The Alquimist´s Dance (Arantxa Vela) Spain |

The Alquimist´s Dance
Arantxa Vela Buendía
Spain. 2024. 81 min

How does María Pagés’ thinking work? Where do her movements come from? What inspires her dancing? Starting with the staging of one of her latest shows, ‘De Scheherezade’, at the Roman Theatre of Mérida, we delve into her creative process, a process that she has shared for more than ten years with the poet, writer and dramaturg El Arbi El Harti. Both helps us to deconstruct scenes and draw a line that links with their previous works. By means of a fine sense of humour, the couple reveals to us the happiness and difficulties of living and working together. María Pagés shows herself to us as a woman whose life has its center on stage, in her way of understanding flamenco. Her dance seems to be something close to meditation and her creative process, a kind of trance.

ARANTXA VELA BUENDÍA

Arantxa Vela Buendía (Madrid, 1962) is a documentary filmmaker, and has been a full-time employee of RTVE (National Spanish Television Corporation) since 1984. She has specialised in shows and series on the performing arts since 2000; first as a documentalist and then, from 2010 to 2013, as the producer and senior editor of “Mi reino por un caballo” (My Kingdom for a Horse) – RTVE‘s weekly magazine programme on events and headline news from the theatre world.

FILMOGRAPHY

‘Wielding the soul’ (‘Empuñando el alma’, 2021) Writer and director. It received 23 awards in different international film festivals and 8 nominations.
‘The alquimist’s dance’ (‘El baile de la alquimista’, 2024) Writer and director.
She is also a member of the editorial board of the journal ARTESCÉNICAS since 2018, and of la Academia de Artes Escénicas de España (The Performaning Arts Academy of Spain).
Co- author with Declan Donnellan of the book “Donnellan on Shakespeare”. Ten years of interviews with the theatre director about Shakespeare.
She wrote and directed two theatre plays: ‘Cabaret paranormal’ (2017-22) and ‘Reality Cabaret Show’ (2018)
She produced, wrote and directed six short films (1990-94)