Pagés won the National Dance Award (Creation) in 2002 and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts in 2014. She was also awarded the Culture Prize of the Community of Madrid in 2007 and the IV Culture Award of the University of Seville in 2016. In 2015 Santiago de Chile recognised her show Utopia as the Best International Dance Work.
The 10 Giraldillo awards of the Flamenco Biennial of Seville confirm her status as one of the most essential Flamenco dancers and choreographers.
In 1990 she created María Pagés Company, and since then she has had a repertoire of over 20 works:
MARÍA PAGÉS, AN ORGANIC CREATOR
If there is something that can define the multi-faceted creative uniqueness of María Pagés, it is her deeply rooted ethical sense of culture. She creates because she is convinced that art entails, in its essence and in the emotion that produces it, a deep commitment to life and memory, taken in its organic sense, which is an integrative part of the uniqueness of the Self and the diversity of the Other.
Using the essential codes of the language of Flamenco and researching both within and outside it, Pagés has shown herself to be a pioneer in understanding flamenco as an art in evolution, which is contemporary, living, generous and hospitable. In her choreographies, she has overcome stereotypes and cultural differences because she is convinced that the dialogue between artistic languages encourages a greater understanding of the organic truth of art and life.
For her, dance is an endless creative introspection about the future. Her ethical and creative work is about transforming asymmetries into a source of beauty and emotion. Isn't this an essential role of art?
El Arbi El Harti, writer