Present Works Archives - ŻfinMalta https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/portfolio-category/present-works/ National Dance Company Thu, 02 Jul 2026 13:48:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://cdn-eu.wpx.onl/zfinmalta/2020/04/cropped-ZFIN_FAVICON-32x32.png Present Works Archives - ŻfinMalta https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/portfolio-category/present-works/ 32 32 The Bull, the Princess, and the Hero https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/the-bull-the-princess-and-the-hero/ Mon, 15 Jun 2026 11:57:00 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=35172 The post The Bull, the Princess, and the Hero appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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The bull, the princess, and the hero

Choreography by Matthew William Robinson

 

Commissioned for Malta International Arts Festival 2026, as ‘Labyrinth,’ part of a multi-disciplinary double bill ‘Myrgon & Labyrinth.’

Connecting contemporary dance with the visual backdrop of a sand sculpture, this collaboration between Spanish artist Oscar Rodríguez and ŻfinMalta Artistic Director Matthew William Robinson evokes a transitory landscape of myth and movement, inspired by the mythical maze designed by Daedalus to imprison the Minotaur. The dancers of ŻfinMalta interact with the sand sculpture, tracing patterns of curiosity and liberation, altering the sculpture’s form in real time. This transformation becomes part of the choreography – a metaphor for impermanence and metamorphosis. At the intersection of myth and matter, The bull, the princess, and the hero invites both performers and spectators to reconsider space as a living organism. It is an artistic expression that erodes and reforms.

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.

Production Team

 

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
Programmers and Agents

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]]> Sway https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/sway/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:54:56 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=34667 The post Sway appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ŻfinMalta National Dance Company Sway Diego Tortelli Repertoire

Upcoming performance dates

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

Sway

Choreography by Diego Tortelli

SWAY is a new creation by renowned Italian choreographer Diego Tortelli. Exploring our burning desire for deep immediate connection, SWAY is an emotional journey of raw vulnerability, surrender and trust. Crashing like a wave, the work is a rebellion of bodies where the energy of the dancers merges with the heartbeat of the audience.

 

SWAY is supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of Valletta and the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands.

 

 

Premiering as part of Unfold

22/23/24 May 2026 

Teatru Manoel, Valletta 

 

Production Team

 

Choreography: Diego Tortelli
Assistant Choreographer: Tom van de Ven
Costume Design: Diego Tortelli and Laurent Uyttersprot
Light Design: Dali Aguerbi 
Programmers and Agents

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]]> Nation https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/nation/ Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:38:35 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=33741 The post Nation appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ŻfinMalta National Dance Company Repertoire Nation Matthew William Robinson

Upcoming performance dates

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

Nation

Choreography by Matthew William Robinson

NATION is a groundbreaking artistic collaboration between ŻfinMalta Artistic Director Matthew William Robinson and Azzopardi Studio. In a stark landscape a collection of lost souls ferociously searches for what will come after the end. Haunting and razor-sharp, NATION swerves between the intimate and the vast, the delicate and the brutal. 

 

 

Premiering as part of Unfold

22/23/24 May 2026 

Teatru Manoel, Valletta 

 

BORDER/NATION

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.

 

Production Team

 

Choreography: Matthew William Robinson 
Costume design: Azzopardi Studio 
Music: Alexander Comana 
Set Design: Tom Van Malderen
Props: Jon Banthorpe 
Light design: Dali Aguerbi 
Programmers and Agents

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]]> NÁCAR https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/nacar/ Thu, 18 Dec 2025 16:08:21 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=34536 The post NÁCAR appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ZfinMalta National Dance Company ZfinDay 2026

Upcoming performance dates

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

Choreography by Paloma Muñoz

 

NÁCAR explores a desire to inhabit ghosts; those that survive in images, that persist in our bodies, and call out from the invisible.

 

In this powerful new creation by Paloma Muñoz, one of Spain’s most innovative choreographic voices, suspended figures appear frozen, breathing and decomposing under the gaze of others. As their flesh is exposed their bodies call out, striking one another as a call to resist and remember.

 

NÁCAR invites us to lend our bodies to the memory of others — to become vessels of presence, beauty, and shared echoes.

 

NÁCAR is supported by the Embassy of Spain.

Production Team
Choreography | Paloma Muñoz
Assistant Choreographer | Amanda Rubio Sánchez
Costume Design | Linda Rowell
Music | Alejandro Da Rocha
Light Design | Moritz Zavan Stoeckle
Rehearsal Director | Zoe Camilleri

 

Duration: 30 minutes
Programmers and Agents

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]]> White Echo https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/white-echo/ Mon, 13 Oct 2025 09:24:33 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=34155 The post White Echo appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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Xitwazfin Repertoire Żfinmalta National Dance Company 1300x800

Upcoming performance dates

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

Choreography by Helge Letonja

 

Drawing inspiration from the cycle of winter, White Echo explores transience and impulsive new beginnings. In this phase of retreat and renewal, nature claims its victims, and new life emerges from death. Winter reminds us of our own transience – a dichotomy of resignation and anger, comfort and letting go, refusal and acceptance.

 

Using his haunting choreographic language Letonja, with the dancers of ŻfinMalta, examines the relationship of young people to Eros and Thanatos. Bodies meet in a field of tension, searching for connection and meaning and longing for life that awaits the return of Spring.

