Flamenco Festival

Flamenco Republic

FLAMENCO REPUBLIC is a state of mind, an imaginary country ruled by the laws of flamenco. It represents our internal landscape, an intimate space for feelings and emotions. Seven powerful scenes visualize the sounds that at some stage of our recent history were most representative of Spanish culture, such as the interpretations “por seguiriyas” of Rosalía de Triana and Vallejo, whose voices recall the image of the legendary Niña de los Peines.

Opening to the sound of a heart beat, maybe the most primitive and genuine rhythm, FLAMENCO REPUBLIC takes us from happiness to sadness, through rigour, elegance, irony and even comedy in a full range of sharp contrasts… which is all flamenco is about.

Autorretrato

The Specialized Media Award for the Best Flamenco Show
Giraldillo 2008 Award for Best Show
(15th Flamenco Biennial, Seville 2008)
Awarded the Audience Prize for Best Show
(13th Jerez Festival, 2009)

In “Self-Portrait” we shall get to know the person and the artist at the peak of her creativity. María, just as she is, no more, no less:

Strong and gentle… Tragic and comical…
Evocative and provocative.
Great. Always moving.

“When Mikhail Baryshnikov invited me to dance in the Baryshnikov Art Centre (BAC), he asked me for a very personal performance, that would show me as a person as well as a dancer or a creator. I interpreted his wish as if it were my self-portrait that he was looking for and although what I then presented was limited by a small and intimate space, the idea of developing my self-portrait onstage encouraged me to create this performance. I felt the need to learn to know myself, more so at this present moment of my life; the need to stop and get closer to the mirror to be able to see clearly, to observe myself and to analyse myself thoroughly. Then I translated all of this into a movement, an atmosphere, a stage setting. What I tried to do was to follow the process that painters follow when they draw or paint their self-portrait.

The truth of the matter is that dance is the only medium that I have found to get to know myself, let us say that dance has been a part of me forever, that we have not abandoned each other, that we are one; in short, dancing is what best shows what I am.

I have learnt from this experience to look at myself in the mirror as if it were a game, never forgetting the words of wisdom found in “La Soleá”.

“The mirror at which you look
will tell you what you are,
but will never tell you
the thoughts that you have”

María Pagés

Sevilla

"Seville isn't just Seville. It isn't just the Giralda with its Giraldillo, or the resounding fountains built with art and perfection by Seville's craftsmen, the ancestors of my parents and my parents' parents. Seville isn't just the glistening rain in its alleyways or the dazzling sun blazing against its white walls; nor its royal gardens; nor moonlight shining upon the Oriental-style domes, nor the slippery wax on the sidewalks following the religious processions; nor the waterways, paths through olive groves and the sweltering land which has attracted poets, painters and musicians. Seville is much more. It is so much more. It's everything the earth needs to touch the sky. Seville is a mystery."

María Pagés