 Wit
is not what is expected from flamenco. But María Pagés
is not interested in the expected.
Her troupe, Compañía
María Pagés, whose groundbreaking transformation of
flamenco into a contemporary dance form was acknowledged with the
2002 National Dance Award (Spain’s highest honor in the field),
will make its Joyce Theater debut, February 24–29. Featuring
Pagés’s surprising “El perro andaluz. Burlerías”
and her more traditional “Flamenco Republic,” the program
will be performed by the Company’s 14 dancers and musicians.
Suggesting Luis Buñuel and
Salvador Dalí’s 1929 film classic, “Un chien
andalou” (The Andalusian Dog, whose title teasingly refers
to their Andalusian–born friend Federico García Lorca),
Pagés’s “El perro andaluz. Burlerías”
shares the film’s ironic undercurrent and playful wit. “Burlerías”
punfully refers to both burlerías, a flamenco form, and burlería,
a kind of trick or illusion, not unlike the surrealists’ sly
twists of reality. By setting traditional flamenco dancing against
music such as the tangos embedded in several Tom Waits songs, as
well as works by Manuel Soler, Isabel Granda, Astor Piazzolla and
Peter Gabriel, Pagés creates a surreal wit evolving from
the juxtaposition of unexpected realities. The dance won the 1996
National Prize for Choreography, marking the first time a flamenco
work received this honor.
In “Flamenco Republic,”
a more introspective work than “El perro andaluz. Burlerías,”
Pagés reverses the choreographic process by exploring the
potential influence of dance on the cante rather than the music
on the movement. Although Pagés is well-known for dances
that demonstrate how traditional national forms could incorporate
outside cultural influences, “Flamenco Republic” is
pure flamenco, blazing with its fiery passion and poetic resonance.
The 50-minute work is performed to live and recorded traditional
music by Paco Arriaga, Manuel Soler and Pagés.
Born in Seville, María Pagés
began dancing at the age of four. When she was 15 years old, she
was invited to join the school of the National Ballet of Spain in
Madrid, where she graduated with honors in Spanish dance. Her teachers
have included many of the great 20th-century masters: Manolo Marín,
Matilde Coral, El Guito and Manolete. As a principal dancer with
the Antonio Gades Company, Mario Maya Company and the Rafael Aguilar
Company, Pagés’s name became synonymous with flamenco
in many parts of the world.
Pagés began to choreograph
in the late 1980s and founded Compañía María
Pagés in 1990. Since then, the Company has performed in Europe,
North America and Japan. Her early choreographic works “Sol
y Sombra” (1990) and “Tango” (1992) established
Pagés and her Company in the flamenco community; however,
it was the premiere of “De la Luna al Viento” at the
Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla that was unanimously hailed as
a milestone in contemporary flamenco development, placing Pagés
at the forefront of the dance form. In 1995, the first Berlin Flamenco
Festival was dedicated to her.
In 1996 the Centro Andaluz de Danza
in Seville commissioned her to create “El perro andaluz. Burlerías,”
which received that year’s Spanish
Choreographic Award for outstanding achievement.
In 1999, the Company began a residency
in Torrelodones, which has since become its home. Later that year
the Hispanic Heritage Awards invited Compañía María
Pagés to perform at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.
In addition to heading her company, she maintains a solo performance
career. She was a featured artist in the international tour of Bill
Whelan’s “Riverdance,” and has appeared on screen
in the Carlos Saura’s films Carmen, El amor Brujo and Flamenco,
as well as in José M. Sánchez’s La Bella Otero,
Hemingway, Fiesta y Muerte and Coccodrilli.
Prior to its Joyce season, Compañía
María Pagés will perform at Sadler’s Wells,
London, February 10–14. After The Joyce performances, the
Company will be seen at the Teatro Olimpico in Rome, Italy (March
9–20); as well as in Cuenca, Mexico (March 26–April
3); Taipei, Taiwan (April 12); Barna, Netherlands (April 20–May
4); and Tokyo, Japan (May 22–23). The Company will also have
a seven-week tour throughout Australia and New Zealand, beginning
this June.
The evening curtain for Compañía
María Pagés’s Joyce Theater season, Tuesday
through Saturday, is at 8pm; the Sunday evening curtain is at 7:30pm.
There will also be 2pm matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets
are $38, and are available at The Joyce Theater box office or by
calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800 or online at www.joyce.org.
The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street.
###
Compañía María Pagés would like to thank
the following for their generous support:
Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Instituto de
las Artes Escénicas y de la Música; Comunidad de Madrid,
Conserjería des las Artes, Dirección General de Promoción
Cultural; Ayuntamiento de Torrelodones, Compañía Residente
en Torrelodones.
012904
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