Flamenco, the Opera and the return of Amal Choucri Catta "Flamenco Republic", Cairo Opera House Main Hall, 5-6 September; Sayed Darwish Theatre, Alexandria, 8 September, 9 pm The lights stayed low while the four couples began with a lively tap-tap of the heels and a vigorous stamp-stamp of the feet. They were young and lovely in black, and their movements a variety of contrasting emotions. They seemed to be telling the tale of Flamenco, reaching beyond its origins, divulging the secrets it may continue to hold. Trim and bold, the dancers indulged the audience with masterful pirouettes, visibly enjoying their vivacity. As the lights grew brighter, it was the queen of the show, Maria Pages, the Great Lady of Flamenco, who overtook the scene. The intensity of her movements put the stage on fire, stirring up turmoil with her beautiful black dress, polka-dotted in white, with frills and ruffles savagely fluttering as she whipped into a turn, while her arms seemed to mould the space beyond her reach. On the opening night at Cairo Opera House Main Hall, the audience had been loud and late. Doors were closing at twenty past nine and the lights dimmed as a steady flow of viewers were still trying to find their seats, much to the annoyance of those already seated. However, all was quiet when Maria Pages started dancing: she seems to have a hypnotic power over large audiences. That night, the entire hall was seriously concentrating on her extraordinary performance. Flamenco is not new to Egyptian viewers: it is one of the most admired and cherished dances, with a full house on every show. This time, however, the Flamenco was different. These dancers had visibly undergone special classical training and the choreography was quite innovative. We were given brilliant mouvements d'ensemble, for example, which is rarely the case with Flamenco. Likewise, the solo pirouettes and pas-de-deux were rather new to this dance. This time the heel work was not only meant to dazzle the audience, but to incite an extrasensory perception of what may be beyond the intricacy of movemont. In each of her solo dances Maria Pages was telling a tale of joy and love, of fear and suffering, while darting and swaying, twisting and turning before pulling herself up, taut as a bow, then opening her arms like the wings of a heron flying home at sunset. At times her dance seemed to have a prickly toughness, her expressive hands would give signs of rancour or irritation, evocative of a lover betrayed, fighting for her right to love and be loved; her feet and her arms would be doing the talking, while the audience watched wide-eyed, utterly spellbound. But she would suddenly turn and her movements, infused with warmth and punctuated by heel work, would bring the tale to a close. While in Egypt, Maria Pages has been taking part in the Sharm El Sheikh Youth Forum, dancing her Flamenco for peace and a better understanding among nations. She is a great believer in culture and cultural exchanges "representing a major tool to encourage sympathetic tolerance among all human beings". Maria Pages, one of the greatest innovators in contemporary Flamenco, has created the Flamenco Republic, which is not so much a place as a state of mind, an imaginary country ruled by the laws of Flamenco. It represents the Spanish internal landscape, filled with happiness and sadness, reminiscent of glorious toreros, dead bulls and bloody arenas; reminiscent of the drama that comes from the wails of the singers, the guitarist's rush of chords and the percussionist's hands striking his instrument. When he wrote about life in Spain from the 15th to the 17th century, the historian Felix Grande stated that "the Jews were massacred, the gypsies persecuted, the Arabs exterminated, the Moriscoes, converted Arabs, expelled and the Andalusians generally exploited. If we do not relate the music, to brutality, repression, hunger, fear, menace, resistance and suffering, then we shall not find the reality of Cante Flamenco. It is a storm of exasperation and grief"... Grief was also on stage in the Prima Donna's dances, her musically astute footwork evolving from slow, stalking, meditative images to defiant stamping outbursts and returning to passionate lamentation before suddenly stopping, sending a gleeful look towards the audience and walking away, her head high. A bit of sarcasm, a bit of irony and lots of love. Love of dancing and love of the audience. Maria Pages seems to prefer dark-coloured, simple gowns to the elaborate frills and bright designs she put on for no more than a few seconds in Scene Two, for which most of the local ladies have a penchant. They were, in fact, rather disappointed when she suddenly returned in one of her darker gowns. But the penchant for darkness seems to back- drops and lights, evocative of taverns and far-away places where lovers, in the good old days, were keeping their secret rendezvous. On the other hand, Flamenco, for Maria Pages, is not only a philosophy of the soul, it is also an entertainment, funny and filled with laughter, with colourful fans and humorous castanets. In a rather brief dance, each of the ladies appeared with a fan of different colour: they seemed to be introducing the funny sequence in which the castanets rhythmically competed with the sticks in the hands of two male dancers. In the end castanets, sticks and heels tapped vigorously before walking away, while the crowd cheered, begging for more.That night, Maria Pages, Bailaora, choreographer and musician from Sevilla, who has been granted numerous awards and distinctions for her artistic accomplishments, ignited Cairo Opera's Main Stage; and her performance was phenomenal, her dancers, singers and musicians brilliant. When she appeared on stage to take her final bow, the house came down, giving her a standing ovation.
