IVGI&GREBEN (NETHERLANDS)

Object (14+)

Object is a solo dance performance. A female dancer expresses solitude, desire, and manipulation, looking for the boundaries between emotional and physical aspects of a human body being watched. In these intense 20 minutes of dialogue with the audience the dance shifts between compassion and confrontation.

Choreography: Ivgi&Greben

Performer: Manon Adrianow

Costume: Ivgi&Greben

Light: Ivgi Greben

Music: Serge Leonardi, Michel Korb, Ben Frost

Biography

Already during their individual dance careers, respectively at the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel and the Dutch National Ballet in The Netherlands, Uri Ivgi and Johan Greben successfully started their individual career as a choreographer. Both received important awards for their early works, and created various choreographies for companies, festivals in Europe. Since they teamed up as a choreographers-duo in 2003 they created over 35 dance productions both nationally and internationally. Everywhere they worked their quality was recognized and awarded more than once, for example in Moscow, they received the Golden Mask Award for Best Choreographer in Ballet/Contemporary Dance. After roaming the globe for so long, they were invited to start their own dance company in 2021 in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands where they work with 8 dancers from different nationalities.

ŻFIN MALTA (MALTA)

STAGE 1 

Stage 1 is a duet that embraces silence and transcends traditional choreography, creating a unique and fluent rhythm that flows through every movement. In this new work, the absence of sound is a canvas for the exploration of fresh ideas and imaginative concepts. 

This choreographic miniature forms part of a greater research endeavour that delves into the mysteries of sleep cycles and the depths of the oneiric state. Stage 1 unfolds elegantly to reveal the secrets of our enigmatic dream world and the intricate choreographic elements that bring it to life.

Choreographer: Paolo Mangiola

Paolo Mangiola is a choreographer, dance educator, and performer, working within ballet and contemporary dance practices. Operating in the intersections between codified dance and ordinary movement, Paolo is interested in exploring this relationship in the context of our interconnected society, drawing inspiration from various artistic sources, the web, and emerging movements. As a performer, Paolo has collaborated with, and danced for, artists and choreographers including Wayne McGregor, Deborah Hay, Martin Creed, and Mauro Bigonzetti. Paolo has created works for the Royal Ballet, Tanztheater Nürnberg, Aterballetto, Szczecin Opera Ballet, and Balletto di Roma. He obtained a Masters in Choreography at The Place, London, and designed the program for the Contemporary Dance Department, Scuola del Balletto di Roma. Paolo was appointed resident choreographer at Balletto di Roma in 2015, where he remained for three seasons. He was appointed Artistic Director of ŻfinMalta, Malta’s national dance company, in 2017.

Tara Dalli was born in 1998. She started her training as a young gymnast, joining the Maltese national team till the age of 13. Growing up, she was exposed to various dance styles, including ballet, jazz, hip hop and contemporary. In 2017, Tara worked for Moveo Dance Company participating in multiple productions, while also taking part in other projects locally. She has been working for ZfinMalta since 2018, participating in many creations and re-staging of works from both local and international artists and choreographers, including Roy Assaf, Tania Carvalho, Jacopo Godani and Paolo Mangiola.

Keith Micallef, born in 1993, began his dance training at age 12 under the tuition of Theresa Lungaro Mifsud at The Dance Workshop. He trained in classical ballet in the Cecchetti Method, achieving a Distinction in the Advanced 2 level. He also trained in contemporary and flamenco dance styles. Keith joined ŻfinMalta in 2014 and has since performed works by Paolo Mangiola, Jacopo Godani, Jose Agudo, Iván Pérez Avilés, Roy Assaf, Tania Carvalho, and Rosemary Lee, among others. Before joining the company, Keith graduated from the University of Malta with a Degree in Legal Studies.

MOVEO DANCE COMPANY (MALTA)

XLOKK

Xlokk (southeast) is a work that explores, through sound and movement, our folk music. The main questions that will be explored are: How can we bring to live the stories told through għana and what can we make of them? Dorian will be experimenting with how the ghana music affects the body and what stories these improvised songs tell. The dancers will be telling the stories, in a contemporary manner, giving life to the rich Maltese history that is so embedded in our folk music. Xlokk reflects our sounds from the southeast of the island with a strong connection to the southeast Mediterranean influences.  

Choreographer: Dorian Mallia

Dancers: Charlotte Carpentier and Gabriele Farinacci

Composer: Albert Garzia

Live music performers: Mariele Żammit & Andrew Alamango

Biography

Dorian Mallia

founder, and artistic director of Moveo Dance Company, graduated from Central School of Ballet (London), where he obtained a degree in professional dance and performance, and pursued a Master’s degree in Performing Studies (Dance) at the University of Malta. Before proceeding to the CSB, he attended the JCDC, Malta, Urdang Academy, Covent Garden, London, and the Hungary State Academy.

In 2008 he set up Moveo Dance Company, and has been creating work for the company since then, including Carmen, Blooming Creatures, Tfaljla Tal- Ghonella, One Funny Ballet, The Other Door, What’s Wrong, Why Not!?, SeeQuatic, MindSet, Echo, U-turn, Three Monkeys, Official opening of Smart City, Official opening of CHOGM with the presence of Her Royal Highness Queen Elisabeth, Official opening of the Presidency, Inauguration of The George Cross with the presence of His Royal Highness Duke of Edinburgh, and V18 opening ceremony to mention a few. Some of the works have been performed in London, Bruno, the U.S., Prague, Romania, Hungary, Malta, and Italy.

