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Compañía María Pagés 'Autorretrato'
February 25, 2010 -- Sadler's Wells, London Flamenco has long been popular in London as professional performance and as an amateur dance form. And one of the key factors in popularising this Iberian art form here has been Sadler’s Wells both in the old theatre and in the new complex. I remember two shows in particular. Cumbra Flamenca toured regularly in the 1990’s with the cream of the major Spanish companies and a simple but effective production philosophy that seemed to say to its superb, solo performers, “There’s the stage, you’ve got 15 minutes.” In contrast, Antonio Gades used pure Flamenco to tell dramatic stories and his “Carmen” brought outstanding dancer actors, and in addition, older singers and musicians would also dance to show that this form is an art of the people. Both these companies ignited audiences at Sadler’s, so it was a natural step for the theatre to mount an annual Flamenco Festival which, to my surprise, is already in its seventh year. This time I saw Compañía María Pagés in “Autorretrato” (“Self-portrait”), an award winning show and the one selected for the longest run in this year’s Festival. There was certainly much to admire. Pagés bursts onto the stage with defiant bravura, a woman full of self confidence, matching the climax of each rhythmic section with a dramatic flourish. Yet, later we see her mourning a lost love and spinning aimlessly, to illustrate the contrasts in her nature. She also experiments with a rapping section which is great fun even for us non-Spanish speakers. Her dancing puts much emphasis on her arms moving in serpentine coils and free body movement emphasising bending from the waist, resulting in a highly expressive style. To support her, she has assembled eight other dancers and, in their sections, Pagés’ choreography is impressive, whereas so much modern ensemble Flamenco can seem bland. But although her dancers are outstanding with backs like Toledo steel, impeccable timing and machine gun footwork, the contrast with Pagés own style was too great for me, and I sometimes had the impression that the corps, especially the women, had been told, “You concentrate on technique and leave the emotion to me." Thus, for me, there were faults in the stylistic flow of “Autorretrato”, despite its many virtues. However, no one could argue with Pagés final dance, with a wide cape swirling around her, reminding me of the wings of a giant bird. Many in the audience gave the troop a standing ovation and were rewarded with a reprise of this final solo.
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by Stuart Sweeney