¡mírame!  - look at me: Just like the flamenco song below, the dialogue portrayed in the dance demands meaningful eye contact. At the center of the dialogue lies the dancer's direct body language. A rapprochement of dance and word occurs. The choreography attempts to reveal the mystery of the poetry and to discover dance parallels in the complex text. Both languages are encoded, creating actual DanceWordImages or WordImageDances that challenge each other. Through the interplay of old Spanish songs and contemporary poetry the dance is touched and charged by song and words.

mírame
mírame a los ojos
hazme este favor
con la mirá de mis ojos
camelo
decirtelo todo

look at me
look into my eyes
I implore you
with the look of my eyes
I flatter you
tell you everything


Choreographer Brigitta Luisa Merki researches love poems by Swiss author Andreas Neeser, whose strong poetic imagery provides suggestions for dance- and stage productions. The act of linking word and dance turns into a multi-art balancing act. The unique world of sound and image thus created lends new resonance to the flamenco�s aspects of expressionism and personal commitment.

Both word and dance have the ability to conjure up associations and memories. Words facilitate the dissemination of thoughts in the world as well as the individual structuring of their connections. Equally, the choreographic process consists of instinctive acts of recognition and organization. Movement looks inside for words and finds its personal language within the body. With that, the path is clear for the love duet to be reinvented again and again.

Premiere, 23.10.2008, Zug, Theater Casino

Video

Der Landbote

The dance talks poetry moves

„¡mírame!“, the most recent production by the dance compagny „Flamencos en route“ explores the dialogue between Spanish dance and lyric, shows eloquent soli, intimately communicating or heatedly disputing duets as well as expressive ensemble dances.

Ursula Pellaton, Der Landbote, 01.12.2008

Züritipp

Word Bodies

In their latest production, the dance company Flamencos en route combines modern poetry with flamenco.
Transparent, movable screens open the view on the words while the dancers’ bodies glide through seemingly rigid, yet passionate step sequences. In doing so, the dancers appear to be leaving behind all restrictions, even those of the heart. “Being transformed into a landscape by your fingers, over hill and dale,” the text on the screens reads. And: “How much longer will you get under my skin without putting down roots?”
The poems of Andreas Neeser, the author from Aarau, put down roots under the audience’s skin – and in Brigitta Luisa Merki’s choreography. The dancers’ bodies become landscapes of words. “When words no longer mean anything, I invent for us a language, skin-deep, so you say,” another poem reads. Rhythmic steps accompany the words, playful and encoded, sending out sparks that never light a fire, but make the performance smoulder subliminally. Dialogues develop between language, dance, and music as well as between dancers, musicians, and singers – blazing conversations, electrifying and blunt like the title of the performance: “¡Mírame!” – “Look at me!”.
The renowned dance company from Baden specializes in the confrontation between unusual perspectives. Since 1984, choreographer, dancer, and recipient of the Hans Reinhart Ring (2004), Brigitta Luisa Merki, has successfully linked flamenco to various forms of art and schools of thought: to the fine arts, contemporary dance – and now modern poetry. Brigitta Luisa Merki’s continuous ability to exhaust the possibilities of the flamenco at the highest artistic level is unique. The name Flamencos en route speaks for itself. Again and again, the dance company composed of outstanding Spanish and Swiss dancers and musicians sets out to explore new territory. Luckily for the audience, it never arrives at its destination.

Eva Bucher, Züritipp, 20.11.2008

Zofinger Tagblatt

Spanish Rhythm and Temperament in the Stadtsaal in Zofingen

Impressive dance performances and short concise sentences, projected onto a wall, rewrote the little flirt into a big love story.
The six dancers, two guitarists, two singers and one percussionist brought some Spanish feeling and warmth into the dull autumnal Zofingen.
According to the projected question "How much longer do you want to get under my skin without striking roots?" the dancers advanced and retreated. This interplay of closeness and distance, strong and soft motions, forceful stamping and fleet-footed flowing got definitely under the skins of the audience.

