The bull, the princess, and the hero

Inspired by the myth of Theseus and the Labyrinth, The Bull, the Princess, and the Hero inhabits a space where love, sacrifice, courage, and abandonment emerge as unstable archetypes, disintegrating and reforming.

As both material and metaphor, sand creates a landscape in flux. As forms erode, new configurations arise, carrying traces of what came before. Bodies gather and disperse, constructing and dissolving images in an endless process of becoming.

Mythologies become a means of reimagining the present. Warnings, desires, and contradictions echo through time, opening space to reconsider ourselves, our choices, and our relationship to the world we encounter.

The Bull, the Princess and the Hero lingers between construction and collapse, erasure and return. Within this shifting terrain, forms continually dissolve and re-emerge, carrying the possibility of transformation.

Choreography: Matthew William Robinson 

Sand Sculptor: Oscar Rodriguez

Choreographic Assistant: Mario Manara

Costume Designer: Zoe Camilleri

Featuring music by: Caterina Barbieri, Aïsha Devi, Donato Dozzy & Sabla – Flusso IV, Rival Consoles

Dancers

ALESSANDRO PELLEGRINELLI

ANDREA BIAGIONI

MARTÍ BLANCO ROMEU

MAYA ATTARD

PEARL CALLEJA

Upcoming performance dates

22nd, 23rd, & 24th May: as part of ‘Unfold,’ at Teatru Manoel

Sway

Choreography: Diego Tortelli

Assistant Choreographer: Tom van de Ven

Costume Design: Diego Tortelli and Laurent Uyttersprot

Light Design: Dali Aguerbi 

Upcoming performance dates

22nd, 23rd, & 24th May: as part of ‘Unfold,’ at Teatru Manoel

Nation

Choreography: Matthew William Robinson 

Costume design: Azzopardi Studio 

Music: Alexander Comana 

Set Design: Tom Van Malderen

Props: Jon Banthorpe 

Light design: Dali Aguerbi 

Upcoming performance dates

25 July 2026, as part of Dance Festival Malta, Teatru Manoel

NÁCAR is supported by the Embassy of Spain.

Upcoming performance dates

19/20/21 December 2025, as part of XitwaŻfin, Valletta Campus Theatre

Choreography, Set and Costume Design Helge Letonja

Costumier Linda Rowell

Light Design Niels Plotard

Technical Manager Pamela Kerr

Upcoming performance dates

4th October, Notte Bianca, Chamber of Commerce, Valletta

20/21/22 February, ŻfinDays, Valletta Campus Theatre

Choreography: Matthew William Robinson 

Costume Design: Holly Knowles 

Light Design: Dali Aguerbi 

Set Design: Jon Banthorpe

A choreographic diptych created by ŻfinMalta Artistic Director Matthew William Robinson. How do we confront the end? BORDER/NATION considers our response to the crumbling systems that surround us, and our human response to death and decay. Is our collective grief shaping our collective future? Each work draws together an international team of artists, working across mediums and forms. Expect a hyper-physical experience that pulls to the extremes. An emotional journey divided in two, that will unfold over the season.

Bahr

The Official Opening Ceremony of the 2017 Maltese EU Presidency is scheduled for the 11th January and will take place at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. ‘BAHR’, a newly commissioned work for the Presidency, explores migration in all its forms, and its dialogue with movement, encounters, challenges and possibilities. It is about the very human experience at the core of this issue, which is so close to the heart of the 2017 Maltese EU Presidency. ‘BAHR’ will be performed by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of its principal conductor Brian Schembri, who will accompany national dance ensemble ŻfinMalta in Mavin Khoo’s interpretation of Albert Garzia’s original music score composed for the occasion.

Times of Malta: Migration at core of ŻfinMalta’s opening performance for EU Presidency. Bahr explores influx, encounters and hope. 

Photographs by Charles Paul Azzopardi

Exhausting Space

The Spanish choreographer Iván Pérez is well known for his poetic, clear dance style, which is stripped down to its bare essentials. He now employs this style to interpret the way we relate to each other in our complex world. Our world, where everything is connected, but boundaries can easily be transgressed. Presented as an adaptation of his previous work Attention, the doors are closing! created in Moscow, three dancers use every corner of the theatre surrounded by the audience. Tirelessly and affectionately, they exhaust perspectives of personal space and use their bodies in search for unity. Even though the boundary that separates intimacy from intimidation is fragile, the dancers push the limits anyway. Tenderly they discover new possibilities for human connectedness.

Tnejn(2) is a double bill framed by a strong mediterranean sensibility by two Spanish choreographers. Dutch choreographer Iván Pérez Avilés is one of the most exciting emerging international dance makers today. He also acts as Associate Choreographer to finMalta and the company is proud that he will be re-staging his highly acclaimed work ‘Exhausting Space’ as part of this evening (the work was originally commissioned by and premiered at the Korzo Theater in The Hague, 2015). Presented as an adaptation of his previous work ‘Attention, the doors are closing!’ created in Moscow, three dancers use every corner of the theatre surrounded by the audience. The programme concludes with a short work by Spanish – Malta based choreographer Lucía Piquero. ‘Petrichor’ was originally created on the 2015 – 2016 group of ZfinMalta apprentice dancers. The work was received with enthusiasm and will now be re-staged for the main company dancers of ŻfinMalta.

Production team

Choreography: Iván Pérez Avilés

Photograph by Niels Plotard

Balloon et l’Ǎme

Production team

Choreography: Niels Plotard

Photographs by Joe Smith

RU(i)NS

This is a work that explores the cyclic pattern of creation and destruction, construction and deconstruction, of life and death as determined by man and the history of the world. RU(i)N is a work that is defined by ones sense of home that energetically draws us within a community that ultimately (through power) disrupts and destroys.

Duration: 20 minutes