Power and the passion

Renowned flamenco dance artist Maria Pages remembers her very first dancing shoes - they were spotted red and white. She danced all day long in them as a little girl in Sevilla in Spain until one day they became too small. She cried to her mother who kindly assured her: "I will buy you another one. The same. The same."

Years on, and hundreds of pairs of shoes later, Pages has danced at the world's most prestigious venues and is back in Beijing again performing tonight.

But she will never forget those little red-spotted shoes, which become the focus of her new show Sevilla.

The show is part of the cultural activities, which Spain's State Corporation for Overseas Cultural Action has organized to celebrate the Year of Spain in China.

"In someway, the show is a lot about me. My memory. My experience. Many details," says the brunette dancer.

Asked to summarize the Spanish dance with three words, she says: "Expressive, dramatic, and contrasting."

"Flamenco describes tragedy, sadness, suffering. It all tells you how to enjoy life, be ironic and funny," she says.

Pages arrived in Madrid when she was 15 to start her dancing career and was given the nickname Sevilla. She has garnered prestigious awards in her long career including the National Dance Award in 2002.

She has performed in Beijing four years ago and recalled the audience's reception was fantastic. "They scream "wow", " she says.

This time she anticipates an even more enthusiastic reaction from the Chinese audience at her sellout concert.

She says dancing is about connection with the audience, which can differ according to different parts of the world. "Japanese people are more shy. You need to go more," says Pages. "While in China, audience is very warm. They go close to you very soon."

In one solo, she recalls the art of bullfighting and explains it as a ceremony in which women have an indispensable role. One moment she is the bull, the next she is the matador.

Pages is joined by 16 dancers, revisiting various styles of flamenco, such as bulerias, soleas, tientos, tangos, tonas or deblas.

Sevilla will be performed in the Center's Opera Hall tonight at 7:30 pm.

(China Daily 04/12/2008 page6)