Sitting in an interview room at the Bunkamura cultural complex in Tokyo's Shibuya district, María Pagés leans forward, smiles and tells me: "Flamenco is my language. It was always around me in the cafes and bars, and on the driver's radio if you got a taxi. All the girls dressed up in pretty flamenco dresses for the local festivals. As I am Spanish I speak Spanish; and I dance flamenco because I was born in Seville."
The 49-year-old doesn't just "speak" flamenco, she pretty well rules it. Pagés has been called the "Queen of Flamenco," and watching her perform it's easy to understand why. Pagés spoke to The Japan Times while on a press tour here in January for her latest work, "Utopia," which will tour Tokyo, Iwate and Hyogo prefectures from this weekend.
The show should be well-received, because, according to the Japan Flamenco Association, there are around 650 flamenco academies across the country. Perhaps the dance is a language that the Japanese have no trouble understanding.
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