resonancias

Der Neue Merker, Wien

A masterly mixture, uncommon high level of quality

80 intense and moving minutes: Flamencos en route is the name of Brigitta Luisa Merki’s renowned dance company, which turns the evening into an unforgettable event.
Originating from the Swiss canton of Aargau, Merki – a dancer, choreographer, and teacher – was a master student of Susana’s, another famous dancer from Switzerland. Susana also had fallen for the flamenco and enjoyed great success on her international tours. Merki followed in her tracks and, in 1984, founded the “Flamencos en route” Dance Company. In 1994, she became the artistic director of this company composed of international members, which is even acclaimed in Spain. Today, Merki’s choreographies go far beyond flamenco. In 2004, she received the Hans Reinhart Ring, Switzerland’s most prestigious award for the Performing Arts.
There are no frills and flounces in the Königsfelden performance, nothing suggesting a folkloristic event. Four couples are on stage. What we see unfolding here is … as old as mankind: the relationship between man and woman. Sometimes it is portrayed full of emotion, other times erotically, belligerently, or tenderly… From a dance perspective, precise legwork, castanets, and rhythmic clapping of the hands transform seamlessly and completely naturally into modern expressive dance. A masterly mixture, uncommon at this high level of quality… The resonance: enthusiastic applause and rhythmic stamping of the feet.

Der Neue Merker, Wien, 04.07.2007

Aargauer Zeitung

Echo of a synthesis of the arts

“resonancias” also stands for the sum total of Brigitta Luisa Merki’s career.
The opulence of the taffeta of the costumes has a beguiling effect on the eye. However, the costumes have an additional purpose – they serve as instruments. The puffy dresses sweep across the floor and thus produce an almost narcotic kind of sound effect. With the start of the music, the women’s radius of motion increases. However, it is not until a little later that they truly take possession of the room: at the moment that the gate opens and the dancers stride into the church. With their staffs, they remind the audience of pilgrims. The music remains silent. Instead, feet and staffs initiate a staccato thunderstorm – another brilliant component of this synthesis of the arts composed by resonances of space, body, sound, movement, and images.

Aargauer Zeitung, 24.06.2007

Neue Zürcher Zeitung

The individual elements of “resonancias” are joined together in a harmonic, tightly knit, and effective manner: a perfect, precisely constructed production of light, music, and dance. Both, energy and virtuosity of the Flamencos performers, are tremendously impressive. “resonancias” is a magnificent, coherent spectacle…
They murmur, stride, whisper, dart across the floor. The four female dancers are wearing opulent costumes made from taffeta reminiscent of fairy tales. Fabric is rustling, pearl necklaces are clinking, somewhere, the wind is howling. – Being in motion, going somewhere: For over twenty years, Flamencos en route has been working on gently bringing the traditional Spanish dance into the here and now. It undertakes expeditions into dance territory, whose limits it keeps pushing, and in which it combines the strict forms of the flamenco with contemporary dance language and other forms of art…
Eight dancers make their entrance and – in an explosive rhythm – stamp the floor with the talons of their shoes. The four couples start a corrida in the form of a dance, in which they circle each other, using perfect, powerful movements, until their movements become increasingly gentler, their facial expressions softer and softer. The choreographer applies both contemporary styles of movement and quotes from medieval court dances among other things. The performance is accompanied by a sound collage consisting of voluminous flamenco songs, piano cascades, and hymns played live and from tape…

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 23.06.2007

Regional, Brugg

A fantastic feast for the senses

A synthesis of the arts in a masterly production – the arts in unison.
This is dance theater with enormous momentum, newly equipped with elements going beyond flamenco, stirring up the sensitivities of the audience, creating and easing tension. The audience is easily gripped by the quality of dance demonstrated by all protagonists; the abduction into another world is perfect.

Regional, Brugg, 23.06.2007