María Pagés - I'm what I dance

El Correo de Andalucía, Manuel Bohórquez, Sevilla   30-6-2010 

María Pagés has been for many years the great flamenco dance choreographer, that is, the great creator.
Mirada, the performance - hallmarked by Maria Pagés - that we enjoyed in the Maestranza  last night, ended with the audience brought to their feet.  (....) in this performance, once again, the dancer shows her great artistic sensitivity, that she uses to create dance in perfect harmony with the music, the lighting, the costumes, the almost mathematical use of stage space, the skill used to move the corps de ballet, as if she were building a work of architecture in movement.

DIARIO NACIÓN - Costa Rica. 28/3/2010

Maria Pagés, a dancer who has become a maximum authority in the "Republic of Flamenco", conquered the audience that attended her show at the National Theater on Saturday, with her energetic turns, the intensity of her footwork and her passion for Flamenco.
An audience brought to their feet, many "bravo Pagés" and an over twenty minute ovation left not a shadow of doubt: Maria Pagés and her company's production, "Flamenco Republic" (participating in the 2010 International Arts Festival) was a thrilling performance.

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.