Albert Garzia

Albert Garzia, a composer, musician, and music teacher, started his musical training as an accordionist under Dorselle Mifsud. He graduated in Industrial Electronics but his fascination for music led him to experiment in many of its fields. He started composition studies with Raymond Sciberras and completed his BA (Hons) in Music Studies and a Diploma in Sacred Music – both majoring in Composition at the University of Malta. He completed his master’s degree in music at the School of Composition at the University of Malta. He completed his master's degree in music at the School of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Garzia’s music ranges from orchestral to chamber combinations. Some of his music was published for pedagogical use. He has collaborated with frame companies, choreographers, poets, and film directors. While being versatile, his objective is musical communication which he strives to achieve by fusing folk elements into contemporary music language.

Andrew Alamango

Andrew Alamango is a guitarist, researcher and musicologist who has been actively researching the għana tradition over the past two decades. His projects have led him to collaborate with some of the more prominent singers of the tradition, including the late Frans Baldacchino Il-Budaj, who helped him foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for għana. As a founding member of the Magna Żmien Foundation he is interested in the preservation and access of archival recordings with the aim of enabling the transmission of knowledge of the guitar and vocal tradition, and proposing new developments on għana and its performance.

Mariele Żammit

Mariele is a freelance performing artist and session singer.  She trained professional dance, singing and acting at the Millennium Performing Arts in London after placing first in the last edition of TVM programme, “L-Isfida”.  Mariele’s first role as għannejja was in 2018 in Fiorella Camilleri’s GħaNasori at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu. This project brought together traditional Maltese Għana and the Japanese imperial court dance known as Nasori.  Later that same year Mariele served in the same role in Teatru Malta’s Ilħna Mitlufa – Lost Voices by Andrew Alamango at Teatru Salesjan in Sliema, Teatru Astra in Gozo and in St Germain l'Auxerrois in the Louvre district, Paris. In 2019 Mariele and Andrew collaborated with LabPerm di Domenico Castaldo and performed Ilħna Mitlufa at Sala Scicluna in Torino.

PUERTO FLAMENCO (MALTA/SPAIN)

FARRUCA 5.0

The proposed project is based on the artistic collaboration with Maltese flamenco dancer Francesca Grima, Maltese/Serbian art director, composer, and percussionist Andrej Vujicic, and Eduardo Trassierra one of the most prominent and solicited flamenco guitarists of his generation. The innovative aspect of the project is in the breaking of the established canons and traditional aspects of the flamenco art form and Mediterranean folklore and music in general, creating new and challenging artistic environments and contexts and moving towards a more creatively diverse work.

The groundwork for the project comes from preliminary experimentation in the choreography and music of Farruca, a dance sub-genre of flamenco, traditionally performed by a male dancer, often with the use of a chair as an accessory, performing a seated piece of dance and footwork. Often danced only accompanied by a guitar, it is a stark, angular, regimental, and masculine, symbolic representation of rules, delineation, norms, cannons, and boundaries, imposed by tradition, society, art-form, gender, and age.

Dancer: Francesca Grima

Art Direction / Composer / Percussionist: Andrej Vujcic

Music: Eduoardo Trassiera

Supported by The Spanish Embassy

Biography

Francesca started dancing at the age of five, studying classical ballet, modern dance, and Maltese folk dance for fifteen years at the Daphne Lungaro Dance School and the College of Jazz in Malta. Francesca began her professional career as a flamenco dancer in Seville in the tablao “Las Brujas” (2003) and later at the reputable tablao of Curro Velez “El Arenal” performing for two years alongside renowned artists such as Carmen Montoya, Loli Flores, and El Jarillo. She is currently the lead dancer in the Tablao Alvarez Quintero renowned as The Maltese Flamenco Dancer "LA MALTESA", performing there regularly.  Together with her husband Andrej, Francesca runs her own flamenco company PUERTO FLAMENCO and over the past nineteen years has created, directed, and presented several flamenco performances. Their latest production "FLAMENCO DPA" (2019) stars the famous flamenco singer Esperanza Fernandez.

EDUARDO TRASSIERA

Eduoardo gained recognition after winning the 12th Contest of Seville's Bienal de Arte Flamenca (2002); he was also awarded the GIRAL-1L0 DEL TOQUE. He went on to perform around the world as a flamenco guitar soloist, notably in New Mexico, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Don, Munich, and Würzburg, among many others. He worked for several years as a soloist in the OCA (Andalusian Chamber Orchestra) and directed the renowned violinist Michael Tomas. In 2008 he was invited by the Nuremberg Philharmonic to play in the composer Joaquín Rodrigos atasía para un gentil hombre, earning very positive international reviews. After those years he founded the Trio Trassierra Flamenco Project, first presented at the Molière Theatre in Brussels, with subsequent perfor-ances at festivals in Dranouter, Brussels, Paris, Antwerp, and Bruges, among others.

Q & R WITH DR KATHRINA FARRUGIA KRIEL

DATES: 27-30 JULY 2023

EVENT: CONVERSATION WITH ALL ARTISTS ATTENDING Q&R.

Biography

Author and scholar Kathrina Farrugia-Kriel has taught extensively over the past twenty years on research in dance, approaches for writing dance and performance histories, as well as pedagogy in choreography and ballet. Her books include Princess Poutiatine and the Art of Ballet in Malta (2020) The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Ballet (with Jill Nunes Jensen, 2021), and a new anthology on ballet pedagogy (with Adesola Akinleye). She has also published chapters, essays, and articles on ballet, pedagogy, and choreographic/performance studies, and has authored three webinar series: ‘Pioneers of the Royal Academy of Dance’ (2020), ‘Ballet in the 20th Century’ (2021-22) and ‘Ballet in the 21st Century’ (2022-23). As Head of Research at the Royal Academy of Dance (London), she has curated the Guest Lecture Series. With a global reach, Kathrina has organised conferences in Europe, the USA, and Australia.