With the production ay!, the dance company Flamencos en route is celebrating its 35th season. The dance and music production leads into the poetic universe of the Spanish writer Federico García Lorca.
Night gardens and landscapes in Lorquian poetry—especially in the poemas del cante jondo—are places animated by mysterious, dancing figures. They are the expression of an archaic and surrealist imagery, sketched in this creation by three distinct choreographic signatures of contemporary flamenco.
In the overall dramaturgy of Brigitta Luisa Merki, the scenarios develop in the spirit of Lorca, who writes:
„All arts are capable of transcendence; but the „duende“ finds its widest field in music, dance, and spoken poetry: for these demand a living body that mediates, because they are forms that incessantly arise and pass away and build their outlines only upon a precisely limited present.“
The cry «ay!» is omnipresent in Lorca's poetry. It is a lament and a cry of ecstasy at the same time, searching for the stillness of the night. The sound and shape of the cry embody inexhaustible realms of emotion that become choreographic vignettes, oases of intense musical and dance moods.