María Pagés unveils an enriched version of 'Flamenco Republic' in Madrid "without the pressure of a premiere"

The company will offer a double bill which will include a version of 'La Tirana'

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, April 29, 2002

María Pagés arrives in Madrid at the perfect time. 'Flamenco Republic' has been maturing for a year now, "everything has been taking shape, the staging has been coming together, the show comes with the backing of its success and without the pressure of a premiere". Performing has enriched the work because, as the Seville-born dancer explained at its presentation on April 29, 2002, "for a show to be alive it has to be open to development. If it is seen as a finished product it will begin to die". The problems come with the choice: "With the right choice, shows can improve and retain their life".

	María Pagés and Raúl Cárdenes (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

During these "two anxiously-awaited for weeks" between April 30 and May 12, the company will present a double bill at Madrid's Teatro Albéniz. The first part is a version of La Tirana, the show that the company included in its repertoire after its premiere at the Seville Biennial Flamenco festival in 1998. Bringing the show once again to the Spanish capital - where it was performed some time back during the dance festival -responds to the demands of a show that, in the opinion of the dancer and choreographer, "marks the start of a second phase for the company. A phase in which we have worked at a frenetic rhythm for four years and with which we feel very satisfied".

After the first part in which María Pagés explains the links between flamenco and Goya's painting, the company declares its 'Flamenco Republic'. The artist considers that this show is "the complete opposite of her previous works, ín which she places flamenco with other arts that we experience every day". Pagés explains that the show emerged from the conviction that within flamenco there is still a lot to discover and investigate". And to illustrate she uses an interesting example: "We begin with the beat of the heart which has a beat just like the rhythm of the soleá... flamenco comes from the most basic elements of the human being". If one of the aims of this work is to demonstrate this origin, another is "to take away some of the more serious elements that flamenco represents, because as an expression of the emotions of a people the whole range of emotions should be dealt with, not just the famous tragedies but also the sensual and the comic". So if the show begins with the beat of a heart, it finishes "with us really laughing and enjoying ourselves while we dance".

From the technical perspective, "the way in which the choreography of 'Flamenco Republic' has developed is a continuation of previous works", although it is "quite simple in terms of staging". In fact the work begins "where El Perro Andaluz left off"- the show created for Compañía Andaluza de Danza and for which María Pagés received the National Choreography Prize in 1996. In this way the dancer believes that "we are following the same path but with a different staging and another way of dealing with the music". In 'Flamenco Republic' she no longer relies on Tom Waits and Schubert, but instead explores the old cante and contrasts it with the present day cante: "We use recordings from the 1920s of old singers like Manuel Vallejo and it is nice to see that when his voice finishes it if followed by our singer, Ana Ramón".

María Pagés presents Flamenco Republic
at Teatro Albéniz (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

A flamenco 'West Side Story'

This submersion in flamenco doesn't mean, however, that she has ignored other influences that have been such a famous part of the María Pagés' style: "I don't like changing course completely because everything that influences me has a part to play. It would be dishonest not to let myself be influenced by Tom Waits for example". Proof of her continued creativity is that she is still working on the idea of doing a flamenco version of West Side Story: "We are still working on it with some video tests, because the project is to produce an audio-visual work for both the cinema and theatre". And as a final note she adds, "there are millions of ideas, the difficult thing is to select the right ones".