Picture the scene, if you will. A Spanish family is seated in the kitchen one summer s evening, the dinner finished, the dishes washed, when the radio crackles into life. A hush goes around and soon the kitchen in filled with the strains of that most beloved of national art forms, flamenco.
It is some time in the 1940s, and Spain is in the firm grip of Franco’s Fascist regime. Thousands of lives have been lost, and for many Spaniards, there is little to be thankful for. And yet as the guitar rhythms and evocative vocal melodies circulate, this family has something that touches them, fills them with energy.
At first there is some clapping of hands and some stamping feet, and then finally somebody rises to dance.
It is a romantic image for sure, but it is one that rings true for many a lover of flamenco with personal roots in the nation’s history, among them dancer and choreographer Maria Pagés, one of Spain’s leading exponents of the form.
Touching down in Egypt for a brief, two-show visit, Pagés is convinced of the power of flamenco to transform both performer and audience, regardless of their daily circumstances, and its power as a vehicle for social and political comment.
Her show at the Cairo Opera House on Wednesday night is a fine example. The work, titled “Canciones antes de una Guerra (Songs, before a War), is a collection of dances set around the theme of hope in the face of war. It consists of a series of mainly flamenco songs stretching back to the first half of the 20th century, to which Pagés and her dance company perform in the traditional style that has its home in the southern Spanish region of Andalucia.
“You know, flamenco was a national song for many people at the time of the Civil War, she told Daily News Egypt. “It helped after the war, and the recordings they did of flamenco at that time were very important. It was the radio that introduced these versions and these recordings, and then the people had a new hope, they became happy.
“I chose one song by Henri Salvador, who was a black man who was living most of the time in France, she said. “And he was a very kind person, and he was a symbol of people who believe and who hope.
As she explains, during that dark era in Spain’s history, flamenco became a tool in the hands of the Fascist regime, used by Franco to affirm his patriotic credentials. But for Pagés and many others, it was also a symbol of political resistance.
“There’s also a song that is like a lullaby, which uses the words of the Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez, she said. “He wrote this song inside prison for his son, who he didn’t see very much because of his imprisonment my Franco. It’s very sad, but at the end there is hope for children. We have to care about that. And so I dedicate this one to my son, who is 18 now.
While the ostensible origins of the show are in the Civil War era and its aftermath, the spark of inspiration for Pagés came with the opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As she points out, over 90 percent of Spanish people were opposed to the war.
“The point of the show is to awaken our conscience, to remind us that we should create things, that we should care, and resolve problems, not to bring about a war. To awaken our conscience about how to be tolerant and what solidarity is.
Beside the flamenco tunes, Pagés has included two works from the Anglophone world. First to make an appearance is Louis Armstrong, with a recording of “When The Saints Go Marching In. And the show ends with a live flamenco re-working of John Lennon’s “Imagine, among the best known popular cries on behalf of peace, love and understanding.
The combination of diverse art forms is nothing new to Pagés. Indeed, she has gone out of her way in the past to provoke interactions between her own tradition and other entirely different ones. But she rejects the tendency of some critics to describe her as a “flamenco fusion artist.
“I don’t like this word, ‘fusion.’ I’m a flamenco dancer; it’s very simple, she said.
“The only thing I like to do, I need to do, it to make a confrontation with other arts, to make a dialogue with other arts. If it’s another kind of music, or painting, or literature with different poems, flamenco can talk with all those arts to make something richer. And this work is particularly open to doing that.
In November of last year, she was invited by classical ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov to take part in a workshop in New York. Pagés and her dancers presented a traditional flamenco song and dance, which was then interpreted by six contemporary dancers selected by Baryshnikov.
“The rhythm was the same, but we had six flamenco dancers and six contemporary dancers. We danced at the same time six different things, but they communicated… It’s not fusion; it’s dialogue. We do it together, but each part retains is identity, she said.
When asked if the same method could be applied to the music of, for example, Motorhead or Pink Floyd, Pagés said that it most definitely could. She cited an example involving the music of Tom Waites. On hearing one of his songs, she recognized a rhythm much like a tango, and soon her company was dancing to it.
“I like to experiment with this, because you can understand how it’s all relative, the relativism of the world. This Tom Waites experiment is something very interesting. You have to see it. It’s not something difficult; it’s not like we are manipulating our minds. It’s very contagious, it’s very free.
