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.

Tour

February 11th.  Autorretrato
Lisner Auditorium
Washington (EE UU)

February 13th.-14th   Autorretrato
City Center
New York (EE UU)

February 16th.  Flamenco Republic
Orpheum Theater
Vancouver (CANADÁ)

February 18th.-19th.  Flamenco Republic 
Arsh Center
Miami (EE UU)  

Maria Pagés

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.

Maria Pagés fills the stage on her own, even when it is a big stage, as in the Mella Theatre. We have seen her dancing a deeply rooted Flamenco, powerful, yet fresh. She is tall and beautiful, enthralling, emanating a ready sense of humour. She faces the audience straight on, translucent, with confidence, as if we had known her forever. She gives herself up to her public, dances as if her life depended on her dance; but there is no tragedy in this: Maria Pagés' dance is about the joy of Life, the good fortune of being able to feel, to enjoy, to love... Maria Pagés dances Flamenco as if she were born to this dance.

The Cervantes Institute opens their largest headquarters in the capital of Japan.
The King and Queen of Spain officially opened the Cervantes Institute in Tokyo, the largest temple of the Spanish language abroad. When night fell, MariaPagés and her passionate dance conquered the hearts of the Emperors, Ahihito and Michiko, and those of the businessmen, artists, civil servants, politicians and bankers who had been invited by King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia to a succulent dinner served by Joseph Barahona.

Havana, 30th Oct (PL). She stepped into the dusk of the stage in Havana like a shadow, and the light first was drawn to her upraised arms and then in a fine line, broken at times, to her Flamenco dancer silhouette.
"Ergo unarosa e tudo se ilumina"(It is a rose and all lights up... it is a rose, a body and a destiny). The written word and dance, united in the same poetical stream. Flamenco set loose in the fiery blood of the dancer.
Seville in Havana; Art erases frontiers. That Seville that Maria Pagés left over 15 years ago and to which she is forever returning, in each and every instant of her dancing, no matter where she may be in the world.

The award is granted by the specialized press attending the Biennial (which has just finalised) within the 1st edition of the "Mario Maya" Media Prizes - named so as a tribute to the late dancer.

Real artists are those strange beings that shake at the idea of going on stage, but in the end can't live without it. An artist whose Art is dancing suffers in this same way, but what makes it even worse is that they have to use their bodies to express what others do with words or music.
One day María Pagés found herself with one of the great dance myths, Mijail Baryshnikov, who asked her to create an intimate performance in which she should paint her own portrait, expressing herself just ass she feels she is - in this way, after giving it much thought, "Selfportrait" was born; last night was the début of the show in Spain, in the Teatro de la Maestranza (Seville).

Pagés's work, up till now, has made us used to the use of stage design, luminosity and elements such as paintings or videos as being important parts of each performance, but the simplicity of "Selfportrait" will surprise us. Like a minimalist painter, Maria Pagés has eliminated from the stage any element that she feels could disturb this intimate story she is telling us, her dance is telling us the story of the state of her soul.

As in poetry, there are some times when what is most intimate, most personal, can also be what is most universal. This is what happened last night in the Teatro Maestranza, Seville. We were expecting a one to one experience with María Pagés and this is what we got, but the experience was bountiful, full of nostalgia, music, poems..... a performance of great beauty, a pleasure for our senses and our hearts.

There are always moments in life - especially those that end certain periods of time - in which one should be selfish and do something for oneself. This moment came for María Pagés - always so busy with her dance company, her beautiful stage designs, her ideas for choreographies - when the mythical Mijail Baryshnikov, none other, invited her to his New York Dance Centre, inviting her to simply create something personal.

The title says it all.  Her excellence in delivery and expression defies further superlatives. Maria Pagés's new creation is deep and deliberate, an introspection and inward voyage where she harvests the fruits of a bountiful career filled with stellar moments. Her Self-Portrait is in part a look at these performances while showing us the dancer from all angles, a long sequence of images in motion. When it is the moment for a "soleá" or a "tiento" we see the contained scholar dancing with a half moon stage drop behind her. The scholarly dancer in Maria is also apparent in her seemingly simple but effective choreographies, which develop with astonishing fluidity, as well as in her constant search for new forms of expression and display.

The best show of flamenco dance in the past years has finally reached our city. After receiving applause half the world over, Sevilla has made the audience of our Liceu vibrate.
María Pagés is a brilliant dancer: her corporal expression is unique; her arm movements are magnificent; her heel tapping is perfect and her sense of timing and her awareness of stage space are unbeatable. But all of this is cannot compare to her soul of an artist, her sensitivity and her expressivity. María has also managed to show us that she knows what she should reveal to her audience, giving them her full potentiality and showing her good taste in choreography, as well as daring with modernity, geniality and tradition.

María Pagés knows what she wants and knows how to get it. After Flamenco Republic in the Teatre Novedades, she wanted a grand stage for a grand show. The only possible choice of stage to present Sevilla, a first class show, was the irreplaceable Teatre Liceu. María Pagés is a great artist. But her greatness is not only in her physical size, but in her extraordinary capacity of knowing how to bring together the most ancestral flamenco and the expression of contemporary dance.

Montse G.Otzet
04/08/2008 EL PERIODICO -Barcelona