, “Sabores” was in the third and final month of its almostsold out engagement. As the rhythm of the guitars picked up, Ms. Baras’s hands appeared in a pool of light, making graceful arabesques to the music. She stepped to the edge of the stage twisting into a backward turn and whipping her skirt around her feet. Now fully in the spotlight, she came to a sudden stop and stamped a fiery staccato. The crowd roared its approval. She smiled, glowing in the warmth of the response.

Ms. Baras had been winning this kind of response for months. “Sabores” opened in Paris in January 2006, and then toured Europe, Russia, South America, and several other Spanish cities. Since establishing her company in 1997, she has choreographed a number of shows, some abstract such as “Sabores,” and others, historical dramas. She presented “Mariana Pineda,” based on the story of a political martyr during Napoleon’s occupation of Spain, at Flamenco Festival USA in 2003 in New York.

The same week of Ms. Baras’s performance, Ms. Morente also caused a sensation when she sang at the 16th-century church of San Esteban in the nearby working-class town of Fuenlabrada. Rarely do flamenco singers perform in churches, but Ms. Morente chose to give a concert here because she had heard her father sing in the same church 16 years earlier. This evening, the entire population of the town appeared squeezed into the pews and aisles, while an even larger group of people stood outside in the damp night unable to find seats inside and hoping to hear a few notes.

Like Ms. Baras, Ms. Morente began her training as a child. Daughter of the famous singer and composer Enrique Morente and the gypsy flamenco dancer Aurora Carbonell, she now lives in Malaga, Spain, with her bullfighter husband, Javier Conde, and their two children. From her first concerts, she has often brought listeners to tears with the expressiveness of her cante jondo (deep singing). American audiences may recognize Ms. Morente’s sound from the film “Volver,” in which director Pedro Almodóvar used her voice for the song sung by Penelope Cruz. She released her third recording, “Mujeres,” last spring, dedicating it to women singers, among them Nina Simone.

In the church, Ms. Morente walked to the center of the sanctuary, kneeling to the cross, before taking her place in front of the altar. The stained glass windows soared to the ceiling, which was decorated with frolicking cherubs. She wore a gold vest under a black jacket and a long black skirt, and clasped a lacy black-and-white fan in her hand. Three singers standing to the side began the traditional clapping that signals the start of a performance. She chose a tender lament that described the loss of a child, singing every word as if it had been her own.

Over the next hour, Ms. Morente demonstrated her range, alternating sorrowful and passionate songs, her voice easily moving from lyrical to raw. For one, she used her shawl like a bullfighter’s cape, dancing as she sang, a skill learned from her mother. As the concert came to a close, she drew the other singers and musicians into a circle around her. Heads bowed, they sang an almost unbearably soulful song.

After seeing Ms. Baras and Ms. Morente perform, one might assume from their beauty and dramatic onstage personas that they would comport themselves like divas. But the opposite is true, and it is why the public has embraced them. Ms. Baras gained an unusually diverse audience by modeling for fashion designers and appearing in a Cartier catalog, as well as hosting a popular television show on flamenco.

In her dressing room a couple of hours before another performance, Ms. Baras, wearing jeans, a black sweater, and a purple scarf tied around her neck, relaxed with her sister, Patricia, who is her personal assistant, and her brother and manager, José Luis, and sipped from bottles of water and ate pears. She had slept late and then attended a two-hour English class before coming to the theater.

“I choreographed ‘Sabores,'” Ms. Baras said, “because I wanted to give people little tastes of different aspects of flamenco, some rather unknown. We’ve all seen the standard styles. I let my dancers vary them according to their likes and strengths. We worked for two months to put this show together.”

Ms. Baras gave an incredible 185 performances last year. “I don’t mind,” she said. “This is my life. I feel confident and free now, after so many years as a performer. Flamenco never gets old because it comes from the heart and from the people. There’s always that directness and honesty, and the richness of the rhythms. Now I just immerse myself in them and have a wonderful time.”

A few days later, Ms. Morente, chic in a large floppy hat, attracted an excited crowd when she arrived arm in arm with her handsome husband at a hotel once famed for its clientele of illustrious bullfighters. While she grew up with a famous father, she never received special attention or consideration. “He wouldn’t let me make public performances until I was fully ready,” she said. “He taught me utter respect for the music. But I was never shielded from the world. I was allowed to be completely free. It’s crucial to be free if you’re going to sing flamenco.”

As she entered the hotel, she expressed her surprise at the reception. “I’m still not accustomed to this,” she said, as she took a seat in the lobby lounge.

Given her and Ms. Baras’s upcoming appearances in New York, perhaps she should be.