01. The cast of 'Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir' in rehearsals and shows for the national tour of the piece, 2024.

Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir

June 2023

ORIGINAL SCORE: EDUARDO CABALLERO
DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHer: CÉSAR BRODERMANN

The process of composing the original music for Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir began in 2022. César and I had previously worked together on the piece Punto de Partida, commissioned for the Peridance Certificate Program in New York. Punto de Partida was my first foray into composing music for dance, and it influenced the instrumentation and composition of this second score.

At the start of this process it was established that one of the guiding principles would be to never lower the energy: it could only increase. Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir was the first time I composed a one-hour piece, and this principle posed a challenge in creating music that could captivate the audience in that duration. On the one hand, the gradual build had to be precise. It couldn't be too slow, as it might bore the audience, nor too fast, as the energy later on could become monotonous. I decided not to use music for dance as a reference and instead drew inspiration from film scores and techno music.

02. Above: Polaroid of the dancers filming the trailer for the piece at Nevado de Toluca, 2023. Photography by César Brodermann. Below: The first of two shows of Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir at Conjunto Santander de Artes Escénicas in Guadalajara, 2024.

When starting to produce a musical piece, one must select sounds that best align with the envisioned concept. These instruments and effects can come from pre-existing sound libraries, which anyone can use to compose. Due to these characteristics, using pre-existing elements was not an option: I envisioned the sonic universe of Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir with elements that, while familiar, would be unique to this piece. I decided to create this atmosphere by designing the instruments for the first twenty minutes from scratch using a synthesizer. One thing I wanted to avoid was the music taking center stage—the focus should always remain on the dance and the performers. This process gave me greater control over the energy and expressiveness of the composition and the instrument. For this first section, I reduced the melody to its bare minimum, using only two notes. The rhythm of the section is erratic, stemming from filters, distortion, and bass.

Midway through the piece, we decided to incorporate the song 'Samsara' by the artist AVRORA. This served as a bridge to the third section, which consists of fourteen minutes of techno. This piece, like all of César's work, is an exercise in endurance. It was essential to include this intense section, where the energy continues to build even more. To achieve this, it was crucial to carefully plan and diversify the rhythms and instruments to maintain the audience's interest and the momentum of the piece. This section accumulates tension and culminates with guitar, voice, and piano in a cathartic finale.

Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir premiered at LAGUNA in July 2023. It received financial support from the national fund FONCA through the 'Fomento y Coinversiones' Program in 2023, which allowed it to have 12 performances across Mexico. It was selected by the Red del Noroeste and has been presented at the National Center for the Arts (Cenart) and festivals such as the José Limón Festival in Sinaloa, the Lila López Festival in San Luis Potosí, among others.

"We are conditioned to seek destinations as our sole objective, but by changing the way we observe, we can realize that the journey itself offers the greatest learning. Ningún Lugar A Donde Ir is a multidisciplinary stage proposal by César Brodermann, in which seven performers seek to dissolve endings through a constant encounter with the present moment."