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The four-year-young Da:ns Festival scored a coup at Singapore's Esplanade last month by giving the world its first look - right here in Southeast Asia - at "Dunas", a new work by flamenco performer Maria Pages and contemporary dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

It was a new dance vocabulary, based mostly on the flamenco repertoire but emboldened by a dazzling use of shadow and light.

One striking scene had Cherkaoui downstage right drawing marvellous images with both hands, projected onto fabric, while Pages moved in response.

"Dunas" also made formidable use of live music - another intercultural collaboration, between composers Szymon Brzoska and Ruben Lebaniegos.

It seemed there were a lot of layers in this performance but, in fact, "Dunas" was open enough for any viewer to fill in his interpretation. In the end there was a standing ovation for a sublime example of contemporary dance in which the possibilities seemed limitless.

Pages sought to work with Cherkaoui - dubbed Outstanding Choreographer of 2008 by the European dance journal Ballet Tanz - because she saw similarities between his arm movements and those of flamenco.

"And I see that she dares to do something very big," Cherkaoui responds. "The movements come from the energy of the whole body - everything naturally together."

"My idea of contemporary dance was jumping and going down on the floor and so on, not the use of hands or arms," says Pages.

"We ran into each other in Monte Carlo," Cherkaoui continues, "and the world around us seemed crazy. We felt like two 'normal' people sitting together and talking about things true to us.

"Meeting each other again in Mexico, we felt like whatever context we'd be in, we'd be in our world, that speaks for us."

That was almost two years ago. After that they found a day or two, here and there, to work on the piece and, by this past August, half of "Dunas" was in place. There was no deadline pressure, and no festival director with specific expectations, allowing for complete artistic freedom.

"I like this project because it's not about flamenco or contemporary dance, but about two people who dance," says Pages.

"Half of the time we were saying to each other, 'You know, this could work!'" adds Cherkaoui. "We made every single step of it together, and constantly had a dialogue - there's not a single moment where one would take leadership."

Although contemporary dancers usually rely on recorded music, Cherkaoui adapted with ease to the use of live music.

"We tried to listen the same way, translating what we heard in the music into movements," he says. "The big challenging for me was the rhythm, because I wasn't born with flamenco rhythms and they're very difficult, even though I consider myself a rhythmic person.

"But I tried to learn it and make it organic. I had to translate their counting into my way of counting so that Maria and I would be doing the same thing."

Since its world premiere in Singapore, "Dunas" has been seen in several Spanish cities, and next month it will be a highlight of the Romaeuropa Festival in Rome, with other European locales and some in America to follow.

The writer wishes to thank the Esplanade's corporate communications team for their assistance.

The dancers online

Discover more at www.MariaPages.com and www.Toneelhuis.be. The latter website has information about Cherkaoui's new group, Eastman, which is in residence at Toneelhuis in his Belgian hometown, Antwerp.