afán - figuración flamenca: Choreographer and dancer Brigitta Luisa Merki is developing her latest project, afán, in cooperation with various musicians as well as the famous artist Gillian White, who is creating an iron sculpture specifically for this production.
After many years of choreographing performances for her company Flamencos en route, Brigitta Luisa Merki is allowing her own personal dance to figure prominently in her production. The program being created portrays her own emotions, reflections, and stories in the form of dance.
In the course of her own continuous searching and striving - her afán - for new theatrical and choreographic forms of expression she dedicates in this production form and space to her very own themes and forms of dance expression.

In an intimate theater atmosphere, she creates vivid spaces, poetic visions and fantasies, and inner dialogues with the music, which lend her very personal flamenco its resonance.

Premiere, 01.03.2006, Luzern, Kleintheater

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Aargauer Zeitung

Quintessence and new territory: Brigitta Luisa Merki's "afán" is the choreographer's most mature production ever shown at the ThiK in Baden. Gillian White's sculpture and the four musicians are very captivating as well. (...) Merki's latest production "afán" represents two things: the quintessence of previous things and the conquest of new territory. The intensification of the dance vocabulary falls under the 'quintessence' heading, the participation of seemingly difficult-to-combine partners under the 'new territory' heading. Gillian White's gray and yellow iron sculpture "Dancing Woman" represents a mute, but meaningful dialogue partner for Brigitta Luisa Merki. Thanks to the unusual quartet combining guitar, cello, percussion, and bandoneon the flamenco experiences a thrilling musical expansion with gripping effects on the dance. (...) The lively expressiveness of the dance is opposed by the seemingly immobile sculptural element. (...) The musical quartet is as important as Brigitta Luisa Merki, who, during the 80-minute "afán" performance, demonstrates her mastery at condensing the knowledge and experiences of her long dancer's career - and ends up presenting her most mature work yet.

Aargauer Zeitung, 31.03.2006

Basellandschaftliche Zeitung

"afán", Merki once again proves that she is not only excellent when doing the background work, but also when dancing on stage. The expressive quality of her dance stems from her maturity, the passion she demonstrates from her life experiences. (…) The black and yellow figure with its thirteen angles first stands on the stage unwieldily, until - during the course of the performance - it develops into Brigitta Luisa Merki's point of reference, dance partner, and window. The dancer brings the metal figure to life by fixing her eyes on it after every turn, by nestling into the sculpture, or by embracing the "Dancing Woman" on wheels and turning her around in circles. The sculpture is not just a decoration; thanks to the dance and the artistically applied lighting it has a voice and a body. At times, the symmetrical sculpture receives a radiant echo on the wall. (…) The music was an essential part of the "afán" experience. The combination of the classical flamenco elements, guitar and percussion, with cello and bandoneon is highly unusual - but all the more typical for Flamencos en route. The dialogue Merki began in her dance with the iron sculpture continues with the music. (…) The dialogue the artists started on stage was continued by an audience stamping and clapping rhythmically - in honor of the flamenco.

Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, 27.03.2006

bazkulturmagazin

The urgency of being (...) Sculptor Gillian White created "the Dancing Woman" specifically for Brigitta Luisa Merki. In the abstract body of the sculpture, whose rigidity is broken up by the play of lights, the choreographer recognizes the formal strictness of the flamenco in contrast with the fleeting nature of the dance. (...) Poems by Octavio Paz, Antonio Machado, Hilde Domin, and others served as additional sources of inspiration. In these, the dancer rediscovered what creates her feelings of urgency: the dialogue between opposites, her drivenness.

bazkulturmagazin, 23.03.2006

Stuttgarter Zeitung

(...) The seventy-minute program clearly exhibits Merki's enthusiasm and artistic ambition to add to the fixed, habitual vocabulary of flamenco movements a personal, very expressive character. Brigitta Luisa Merki knows how to use her dance, which integrates the mobile sculpture and is enhanced by the beautiful costumes and lighting, to conjure a kaleidoscope of moods, emotions, and sensitivities onto the stage.

Stuttgarter Zeitung, 18.03.2006

Neue Luzerner Zeitung

A marvel of magical proportions (...) The musical performance of the four musicians (guitar, percussion, cello, and bandoneon) is a treat in itself. The instruments seem to be flirting with each other in ever changing variations... (...) Merki's very personal flamenco blends with new forms of expression, the play of her hands captivating the audience. She lures and tempts, all the while exhibiting an effervescent joie de vivre. Lightly as if she were a bird she glides across the stage, reminiscent of a fresh summer breeze, only to return to the clattering stage boards noisily and wildly as a tornado.

Neue Luzerner Zeitung, 03.03.2006

Anna Schnorrenberg

afán: an installation combining sound, movement, color, shape, and light. "Everyone moves as if wrapped in a dream of his or her own creation..." states a quote from a poem by Hilde Domin on page one of the program guide to the latest solo production, 'afán', by Brigitta Luisa Merki. The desire, ambition, or urge to provide this inner dream with a form of artistic expression is the essence of 'afán' - must be, for this production is much more than flamenco. In every instance, it expresses an individual, very personal interpretation of this art form, an interpretation that has evolved over the many years Brigitta Luisa Merki has worked as a choreographer and dancer. In collaboration with excellent musicians such as Juan Gómez (guitar), Désirée Senn (cello), Frederik Gille (percussion), and Mikael Augustsson (bandoneon) Merki created a coherent program with well thought-out details of lighting and costume design (Serge Schmuki, Carmen Perez Mateos), thus presenting a vivid image, an installation of sound, movement, color, shape, and light.(...)

Anna Schnorrenberg, 02.03.2006