The melody thus flows freely, unconstructed by metre, so singers can shorten or lengthen musical phrases at will, as long as they respect the basic melodic line of the style they are singing.
The meaning of this expression should not be confused with concepts like rubato or ad libitum which usually refer to a relative freedom of the musician in following the time signature.
Guitar written scores for toques libres do not include any time signature for the totally free sections.
However, from the 1960s there was a tendency to create choreographies for them, as they provide an opportunity for the dancer to show other aspects of flamenco dance, like braceo (movement of the arms).
BLAS VEGA, José (compiler) Magna antología del cante flamenco, CD edition, 1982, Vols.