Moritz Zavan Stoeckle & Sara Accettura (Italy/Malta) Ligo

 Ligo is the link between people, the connection between cultures, the combination of different heritages. Merging different backgrounds, Ligo explores the encounter between diverse artistic expressions, revealing how different languages can fuse, bind, and create a joint vocabulary.

In a historical time when we can travel around the world easily, and we can virtually reach far people through technical devices, there is still the need for personal connection with the other. The fear of the unknown should be replaced with the excitement of new discoveries. Ligo means committing, trusting, playing, fighting, struggling, and ultimately sharing.

Choreography/Performers: Sara Accettura – Moritz Zavan Stoeckle

Music: Composed by Benji Cachia, inspired by original compositions of Bhagavatula Seetarama Sharma. Moritz Zavan Stoeckle  Moritz began his Bharatanatyam training in 1995 with Savitry Nair. In 2007 he started his career as a lighting designer in Venice at Teatro Fondamente Nuove. In 2010 he started training in contemporary dance. In 2012, he won the audience prize of the GD'A Veneto competition. In 2013 his Bharatanatyam solo debut was presented by Mavin Khoo in Venice, and the same year he performed in India under the guidance of Seetharama Sharma. Since then, he has performed several solo shows in India and Europe. Since 2012 he is also working as a fre-lance dancer and collaborated with several international companies and choreographers such as Contact Dance Company, Shobana Jeyasingh and Seeta Patel, with whom in 2022 he performed The Rite Of Spring at the Sadler’s Wells. In 2018 he obtained an MA in ‘Performing Arts – Dance’ with a dissertation on multi-genre choreographies that merge Indian classical dance and contemporary dance. Currently he is working as a freelance dancer, lighting designer, and movement director while also working as assistant lecturer at Mcast, Institute for the Creative Arts in Malta.

Sara Accettura

After achieving a Diploma for dance teachers and a Master in choreography in Italy,  Sara obtained a first class BA(hons) and Master of Arts in Performance at the London Contemporary Dance School (UK). Sara has performed for several European companies, amongst them the National Dance Company of Wales, Cedar Dance Theatre, Diciembre Dance, Combination Dance, Leila Dance and Maddogs Dance. Her choreographic works have received various awards, amongst them Fragments was awarded overall winner at the International Dance Championship 2012 (Croatia), and The White Butterfly got the first prize at the International Dance Competition in 2015 (Moscow). Sara is currently a dance educator and artistic director of Junior Dance Company, Dance Master Class, and Dance For All, a board member and dance leader for Opening Doors Malta, while lecturing for the Dance Studies and the Disability Studies departments (University of Malta) and pursuing a PhD in Dance and Autism at Bedfordshire University.

Benji Cachia

A musician by profession, Benji Cachia, otherwise known as ‘Banjo Rancho’, has been in the field performing for over 20 years, he has established a strong network of collaborators in the music industry including award winning musician Pete Lockett, Sharing the stage or collaborating with some of the world's most renowned artists including, John butler,  Giri Udupa, Plini, Fernando Hernandez (original drummer of queens of the stone age) Guthrie Govan, Pete Lockett, and Delta Sleep! As leader of contemporary rock jazz the group ‘The Ranch’, Benji has toured extensively playing more than 100+ international shows  throughout Europe performing music from his 3 established studio albums. He also plays a significant role as a music assistant with Opening Doors (A performing arts establishment for adults with disabilities) since 2015, supporting those with mental or physical boundaries and challenges to express themselves freely through the language of music.

Qabalum (Spain)

La medida que nos ha de dividir

It takes two places to make a border. This space full of lines parallel to the time that crosses us and that is neither truenor uniquenor ours. No, we will no longer be a recipient of anything, neither is the measure that shall divide us.

And even soHow could we even guess that this was the future?

La medida que nos ha de dividir [The measure that shall divide us] is a short duet that dances the will of being together, of sharing a life in common and how to sustain it not knowing what the future will hold behind its horizon. The two bodies lay, measure, intertwine, caress, pierce each other creating a choreographic script about affection, passing of the time and human impulses. Performers/Choreographers: Diego Pazó & Lucía Burguete Music: Luisillo Kalandraka [original music]

Diego Pazó and Lucía Burguete started dancing through different backgrounds -breakdance and rhythmic gymnastics, respectively- before arriving at contemporary dance. They met and started working together studying in La Faktoría Choreographic Center in 2019 -where they learn from masters such as Laura Aris, Marta Coronado, Germán Jáuregi, Thomas Hauert, Mark Tompkins and Thi-Mai Nguyen, among others.

