How to do things with... Oriente
María Pagés – El Arbi El Harti

 Wednesday, October 25, 2023, 7:00 p.m.
 75 min
 Free admission by picking up an invitation at the box office or online
Classroom 2

Javier Yániz, researcher at the Institute of Culture and Society at the University of Navarra, moderates the conversation between María Pagés (co-director of the company and choreographer) and El Arbi El Harti (co-director of the company and playwright). 

They will address the process of creatingTierra prometida (Promised Land), a choreographic piece for exhibition halls inspired by the exhibition of the same name, Una tierra prometida. Del Siglo de la Luces al nacimiento de la fotografía (A Promised Land: From the Age of Enlightenment to the Birth of Photography).

María Pagés

A creator born in Seville, of Catalan origin, adopted by Madrid and iconoclastic by nature, she has made flamenco dance her poetic homeland. Contemporaneity is tradition in constant motion and the source of the dynamism of our languages and ideas. Her creative contribution lies in her serenity in speaking without complexes in all languages and making them accept the mythical hospitality of flamenco.

Through her use of the fundamental codes of flamenco language and her research both within and outside of it, she has proven to be a pioneer in understanding flamenco as a living contemporary art form with an unusual capacity to engage in dialogue with its time. She is convinced that, in culture, dialogue and exchange enrich art and promote greater understanding and empathy among human beings.

Through the María Pagés Choreographic Center in Fuenlabrada and her Foundation, María Pagés carries out intensive work in the areas of creation, research, training, and promotion of dance and Spanish cultural heritage as a personal paradigm of social and civic commitment and solidarity action for the benefit of children, adolescents, gender equality, and vulnerable groups, such as children's hospitals, shelters for abused women, centers for people with disabilities, etc.

The Arbi The Harti 

A Hispanist, poet, and playwright committed to culture and, in particular, to heritage, which he considers to be an inexhaustible source that nourishes all contemporary culture aware of its significance.

He has publishedDespués de Tánger(After Tangier, 2003),La Puerta de los Vientos (The Gate of theWinds, 2004),Inmenso Estrecho(Immense Strait, 2006),Une Ambition Marocaine(A Moroccan Ambition, 2009),Utopía del buen lugar(Utopia of the Good Place, 2012), Utopía del desierto (2015),Dunas (2018),Memoria en movimiento(2020),Las tribulaciones de María (Documentary, 2021), andEl norte ya no es posible(2022). He has also edited the collection Literatura española contemporánea. 

In 2011, he began an intense creative collaboration with María Pagés and in 2016 he left his professorship at Mohamed V University in Rabat to devote himself full-time to the creation and management of projects at the Maria Pages Choreographic Center, which he founded in 2018 together with the Seville-based choreographer.

With María Pagés, he co-directedUtopía (2011),Alegría de los niños(2013),Siete golpes y un camino (2014),Yo, Carmen(2014),Óyeme con los ojos(2014), No dejes que termine el día(2015),Danza de los corazones(2017),Una oda al tiempo(2018),Fronteras (2019),Paraíso de los negros(2020),Tribulaciones de Simbad el Marino(2021), An Ode to Orange Blossom(2021),De Scheherezade (2021), Alcalá 94(2023),Love of God(2023), andPromised Land (2023).

In collaboration with