National dance company ŻfinMalta launches new season

Minister for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government José Herrera, together with ŻfinMalta’s Chairperson Alison White and ŻfinMalta Artistic Director Paolo Mangiola, launched ŻfinMalta’s 2021/22 season.

ŻfinMalta never fails to deliver audiences a new experience of dance. All productions push boundaries and engage the best local and international dancers, choreographers, and artists. Their education and participation programmes are integral to the development of Malta’s dance professionals and to expanding local and international audiences. The new season programme is no exception, bringing home the importance of the arts and live performance to the wellbeing of our society, not only in these times of adversity, but as a critical part of our everyday lives. With Artistic Director Paolo Mangiola taking the company from strength to strength, ŻfinMalta’s 2021/22 season is its most ambitious to date.

“Today our national dance ensemble launched its artistic programme for the coming year 2021-2022. This is a very ambitious programme consisting of no less than 18 performances in various venues in Malta and Gozo. It is also the intention of ŻfinMalta to recommence foreign touring to promote Malta’s cultural identity overseas. ŻfinMalta is surely one of our important national artistic assets”, stated Minister Herrera.

Artistic Director Paolo Mangiola stated that: “These past two years have been challenging for the art world and especially for live performance. In the face of sudden and immense changes it has been necessary to adapt and be resilient. ŻfinMalta celebrates our ability as humans to continuously transform and embrace change. The creative and productive force that drives ŻfinMalta has not abated, and we are thrilled to be launching our new season with an incredible line up of artists and collaborators from Malta and abroad. Be prepared for the experience of a beautiful and inspiring journey, in which you will witness works that are powerful, unique, and communicate the wonderful language of dance”.

Here is a preview of the season’s productions. For the full season programme including participation and outreach programmes such as intensives, open classes, school programmes, an artist in residence programme, workshops in dance dramaturgy, and public talks, as well as exclusive online content, go to www.zfinmalta.org

Dances for Gozo

The season kicks off in Gozo with an evening of dance featuring two works – Nuova Figura by Paolo Mangiola, based on Antonio Saliba’s celestial map of the universe held in the collection of Heritage Malta, and a re-staging of Jacob Piccinino’s Kalypso, both with strong artistic links and references to the island’s cultural heritage and mythology.

This dynamic double-bill has been specially commissioned in collaboration with the Ministry for Gozo, making it a free event. 2 October 2021, Teatru Aurora Bookings are essential:

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FILM: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Created by choreographer Sergiu Matis for ŻfinMalta, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is ŻfinMalta’s first cinema release. When you are looking for more indoor activities this October, don’t miss the experience of ŻfinMalta National Dance Company on the big screen. Matis’s rendition of Shakespeare’s play adapts its principal themes of obsessive love, nature, and the mystical to our time, bringing in the new themes of climate change, feminism, and the colonialist, capitalist west.

Screening dates:

Friday, October 22, 2021 – 7.30pm Sunday, October 24, 2021 – 5.30pm Tuesday, October 26, 2021 – 7.30pm Saturday, October 30, 2021 – 6.30pm Friday, November 5, 2021 – 8.30pm Spazju Kreattiv Cinema, Valletta

Weaving Chaos

Working with the Portuguese choreographer Tânia Carvalho, one of Europe’s most important choreographers today, ŻfinMalta’s company dancers perform the highly acclaimed work Weaving Chaos. Homer’s Odyssey is the driving force behind this piece, which summons its dancers to interpret the stubbornness, the pain, and the will of the epic hero returning home. Between the show of individuality of a character and their presence or dissolution in a collective, the tireless search for movement remains, and they fall, in order to rise again.

Supported by the Embassy of Portugal in Rome and Camões I.P. 3/4/5 December 2021, Teatru Manoel

ŻfinDays 2022

A platform for the presentation of short works by choreographers in the spotlight on the international dance stage, ŻfinDays 2022 features Georgia Tegou (Athens/London) and Francesca Pennini’s CollettivO CineticO (Italy). Tegou’s Ochre, created for ŻfinMalta’s dancers, is inspired by the Neolithic figure of the Venus of Malta and the catacombs in which it was found, widely believed to be a portal to the underworld. Ochre traverses history and memory, ancient wisdom and mysticism. In contrast, Pennini’s How to destroy your dance is firmly rooted in the present. Both a choreography and a game, it sets out to explore the limits of the body and create a handbook for the boycott of every choreographic decorum, all in a challenge against time.

Supported by the Italian Institute of Culture in Malta. 18/19/20 February 2022,

Valletta Campus Theatre

Intimate Żfin

Intimate music meets intimate dance. Intimate Żfin is an opportunity to see the company’s extraordinary dancers up close in a series of choreographic miniatures created by ŻfinMalta’s artistic director Paolo Mangiola. For this inaugural event ŻfinMalta partners with Malta’s celebrated singer and musician

Alexandra Alden and her band from Rotterdam. In a collaboration with Palazzo Parisio, Intimate Żfin unfolds through a series of dance sketches, creating a dialogue between the choreography, music, and lavish surrounds of the Palazzo Parisio ballroom.

Supported by Palazzo Parisio. 26/27 March 2022,

Palazzo Parisio

Requiem for Juliet

A new full-length work commissioned for ŻfinMalta, Requiem for Juliet is Riccardo Buscarini’s sequel to William Shakespeare’s 1597 play, Romeo and Juliet. The narrative is relived as an imaginary letter to the deceased Juliet from her bereaved mother, who is represented by an actress on stage throughout. Love and grief, gender roles, religion and power, remain central themes in this not-to-be-missed adaptation of a famous tragedy.

Supported by the Italian Institute of Culture in Malta.

27/28/29 May, Teatru Manoel

Sunrise Mass

Sunrise Mass is a collaboration between ŻfinMalta, KorMalta, and Heritage Malta in a site-specific work at the Mnajdra Temples in Malta, and Ġgantija Temples in Gozo. The work centres around Ola Gjeilo’s renowned ‘Sunrise Mass’, written for a chorus and string orchestra. 19 June, Mnajdra Temples,

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