Movimento/ Talking Dance

with guest expert Matthew Attard

Movimento is a series of five public, interactive talks presented from the perspective of artists outside of dance, looking in. Movimento takes a fresh and innovative approach to audience engagement, where invited guests share their experience of dance or movement, demystifying and making accessible this rich and beautiful art form and inviting the audience to become active spectators.

‘SEEING – TRACING – DRAWING MOVEMENT’

Join us for the fourth and final appointment within the ŻfinMalta Movimento series for the 23/24 season with our guest, Matthew Attard.  Matthew unpacks the points at which movement and dance intersect with his work following two collaborations with the National Dance Company (‘On Reefs and Eroded Lands We Danced’ and ‘Geographers of Solitude’).

Matthew’s practice investigates images as social and cultural constructs and he is strongly interested in situating his practice within the realm of contemporary drawing through a multimedia approach that highlights drawing’s versatile, performative, and time-based nature. His interest in understanding the gaze as a form of drawing – its perceptual, physiological and cultural dimensions – were the focus of his practice-based PhD research at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, funded by the Malta Arts Scholarship scheme.  Matthew is currently the solo artist representing the Malta Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, with the project ‘I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP’, commissioned by the Malta Arts Council and co-curated by Elyse Tonna and Sara Dolfi.

Raised in Malta, in 2009 he moved to Venice and collaborated with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the USA Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2009 and 2011. Later, he came back to Malta where in 2018 he obtained his Masters by Research Degree from the Digital Arts Department of the University of Malta. He first exhibited his work in a double solo show organised in 2014 at Galleria Michela Rizzo in Venice. Since then, he has exhibited in Venice, Rome, Valletta, Genoa, London, Beijing and Los Angeles among other cities. Also, in 2017 he was selected for the 3rd edition of the ‘Le Latitudini dell’Arte‘ Biennale, at the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, while in 2018 he was awarded the Under 30 Euromobil Prize at ArteFiera, Bologna.

He was selected three times to show in the context of ‘Ten Artists to Watch’ at LACDA (Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts) and in 2019 he was invited to participate in ‘ArtissimaTelephone’ at the OGR spaces in Turin. Recently, he was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize 2021. ‘Rajt ma rajtx… naf li rajt‘ is one of Matthew’s major solo shows, curated by Elyse Tonna at Valletta Contemporary in 2021. In 2022 he was commissioned the work ‘Here’s How I Did Not See What You Wanted Me To See’ as part of the OPEN digital residency at Blitz, Valletta. His most recent solo show, ‘Ship of Fools’, took place in March 2023 at Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice.

Movimento/ Talking Dance

with guest expert Claire Tonna

Movimento is a series of five public, interactive talks presented from the perspective of artists outside of dance, looking in. Movimento takes a fresh and innovative approach to audience engagement, where invited guests share their experience of dance or movement, demystifying and making accessible this rich and beautiful art form and inviting the audience to become active spectators.

‘Body of Words: Translating the Emotional Narrative’

Join us for the third appointment within the ŻfinMalta Movimento series for the 23/24 season with our guest, Singer Songwriter Claire Tonna, who will be sharing songwriting techniques that translate transformation beyond the artistic expression. A listening journey leading to the creation of words, songs, and dances we want to experience; to be and to become. The workshop will deliver tools that strengthen the genuinity and emotional narrative communicated in the arts.

‘There is a silent choreographer in each one of us that our own words can unveil. The sound and meaning of such words is the big conversation we might need to hear. An interior dancer manifesting how we live and what we are creating with our movement and thoughts; for and beyond the stage’.

Songwriting is a tool for discovering the words and power one needs to tell themselves or maybe even ‘stop’ telling themselves.  It is a release, an insight, a very important conversation one can have with themselves to see how and where they are, what they need, what changes can be made to lead to a happier state of being. 

We hold the words that we need to hear, say, cry to, laugh at, be strengthened by, even embraced and belong with. The truth is that we each are the only ones that know those words, that silent dancer waiting to be unleashed. 

The songs / and art created through such process carries a genuine narrative, emotional, physical, human, one that never fails to resonate with all who are witnessing and experiencing its delivery. 

In this workshop Claire Tonna shares this practice and ways of how it can be applied to dance and other forms of creative work.

Who can benefit from songwriting?

Everyone.

What to expect?

A master class/workshop sharing the tools in songwriting that Claire uses, develops and shares, the foundations of which can benefit any dancer, artist, creator and any human being.  Participants engaging with this experience may dive deeper into their emotional intelligence a may discover the songwriter in them.

About Claire Tonna

Claire Tonna is a queer Maltese singer, songwriter, performer renowned internationally for her distinctively contralto voice and writing, considered to be one that transmits the plural facets of human emotion and empowerment.

Tonna ’s works and performances have been taking place all over the globe in the last two decades inside theatres, festivals, LGBTQI+ spaces, prisons, slums, refugee centres, mental hospitals and many other spaces resonating with her truth filled music and vocation. The facets of her presence and voice are acclaimed to present the audience an experience of incomparable empowerment. In 2019 she won the title and award of ‘Best European Singer/Songwriter’ rewarded by the Tour Music Fest, Sony (Italy) and Berklee College from Boston, United States. 

‘ I sing what heals my broken bones and sing them in the one voice we are; Human.’ CT

Contact ŻfinMalta Education & Outreach Artist or visit our Movimento page for further info.

This is a limited capacity event, so book your seat in advance to avoid disappointment.

Further information on ŻfinMalta’s Education & Participation programme can be found here or follow our updates on our social media channels.

Movimento/ Talking Dance

with guest expert Kenneth Scicluna

Join us for the second appointment within ŻfinMalta’s Movimento series for the 23/24 season with our guest, Kenneth Scicluna.

Movimento is a series of five public, interactive talks presented from the perspective of artists outside of dance, looking in. Movimento takes a fresh and innovative approach to audience engagement, where invited guests share their experience of dance or movement, demystifying and making accessible this rich and beautiful art form and inviting the audience to become active spectators.

Movimento/ Talking Dance

‘Probing movement…a dramaturg’s experience’ with guest expert Victor Jacono

Join us for the first appointment within ŻfinMalta’s Movimento series for the 23/24 season with our guest, Victor Jacono who will be sharing his experience with dance dramaturgy.

This is an excellent opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at ŻfinMalta’s upcoming production: ‘Ħolm tal-Milied?’ as Victor unpacks his dramaturgical role within that creative process.

“The dramaturg’s work may be too complex to capture in a few words, but I have a soft spot for synthetic definitions, so … for me, dramaturgy is empowering the artist’s work, that in turn is empowering the creative encounter between the artist and the beholder.”

Along with sharing his experience of movement and dance through this lens, during this session he shall be sharing his multifaceted approach to dramaturgy whilst producing some dramaturgical tools that participants can try out.

Dr. Victor Jacono is a senior lecturer and coordinates the Performing Arts programmes at MCAST’s Institute for the Creative Arts. He is a theatre director and playwright, with a keen interest in relating complexity and brain science to performer training and creativity. He has been collaborating with ŻfinMalta on a number of projects, including dramaturgical collaborations with Paolo Mangiola, Sergiu Matis, the New Victorians and Adriano Bolognino.