el canto nómada: Andando se hace camino

The nomadization has become the model situation of many people.
There are the voluntary migrants searching for change and cultural mobility and the involuntary nomadic people, forced to departure or flight.
The latter are exposed to extreme borderline situations, which cost their highest force and life intensity to go their way. Their arduous migration is directed at a place of confidence and invulnerability. ItÂ’s the idea of the always possible recommencement, which leads them further on their path as a leitmotif.

‘el canto nómdadaÂ’, our nomadic song, lends the voice to the nomadic people forced to the exile, whose contradictory condition is cited by the lyricist Hilde Domin, a nomad herself, in her poem ‘drifting landscapeÂ’.
ItÂ’s the voice which asks for the courage to go away and to change without a loss of oneÂ’s own identity. Moving on without loosing oneÂ’s footing. ‘el canto nómadaÂ’ is an approach to the world of those who are in transit, who are thereby exposed to existential dangers and who are nevertheless always moving forward.

An inexplicable power, a collective rhythm forces here a group of women to obliviously continue their way in the dark. They own nothing firm.
Their possessions are also their cover and their shelter. Just carrying the most essential things with them, they wring every spark of life out of destiny . Their ‘Dance from the today to the tomorrow’ is an expression of intensive perception of the moment and overcoming the fear of life.
A quality of life which corresponds to the flamenco in his naturalness. The flamenco in his essence is a nomadic singing. The nomadic as characteristic trait lies in his history of constant movement and change. The flamenco has survived migration of the peoples, racial discrimination and wars and has assimilated strange and new things on his journey, without letting himself assimilate.

From old forms and rituals there are constantly created new ones. The flamenco, whose vital form of expression reveals the inescapable, the dark as well as the hopeful visions, today also develops by interpreters of different mould and origin. The old doesnÂ’t exclude the new and the other way round.

Premiere, 17.10.1997, Baden, Kurtheater

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El canto nómada

Badische Zeitung

„El canto nómada", with a wonderful composition by the innovative composer and ballet director, Antonio Robledo, (...) and the terrific voices, such as that of the Flamenco singer, Carmen Linares, which is greatly complemented by the exciting choreography of the artistic director, Brigitta Luisa Merki. Merki and Robledo have set a benchmark for touring theatre.

Badische Zeitung, 28.02.1998

Neue Zürcher Zeitung

„El canto nómada" Robledo has managed to evolve completely new sounds and images from the atmosphere of the Flamenco, an ever purer and ever more audible expression. (...) Like the composer, Merki extends the possibilities for expression, elements in the highly expressive dance routines enrich the vocabulary, are clever and are used to suit the situation with perfect results.

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 17.12.1997

Neue Luzerner Zeitung

What power, what faces, what women!

Neue Luzerner Zeitung, 00.00.0000

Morgenpost am Sonntag, Dresden

Who could have dared to hope for this? Six women on the huge stage at the Kulturpalast. Flamenco dancers brimming with character, presence and power, and these she-devils really did manage to cast a spell over the audience of over 2000 people, across the entire expanse of the auditorium, and possibly across all boundaries of expectation as well (...) that really is art in the truest sense: the ability to captivate audiences on any stage, large or small (...). At the end, there was special applause for Brigitta Luisa Merki, dancer and choreographer.

Morgenpost am Sonntag, Dresden, 00.00.0000