They collaborated in short projects for other choreographers such as Laida Aldaz, Isael Mata or Judith Sánchez while developing their individual careers as performers in other companies such as Daniel Abreu, Antonio Ruz, Jesús Rubio, Led Silhouette, Vicky P. Miranda or Proyecto Larrua. In 2020 they establish their own collective Qabalum and start their own personal work, creating and performing in different festivals both nationally and internationally. They have also been invited to share their practice in workshops around the world such as TRY Dance Program or Festival Dança em Trânsito. 

Supported by The Spanish Embassy

Eliana Stragapede & Borna Babić (Brussels) Amae

AMAE questions and investigates the need of codependency in human relationships. The desire to be passively loved, seeking for the other's indulgence. The wish to completely surround and feel at one with the other, trying to neglect and avoid confrontation with the outside objective reality. From a certain perspective, this might be perceived as a very warm and human behaviour, being in harmony with others and being able to rely on them. From another point of view, it might seem to encourage self-indulgence, dependence and control. How far can this need bring us, so that from love we start hurting, from taking care we become obsessive and from supporting we end up controlling? Concept, choreography and performance: Eliana Stragapede and Borna Babić

Dramaturgy: Margherita Scalise 

Music composed: Nenad Kovačić

Voice: Teresa Campos

Original music: Nicholas Britell

Eliana Stragapede (IT) and Borna Babić (CRO) are freelance makers, dancers and teachers based in Brussels. Their performance AMAE was awarded at The Copenhagen International Choreography Competition 2022 with the 1st place for the Choreography and Production Awards by Nederlands Dans Theater and Holstebro Dansekompagni. Furthermore, at Rotterdam International Choreographic Competition 2023, it got awarded with Partner Awards by Codarts and Dansateliers. Eliana is currently performing with Peeping Tom and Club Guy & Roni while Borna is collaborating with Ultima Vez / Wim Vandekeybus and Olivier de Sagazan.

Zagreb Dance Company - ZPA (Croatia)

The Frame

The creative process started with the questioning of the idea of narcissism: how much narcissism is there in an individual and the society? To what extent is it part of our everyday lives, of our modern society in which our greatest burden is self? Choreographer Borna Babić found his inspiration in the book written by the American psychotherapist Alexander Lowen, Narcissism: Denial of the True Self. This is what Borna says about his work: I've always been intrigued by the conflict between narcissism and modesty, which, I believe, resides in all of us. What makes us take one or the other side? What wakes them up, and is the shift between the two a conscious effort? I have often seen and recognised these two sides in myself and other people, so I wanted to understand them better. Choreography: Borna Babić Performers: Luna Lilek, Silvija Musić, Karlo Topolovec, Endi Schrötter

Music: Nils Peschanski, Nenad Kovačić, Dunja Bahtijarević Throughout many years of its existence, Zagreb Dance Company (ZPA) has always insisted on original works and high artistic and technical levels of its productions. Regular collaborations with foreign choreographers and various artists from theatre, visual arts, and music have contributed to the Company’s readiness to face the challenges of different artistic approaches and poetics. As such, ZPA has marked the careers of many dancers and dance experts today working in Croatia and abroad. For its contribution to the development of Croatian theatre, ZPA has received the Croatian Association of Dramatic Artists’ awards for best choreography (2004, 2012, 2018), best female dancer (2004, 2016), best male dancer (2004, 2006, 2012), best set design (2006), and best dance production (2008, 2012). Zagreb Dance Company continually presents its productions at theatres and festivals in Croatia and abroad, performing in almost all European countries, Russia, South Korea, Israel, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

Q & R WITH DR KATHRINA FARRUGIA KRIEL

DATES: 25-28 JULY 2024

EVENT: CONVERSATION WITH ALL ARTISTS ATTENDING Q&R.

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.

IMPORTANT 

The programme for Dance Festival Malta Day 2 occurs in two venues for which two separate tickets need to be purchased. Tickets out soon.

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