Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church has a solid stone foundation and a philosophy of spiritually diverse activism. Even so, it is a surprise to be buffeted by a flamenco dance party upon entering the vestibule.

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Rehearsing Quantum Theatre's "The Red Shoes" at Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church are, from left: Andy Place, Alexi Morrissey, Erika Cuenca, Jennifer Tober (behind Cuenca), Carolina Loyola-Garcia, guitarist John Marcinizyn and percussionist Lucas Savage. Click photo for larger image. 'The Red Shoes' Where: Quantum Theatre at Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church, 1110 Resaca Place at West North Avenue, Mexican War Streets. When: Through March 4. Tickets: $15-27; call 412-394-3353 or visit www.proartstickets.org. More info: In conjunction with the theatrical production, Pittsburgh Filmmakers will present the movie "The Red Shoes" at the Melwood Screening Room Feb. 25-28. Call 412-681-5449 or go online at www.pghfilmmakers.org.

Quantum Theatre artistic director/writer/designated cheerleader Karla Boos is working her way between the pews while the cast is working up a considerable sweat. "Make me feel like a butterfly!" she cries out. "Or a hummingbird!"

They seem to be pummeling the pulpit, although, as it turns out, the raised platform is part of the set, designed to look as if it's been there for years. "Tony Ferrari's sets either look beautiful or people think that we didn't do anything at all -- that's his genius," Boos later explains.

Light is streaming in through the stained glass windows alongside light streaming from the metal poles, all worked by Scott Nelson and his crew that has set up shop in the vestibule.

Amid all fuss, there they are -- the red shoes -- on the feet of Pittsburgh flamenco artist Carolina Loyola-Garcia. The shoes have been both the focus of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale and a surreal 1948 ballet movie that still has a cult following.

Now Boos is taking a turn at Andersen's story of a young girl, Karen, who is transformed by a pair of shoes that seem to have the will to move all on their own.

Actually the church, the dance and the theater seem to make a good fit, regardless of what you may have seen in the movie "Footloose" or read about the real deal, the first dance ever held last December at John Brown University, a small nondenominational Christian college in Arkansas.

They all revolve around a certain passion, an inner spiritual drive that moves people.

"My play is about a community that is very religious and has very strict rules, which I assume is the 19th-century circumstances of Hans Christian Andersen," Boos begins. "He seems to be pretty serious in his caution against the sin of vanity. I make a connection between vanity, as he seems to define it, with the expression of an artist because he chose artistic expression as the thing that defines vanity."

Soon she found herself moving on to a theatrical debate about "the validity of a religious community suppressing the little girl -- gently and with humor."

Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Quantum's Karla Boos -- Hans Christian Andersen meets flamenco. Click photo for larger image.

Boos found another connection in Spain last year. There she saw the real flamenco, not "the highly produced" theatrical version, but "the real dirty in the bar at one in the morning" kind. "It seemed so deeply felt and irrepressible," notes Boos.

She had known Loyola-Garcia, a professor of media arts at Robert Morris University, and independent video artist and the director of Centro Flamenco, for a long time. "I knew she had this passion that was rooted in her heritage," Boos says. "No matter what else in her life -- her life as an artist, her life as a mother -- she carried on this flamenco."

It turned out that Loyola-Garcia had more to offer than just a couple of fast feet. Boos is giving her co-creating credit for the production. The dancer quickly immersed Boos in a historical overview explaining flamenco roots, how it was the communication of a repressed people, much like jazz or tap dancing in America.

"I love that what is a measure of [flamenco's] quality is how deeply felt it is," says Boos. She found that there are rhythms for everything in life, as Loyola-Garcia explained, including harvesting crops, parties, lullabies and people in jail.

Working with guitarist John Marcinizyn and percussionist Lucas Savage, Loyola-Garcia introduced a variety of moods through the rhythms, which will include everything from the 12-beat count of Alegria and Buleria to the gypsy flavor of tangos.

What they really shared was the feeling or atmosphere that the two women wanted to produce. "We wanted to embody this idea of what is honest and what is passionate and what is free," says Loyola-Garcia.

So together they took this flamenco fable to a higher ground -- in more ways than one.