Sandra Kyburz, Zofinger Tagblatt, 20.11.2008

Der Bund

Enraptured Sensuality

A Beguiling Synthesis of the Arts: Flamencos en route performs “¡mírame!” at the Dampfzentrale Culture Center
Flamencos en route is a unique phenomenon on the Swiss dance scene. Evidence can be seen in the group’s latest project, a perfectly performed artistic balancing act between dance, live music, and language.
The stage is illuminated in a cool blue, like some magic place inviting intimate togetherness, forbidden acts. Voices whisper in the distance. Rustling can be heard in the dark. Three women wearing long taffeta dresses glide into the mysterious room bordered in the back by four movable, transparent screens. The dancers seem to be flying. Their invisible feet mince with such speed under their long, earth-colored fabric curtains that the bodies they are carrying appear to be floating. They dance in circles, loops, large arches, all the while holding their open hands in front of their eyes, as if they were reading. Words, sentences, poems: over the course of the 90-minute performance they will develop their own physical dynamics.
“¡mírame!” – Look at me! is the theme of the evening. The large audience at the Dampfzentrale Culture Center does not need to be told twice. Everyone watches and listens in amazement. The three dancers bend down toward the ground, sweep their hands across the floor as if gathering soil, in which the words and sentences written by Andreas Neeser, the author and director of the “Argauer Literaturhaus” (Argovian House of Literature), would later put down roots. Neeser’s short poems are projected into the room, onto the walls, and onto the dancing bodies. At the same time, they are brought to bloom in Spanish in husky-sounding, expressive flamenco songs performed by the singers (Nieves Díaz and Keiko Ooka).
A Polyrhythmic Thunderstorm
“I am breaking the letters of stone and taking shape.” These are the words that bulge out from the screen – bright relief lettering created by light. And like the words, feelings break loose in the room. The performance is heating up without ever succumbing to uncontrolled emotionalism. The female dancers (Raquel Lamadrid, Rocio Montova, Marta Roverato) are whirling while the world is spinning around them. Suddenly, three men (Eloy Aguilar, Fran Bas, José Merino) appear in the room. They are wearing slitted, brown frock coats with colorful linings. Their hands are holding staffs as tall as the men themselves. The accentuated beating of the staffs mixes with the dull zapateados of the heels and the drum rolls of the percussionist (Karo Sampela). The polyrhythmic thunderstorm is breath-taking and relentless. The dance solos are raw, edgy, brash, and perfect in their timing; the dialogues initiated by the male dancers precise and vivid, dialogues with the music, with the singers, with the poems – and with the female dancers. Just a hint of an electrifying touch is enough to provoke the lament of the guitars (Pablo García, Juan Gomez); and to kindle passion.
One of Brigitta Luisa Merki’s, the choreographer’s, strengths is the sincerity exhibited in the personal expression. She masters the grammar and syntax of the pure flamenco and knows how to transform it into a modern, contemporary form of art, far from clichés and folkloristic kitsch. She takes her dancers and musicians seriously and grants all of them a center-stage position in her very atmospheric dance theater productions. This disposition results in extraordinary artistic feats.
A Polished Jewel
“¡mírame!” is a polished jewel. Its power lies in its enraptured sensuality and the involvement of the soloists, in the tension created by virtuosity and simplicity. At some point in the production – like sailboats in the wind – the screens start to change position and form corridors, labyrinths, and borders, constellations that, beyond their spatial meaning, soon reveal aspects of the human condition. Separated by a wall, two people in love dance, burning with desire. They do not see each other, and yet they display the same timing, the same restlessness, the same mirror-image movements of their arms – enthralling.
With this latest production Flamencos en route is holding its unique position on the Swiss dance scene. For 24 years, the dance company has been working on creating an innovative and original dance language rooted in traditional flamenco. It has done so indefatigably and has successfully upheld very high artistic standards. The ensemble’s origins lie in courses given by the now 93-year-old Bernese flamenco dancer Susana and the musician and composer Antonio Robledo. Since the mid-1990’s, the company has been strongly influenced by the artistic handwriting of dancer and choreographer Brigitta Luisa Merki, whose annual productions are very well received both in Switzerland and abroad. In 2004, Flamencos en route received the Hans Reinhart Ring, the most prestigious award for performing arts in Switzerland. A year ago, the renowned Argovian dance company presented “resonancias”, the first part of a trilogy, at the Königsfeld Festival. “¡mírame!” emerged from the Königsfeld production as well as from a studio project, “a solas y a dos”. The result: a beguilingly sensual synthesis of the arts.

Marianne Mühlemann, Der Bund, 14.11.2008

Aargauer Zeitung

Elusive dance poems

Dance theater: After a successful premier Flamencos en route start their tour "¡mírame! - Look at me!"
The title of the new production by the dance compagnie Flamencos en route challanges the spectator. The premier took place last Thursday in Zug and now the choreographer Brigitta Luisa Merki and her ensemble are guests of the Roxy theatre in Birsfelden. If you engage in the dialogue between Flamenco and poetry, you will be taken onto a journey through expressive landscapes formed by bodies, words and images. An exhilarating dance evening!

Elisabeth Feller, Aargauer Zeitung, 27.10.2008

Neue Zuger Zeitung

Flamenco goes under the skin

¡mírame! is a fiery mixture of archaic and modern dance. This way the dance company Flamencos en route gets the audience fired up.
The three dancing couples of the company beat their steps with pride, Spanish spirit and passion onto the stage in the Casino Zug. A throaty moanful sound of the two singers rises and two guitars whir fierce and vehement - the hearts of Flamenco lovers are swelling. Right afterwards total silence: only the dancers breathing can be heard. Together they push giant panels from side to side until there appears a projected text, a poem by Andreas Neeser: "How much longer do you want to get under my skin without striking roots?" - The lyrics are characteristic for the dance-poem mírame!: It gets under your skin, lures the audience with its infatuating music and its striking dance elements. But it also lets the spactator fall, disruptions lead to total silence which are nevertheless full of energy and portray a crackling eroticism.

Neue Zuger Zeitung, 25.10.2008