Another comment on her work that Pagés is quick to dismiss is the claim that the use of recorded music somehow detracts from the spontaneity of her performances.
“Of course, if I want to dance to flamenco music, I have my musicians, she said. “But if I want to dance to Louis Armstrong, I can’t invite him, nobody can invite him. I prefer to use his own version, even if it’s recorded.
“For me, he was a voice. The voice of this man was so powerful and so unique. So how could I do a version of Louis Armstrong without Louis Armstrong?
“I use another song from Tomas Parlon, who is one of the best singers ever in flamenco, she continued. “I am so happy why I dance to this recording. It’s a very old recording, and it’s not very clean, but the voice is something amazing, and nobody can reproduce that.
“I talked with my mother and my grandmother, and it’s so important to them. Every time they hear that, they cry, and so I love to use that.
Wednesday night’s performance at the Cairo Opera House drew a rather select audience. Tickets were sold for top dollar, the money raised going towards the newly-formed National Fund to Fight Viral Hepatitis. In the presidential box was First Lady Susanne Mubarak, a firm supporter of the initiative.
And, apart from one or two glitches with microphones cutting out, the show went down to rapturous applause, the wealthy rattling their jewellery in appreciation, as Lennon once advised.
Between them, the troupe stamped and clapped their way furiously through the set, supported by their band of singers and guitarists, who interjected with shouts of encouragement.
The scenery was minimal, in large part due to the logistics of transporting props and backdrops on the company’s hectic international schedule. As the technical director said before the show, he normally carries at least 600kg of excess baggage on each trip. But in three years he has never paid once for it, such are his skills at arguing with airport officials.
And so, against dark curtains, a few props were placed to indicate a change of scene, from a street to a bar, to a starlit evening in the countryside, complete with the sound of cicadas in the trees.
Pagés appeared in a series of dresses, among them some of those frilly, gypsy-like numbers that immediately signal a flamenco performance. The other women dressed likewise, but with added dashes of primary color and a few jaunty polka dots, while the men sported trim three-piece suits reminiscent of the 1940s.
The timing was impeccable, and not a foot was put wrong, at least to the uneducated eye. Towards th
e end, the ladies threw in a stunning demonstration on the castanets.
But what makes Pagés choreography most touching is the sense that one is not merely watching a display of perfection, the repetition of moves learned by professional performers. Rather, the dancers become characters, real people enjoying life with their loved ones in a natural setting. And consistent with that, there are splashes of humor and moments of exuberance, drunkenness and madness.
At least one journalist in attendance was moved to shed a few tears as Pagés stomped off stage, her skirts lifted high to give free reign to those joyfully stamping shoes.
If there was one slightly jarring moment, it was with the appearance of Lennon’s “Imagine, which was performed to acoustic guitar and sung by a women in a style approaching gospel. The issues of attempting to render such a song in another form to one side, the questions arises of just how fitting Lennons’ words for an Egyptian audience.
The song opens with the words “imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try, no hell below us, above us only sky… – and one wonders if such a sentiment can be as warmly embraced by an Middle Eastern audience as it might be in Europe. Lennons’ vision is, after all, of an atheistic Utopia that is peaceful precisely because it lacks religion. Thought-provoking indeed, in the context of this war-ravaged region.
Philosophical questions to one side, the finale was greeted with cheers and whistles and calls of ‘bravo.’ Pagés and her team took their bows and provided a charming encore while the audience clapped in time.
After the curtain came down in Cairo, Pagés was off to do a repeat performance at the Biblioteca Alexandrina on Friday night. Then it’s off to the airport with all the excess baggage, and the perpetual world tour continues, as does her main goal of promoting her beloved art form.
“I like to explain for people what really flamenco is, she said. “Sometimes people have ideas about it that are not true, and sometimes I like to dispel these bad opinions. Franco used flamenco in the wrong way, not using it as an art with dignity. He used it like rubbish, doing it in whatever kind of place, with no quality at all.
“But flamenco is a big art, it’s really a big art, which needs to be performed in a big way. I want to try to help in this way.
Maria Pagés will be performing at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on Friday night. For details, call: (03) 483 9999. For information on Maria or flamenco, go to www.mariapages.com or visit www.flamenco-world.com
