María Pagés. News: Archivos Prensa

FINANCIAL TIMES/ 24/2/2010 /Por Clement Crisp

María Pagés then took over the stage on Monday night in irresistible fashion. The programme identified the event as a "self-portrait" and went into unlikely detail. Happily, what we saw was an archetypal flamenco show in which The Star (and Pagés is certainly that) unleashes her artistry to musicians, singers and attendant dancers, and to us. The surrounding forces were eagerly responsive to her presence; design was minimal (for which, again, hurrahs), and Pagés, when roused, is absolutely tremendous.

She is an imposing presence with serpentine arms, the dance surging through the strong outlines of her torso. She has beautiful costumes. She also has, when flamenco griefs and scheduled moping are set aside, a delightful sense of humour. When the dance seizes her, as it ultimately must with any flamenco divinity, she lets it take its irresistible course, driving her ever onward and touching our souls. And she makes castanets talk. The men in her company are especially jolly, and Pagés, amid the whirling of a vast shawl, is a tempest incarnate, and glorious.

EL MUNDO Monday 23/03/2009
Maria Pagés stands in front of the mirror. In the shadows and the light. The "bailaora" (Flamenco dancer) comes back to Madrid with her "Self Portrait", an intimate and emotional journey to her innermost being. With some touches of humour and a lot of poetry. "This performance flowed out of me in that moment one takes to look within oneself, that moment when one asks oneself who one is, where one is and where one is going".

05.03.2009 DIARIO DE CADIZ.By Francisco Sánchez Múgica.

After a fade to black, Maria rises up towards the sky just as a rose does, or as a bird of prey with it's endless wings and a distant look in it's eyes, trying to understand the reason for being here and to discern which direction to take. Maria delves into the light and shadows of her past. She is multi-faceted and shakes up her inner core, turning her "Self Portrait" - which fascinated the audience in Villamarta last night - into an artistic prodigy of dazzling genius, with different moments of almost unbearable convulsion. The subtlety of her latest creation hurts and tears us apart, shaking our emotions and disturbing our hearts. She plays with the emptiness of the space created by Brook, yet emphasises the sacredness of Dance (in all it's forms and meanings) and of Flamenco. She uses just the elements needed to knit an inner microcosm of shadows, leaving little space around it for any element of concession to the audience at large, only granting it to them at the end of her performance. This is Pagés by Pagés.