María Pagés

María Jesús Pagés Madrigal (born 28 July 1963 in Seville, Spain), better known as María Pagés, is a modern Spanish dancer and choreographer and one of the most internationally renowned Flamenco artists in the world. She is considered the paramount representative of flamenco vanguard. Internationally acclaimed for her personal aesthetic concept of this dance, she has proven to be the leading pioneer in the understanding of this art as an evolution, contemporary and alive, making her a leading innovator of modern flamenco. She founded her own dance company in 1990, now based in Madrid, Spain, while performing worldwide. In 2014 she was awarded with the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts (Spain) by the Spanish State through the Ministry of Culture.