'Canciones para antes de una guerra'     

 

 

María Pagés is experiencing a period of reflection of which 'El bazar de las ideas. Canciones para antes de una guerra' ('The Bazaar of Ideas. Songs for Before a War') is the fruit. The Sevillian bailaora and choreographer, the winner of Spain's 2002 National Dance Prize, wants this new show "to call attention to values that are currently in need of attention". The company has taken this work as a test field for more ambitious productions which will come out in the next two seasons. The show premieres on December 13th and 14th at Torrelodones Theater (Madrid, Spain), where the company 'resides'.

Following the triumphant international tour with the triple bill consisting of 'La Tirana', 'Un perro andaluz' and 'Flamenco Republic', the María Pagés Company has stopped to think. Under the inscription 'El bazar de las ideas', the Sevillian bailaora has created 'Canciones para antes de una guerra'. The show's name is inspired in 'Canciones para después de una guerra' ('Songs for After a War'), a documentary film by Basilio Martín Patino which was censored by the Franco regime; but performed in a hopeful way. María Pagés comments that "instead of referring to the dramatic reconstruction of a country, we turn things around positively, and we stop and reflect on what's happening, on this convulsed moment, to give an optimistic outcome".

This work which appeals to values such as solidarity is presented as "a succession of songs" both from Spain's popular repertoire and from flamenco. The bailaora and choreographer explains that "we dance to songs, some are recognized and others aren't; and of course, flamenco, but updated since as there are other current phenomena to sing, the old lyrics sometimes lose the value they used to have".

 

 

 

 

 

María Pagés talks about 'Flamenco Republic'

 

 

'Flamenco Republic' is the complete opposite to the productions for which I am more famous like 'La Tirana' or 'El perro andaluz'. At the time of their creation they were novel works and they are now the ones for which I am most well-known. The reason was that they brought flamenco together with other arts and other types of music, ... If, at that time, what most interested me was looking further afield, looking at what surrounded us and looking at how I could be influenced by other arts and other music, 'Flamenco Republic' is the complete opposite - it is a look inside, an examination of what we have, and where we come from. I needed to satisfy the curiosity that I have always had about how one dances and how one sings. And to do that, I have been investigating the words, music and the cantes... I thought that if the cantes were done in another way, then surely the dances would be different. Or the other way round, the dance could influence the cante... Something that before no one had dared propose, because the cante always led the way. Now music is also starting to influence the way we interpret the rhythms through the dance. This type of investigation, this introspection, was what inspired at the time to create 'Flamenco Republic'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

María Pagés talks about 'La Tirana'

 

 

'La Tirana' was a way of bringing together painting and flamenco dance. I love Goya, and I wanted to link him in some way with flamenco. I think that Goya was a painter who, despite the fact that he wasn't Andalucian and didn't live in the flamenco era, showed many characteristics in his paintings that are linked with flamenco. The contrast, the black and white, the way he deals with colour... are all things that are very close to flamenco. Also, the way in which Goya was so popular but at the same time a painter for the royal family. In that sense it is similar to the way in which flamenco is popular and yet retains a special elegance... which makes it as exclusive at the same time as popular. I also think that Goya was revolutionary in his time in terms of the way he painted, in the same way as flamenco has always been, through its popular appeal, a way of being revolutionary or of protesting. It seems that flamenco can tell a story, just as Goya can illustrate the terrors of war through his art. And Goya can produce his Caprichos with an irony just as bitter as that of a bulería. I always see flamenco expressions in the faces that he painted. I felt that there was such a close relationship that I could not avoid creating something. I had to use the work of Goya as a pretext and it was a story based in the Museo del Prado in which the security guard, who is at the same time Goya, looks after his painting and the woman he loves. Goya and the things that I like were the reason for that work.

 

 

 

 

María Pagés talks about 'El perro andaluz'

 

 

I created 'El perro andaluz' at a time when I felt completely free, in terms of choice about what I could do... And by that I don't mean to say that I am not free now, but now I have responsibilities like "El perro andaluz' which has been awarded the National price for Choreography, and 'La Tirana', which has been touring successfully for three years, and that makes things difficult... Every time that I am about to produce something new all this weighs heavily on me. If I have had good reviews I want to keep on having them, I want to keep producing shows that will be successful. When it was conceived 'El perro andaluz' came at the perfect time for me to say that I liked Camarón but I also liked Tom Waits. An if I thought that Tom Waits seemed to be playing tangos in one of his songs and I was going to choreograph something for tangos, well... It was the ideal time because I was free, I had the liberty to do whatever I wanted.