The project
Art direction: MARÍA PAGÉS AND EL ARBI EL HARTI
Centro Danza Matadero is the welcoming home of dance in Madrid. The vitality of this organic, open, plural, inclusive, and cross-disciplinary cultural project comes from the city’s deep-seated roots and tradition in all forms of dance created in Spain, and from the universality that serves as its fundamental source.
Through a dialectic that harmoniously combines the ‘I’ and the ‘We’, the centre and the periphery, the neighbourhood and the world, the Centro Danza Matadero interacts with its surrounding area, drawing nourishment from its cultural heritage and innovations, and proactively responding to all aesthetic trends and languages.
Centro Danza Matadero seeks to contribute to the fusion of Madrid and Dance into a single sphere of meaning, ensuring that Matadero Madrid becomes synonymous with Dance. It connects its cultural activities with other choreutic centres and integrates citizens into its development, valuing them both as creative assets and subjects of creation.
All of us at Centro Danza Matadero aspire to transform the Madridness that lies at the heart of our uniqueness and our universal potential into ethical and aesthetic values by bringing together a municipal cultural policy, a history, a setting, a space, and a convergent and syncretic artistic vision and programme. Dance at Matadero Madrid is the creation of creators who on the one hand pay heed to professionals dedicated to the noble and necessary task of creating beauty and meaning, and, on the other, to the needs of the diverse groups that make up our society.
Main areas of activity
- Artistic programme revolving around dance.
- Artistic dance residencies.
- Co-productions to produce national and international shows.
- Artistic cooperation, collaboration, and exchange with like-minded national and international theatres, companies and choreographic centres.
- Workshops and master classes in the arts of dance (interpretation, choreography, stage direction, etc).
- Popularisation of dance and its relationship with science, health, education, sport, the elderly, disability, urban planning, and multiculturalism, etc.
- Seminars, experiences, and activities aimed at introducing dance to all audiences.
Artistic direction
Maria Pagés is a choreographer and stage director. Born in Seville to Catalan parents and an adopted Madrileña, this iconoclastic creator has taken Spanish culture to the best theatres in the world, skilfully combining dance with social commitment. Renowned throughout the world for her personal aesthetic concept of flamenco dance, which she sees as the organic cultural paradigm that best expresses Spain's contemporary artistic essence. She has carved out a niche for herself in the global dance scene by utilising the fundamental codes of the language of flamenco while exploring both within and beyond that world. If one thing defines her polyhedric creativity, it is her deeply rooted ethical sense of culture.
María Pagés is the recipient of the 2022 Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts, the National Dance Award (Creation), the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts, the Cultural Award of the Community of Madrid, and the Medal of the City of Seville. Her ten Giraldillo Awards from the Seville Flamenco Biennial confirm her status as an essential Spanish choreographer. Her choreographic works transcend stereotypes and cultural differences and encourage dialogue between languages. She has created more than 30 stage works, including, most notably, El perro andaluz, La tirana, Flamenco Republic, Canciones antes de una guerra, Autorretrato, Sevilla and Dunas.
With El Arbi El Harti she has co-created Utopía, Alegría de los niños, Siete golpes y un camino, Yo, Carmen, Óyeme con los ojos, No dejes que termine el día, Danza de los corazones, Una oda al tiempo, Fronteras, Paraíso de los negros, Tribulaciones de Simbad el Marino, De Scheherazade, Amor de Dios and Tierra prometida.
El Arbi El Harti is a Hispanist, playwright, and professor at the Mohamed V University in Rabat. His publications include Después de Tánger, Utopía del buen lugar, Utopía del desierto, Memoria en movimiento and El norte ya no es posible. He has created and directed several intercultural festivals in Morocco and Spain. He was director of the Cultural Department of the Instituto Cervantes in Casablanca.