Girls & Boys

Overgeneralization is a human tendency; a tendency which lies at the core of Girls and Boys.

Five girls in black, on a narrow white floor, dancing a dance, exposing themselves to stubborn cliches of femininity, which appear at every turn. Voices go up to please, to protest, to pacify. Gestures are minimal, flirtatious, as if taken from the catalogue of male fantasy. Kisses are thrown into the air, legs are spread, tushes rock from side to side – like men love.

Five boys in black, on a narrow white floor, dancing a dance. Exposing themselves, too. Voices go up to plead, to berate, to pacify. Gestures are temperamental, familiar, as if taken from the cards of human history. Punches are thrown into the air, chests are puffed, legs drilled in a left-right-left march – like men love.

Girls and Boys was not made with the intention of shining a light on the current zeitgeist of gender identity and fluidity. Boys can be boys can be girls can be boys, Girls can be girls can be boys can be girls, can be both can be neither and should be respected, regardless. More than a comment on gender stereotypes, or the current fluidity of gender roles, Girls and Boys targets the ‘brainwashing’ of males and females about how they should think, speak, dress and act.

Five women and five men are gathered here in a complicated dialogue, with the expectations of society sitting invisibly, mightily, inescapably upon their shoulders.

DATES & TIME: 18-19 FEBRUARY 2023, 19:30

Venue: Valletta Campus Theatre

Duration: 55 mins

Age: 5+

World premiere: Staatstheater Tanz Braunschweig, Germany, 2014. The adaptation of Girls & Boys was commissioned by the Batsheva Dance Company in 2018.

ŻfinMalta Premiere: 18/19/20 June 2021, Pjazza Teatru Rjal, Valletta

(Supported by The Ballet Shop)

Choreography: Roy Assaf

Assistants to the choreographer: Ariel Freedman, Avshalom Latucha

Cast: 10 dancers

Music editing and arrangement: Reut Yehudai

Music: “Girl from the North Country” by Bob Dylan,

“Trauermarsch” by Uri Caine, “Rama” by Takagi Masakatsu,

“End of the World” by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee,

“Mambo No. 5” by Perez Prado,

“Be My Little Baby” by Jeff Barry,

“Parsifal” by Richard Wagner,

“You Are So Beautiful” by Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher,

“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Robert Hazard,

“Hangover Boogie” by Meade “lux” Lewis,

Excerpt from “Yoko Ono’s Meltdown” by Reggie Watts,

“Kyllikki” – Three Lyric Pieces for Piano, Op. 41, II. Andantino by Jean Sibelius,

“Du bist die Ruh, song for voice & piano,

D. 776, Op. 59/3″ by Schuber

Light design: Roy Assaf & Moritz Zavan Stoeckle

Costumes & stage: Roy Assaf