María Pagés. News: Archivos Tour 2010

The Force of a Woman
Flamenco: The Maria Pagés Company received with enthusiasm at the Cologne Opera House.
By Marianne Kolarik

The Force of a Woman

She is seductive, ironic, amusing, all in one: Maria Pagés, the Flamenco dancer, reveals her different facets to us in "Self Portait" ("Autorretrato").
The Maria Pagés Company has been touring for more than twenty years, and has always been considered one of the best in its field.
SELF-PORTRAIT, presented in the Cologne Opera House, was born of an initiative taken by Mikhail Baryshnikov, the well known choreographer. It is a performance - combining dance with theatre - that the dancer from Seville has written on her own flexible body. Together with her eight dancers and six musicians, she displays with each movement the force of a woman who has gone through ups and downs, to become, finally, the Lightness of Being.

We are all aware of the fact that this is to do with granting a name and surname to Flamenco, already a World Heritage in it's own right.

However, it is true that it's one thing to be aware of this and another that it should be recognized and thus proclaimed to the World.

Many people I know, from many different origins and nationalities, have gone overboard celebrating this news with great enthusiasm (it's as if we'd just won another World Cup...)

I do not know whether our past Masters in Flamenco were ever asked about this question that has been such a subject of debate over these last 5 years. I imagine not and no need for it anyway. This recognition is dedicated to them, to those that made Flamenco exist and be possible today.

María Pagés                                                           

Bogotá November 17th, 2010.

The María Pagés Company is performing in Bogotá on the 18th, 10th, 20th and 21st November, in the Julio Mario Santo Domingo Theater, in Bogotá (Columbia).

 LA VANGUARDIA | RAMÓN RODÓ SELLÉS  - 04/09/2010

 Baryshnikov commissioned a show by Maria - for his Art Center in New York - in which she should define herself as a person, and in 2008 María created a performance that took the form of a worthwhile personal introspection. She called it "Autorretrato" ("Self-portrait"). When I hear the word self-portrait, my mind is filled with the expressive image of a Van Gogh on a flat and static canvas. In this multi-dimensional self-portrait, Maria Pagés captures the innermost essence of her artist's soul, delivering her dance with no easy concessions and we are offered a show of the sensations, life experience and truths to be found within this once-in-a-lifetime dancer.

The mirror that reflects you will tell you what you are... With these words begins a performance that lasts nearly an hour and a half, during which we can enjoy the beauty of: an intimate, vital and expressive dance, danced in absolute silence, only broken by Saramago's voice reciting the poem "Ergo uma rosa"; another solo danced to the sound of a violin playing in the background, in the presence of a mirror; the scene in which the paintings bring her back to family memories... One gets the impression that each Flamenco movement that is interpreted, even the lighter ones, is squeezed out to the last drop by her artistic talent, and the music slowly dying into a sublime essence... Not only do we find beauty in the sensitivity or the sentimental, there is also beauty in happiness; Maria revs herself up with some "tanguillos" (Little Tangos") from Cádiz, dancing and - singing! - about those typical incidents undergone when on tour; her dance in the "bulerías" mode, in her first and intensely Flamenco appearance onstage; and unforgettable her spectacular dance in the "alegrías" mode, where she makes a huge and heavy shawl whirl with great artistic grace.

The members of the Maria Pagés Company are all undeniably qualified, this was made evident in the "Farruca" , the Tangos and in all their contributions to the performance, very good voices and perfect musicians. The success of "Autorretrato" in it's Barcelona premiere was foreseeable.