 

White Echo is supported by the Embassy of Austria

 

Production Team

 

Choreography, Set and Costume Design Helge Letonja
Costumier Linda Rowell
Light Design Niels Plotard
Technical Manager Pamela Kerr
Duration: 30 minutes
Programmers and Agents

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]]> BORDER https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/border/ Wed, 24 Sep 2025 08:53:45 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=33738 The post BORDER appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ŻfinMalta National Dance Company Repertoire Border Mathew William Robinson

Upcoming performance dates

4th October, Notte Bianca, Chamber of Commerce, Valletta
20/21/22 February, ŻfinDays, Valletta Campus Theatre

Choreography by Matthew William Robinson

 

BORDER, reflects on the lines we draw between us, that divide us and sustain us. Like rope binding and fraying, bodies combine and fracture, revealing an abyss of repetitive memories and ritual. BORDER explores a return to tradition in response to decay, a search for definition guided by a fear of the future.

 

BORDER is commissioned by Festivals Malta as part of Notte Bianca 2025.

 

Production Team

 

Choreography: Matthew William Robinson 
Costume Design: Holly Knowles 
Light Design: Dali Aguerbi 
Set Design: Jon Banthorpe
Duration: 24 minutes

BORDER/NATION

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.

Programmers and Agents

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]]> Mortal Heroes https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/mortal-heroes/ Wed, 02 Apr 2025 13:31:47 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=33099 The post Mortal Heroes appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ZfinMalta National Dance Company repertoire Mortal Heroes Sita Ostheimer ©AlexandraPace-02-25-012

Photograph by Alexandra Pace

Upcoming performance dates

22 July 2026, as part of Dance Days Chania, Crete
Book now

Choreography Sita Ostheimer

In Mortal Heroes, Sita Ostheimer invites us into a visceral exploration of human potential—an odyssey through chaos and love, shadow and light, fragility and force. Her choreography becomes a poetic search for the ‘Other,’ a love letter to resilience, to the human capacity for survival, renewal, and transformation. Crafted with her signature language of movement, layered with evocative music by Adrien Casalis and immersive lighting by Barnaby Booth, Ostheimer’s work creates an atmosphere both intimate and vast.

A charged, pulsating space emerges—tense yet alive—suspending the audience in a state of continuous anticipation. It is here, in this emotionally electrified realm, that the body, mind, and spirit are pushed to their outer limits.
Through dynamic and deeply human encounters, Mortal Heroes unfolds as an emotional collision: delicate yet explosive, aggressive yet tender. Viewers are not passive observers—they are drawn into the work’s rhythm, evolving alongside the dancers, touching something raw and essential within themselves.
In Ostheimer’s process, transformation is perpetual. Beginnings and endings blur, giving way to a ceaseless cycle of becoming—an ever-renewing space where the heroic lies not in perfection, but in vulnerability, courage, and the will to continue.

“The visuals, dynamics, music, and qualities of moving bodies in my work allow dancers and viewers to discover a barely touched realm of their existence and experience the unseen motivation behind all moving forces. In Mortal Heroes, the aim is to create a pulsating and tense space that will put the audience in a high state of unceasing inner excitement and allow them to experience the power and ability of body, mind and movement.”  Sita Ostheimer  

 

 

Production team
Choreography: Sita Ostheimer
Light Design: Barnaby Booth
Composer: Adrien Casalis / VIMALA
Costume Design: Holly Knowles
Assistant: Elena Martello
Rehearsal Director: Brenda Lee Grech
Production Coordinator Tillmann Becker

 

 

 

Programmers and Agents

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]]> Decade https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/decade/ Thu, 13 Mar 2025 16:20:41 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=32763 The post Decade appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ŻfinMalta National Dance Company DECADE Thick & Tight Photograph by Camille Fenech

Decade

Choreography by Thick and Tight

 

The award-winning British duo Thick & Tight bring their distinctive and theatrical style of dance to mark the 10th anniversary of ŻfinMalta, Malta’s national dance company.  

 

DECADE is a spectacular new work celebrating Malta and its identity. Through dance, music, and the voices of local people, the work encapsulates the Maltese spirit, both where it has come from and where it is headed. Theatrical and raucous, intimate and thought-provoking, DECADE is an invitation for audiences to celebrate the achievements of ŻfinMalta and to see Malta through fresh eyes. 

  

Arrive early to enjoy the theatre bar and experience a photographic exhibition of ZfinMalta’s work over the last decade. Then, before you take your seats witness the next generation of Maltese dancers in a work made especially for the public spaces of Teatru Salesjan, by Tara Dalli and Nicola Micallef. 

  

On Saturday 26th April the audience is invited to the after party. Join us on the dance floor at Teatru Salesjan as we celebrate the past, present and future of ŻfinMalta. 

 

Production Team

 

Choreography: Eleanor Perry and Daniel Hay-Gordon – Thick & Tight 
Costume designer: Laurent Uyttersprot 
Light design: Dali Aguerbi 
Duration 40 minutes
Age 5+
Programmers and Agents

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]]> Somiglianza (Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune) https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/somiglianza/ Wed, 05 Feb 2025 12:15:18 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=32584 The post Somiglianza (Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune) appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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ŻfinMalta National Dance Company Repertoire Somiglianza Kor'sia

Somiglianza

(Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune)

re-created and re-staged for ŻfinMalta

 

Choreography, Kor’sia (Antonio de Rosa, Mattia Russo)

 

Somiglianza (Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune) is an ironic and joyful homage to Nijinsky’s legendary creation and his renowned modern ballet, L’après-midi d’un faune. Combining fin de siècle imagery with exotic staging, Somiglianza questions symbolism in Western society. Nijinsky’s creation of Debussy’s L’après-midi d’un faune, one of the most famous modern ballets, serves as a starting point for Kor’sia to showcase their unique vision of dance iconography. Blending end-of-century imagery with contemporary entertainment, the work is a captivating journey through the history of dance, reinterpreted with a modern and innovative perspective.

 

 

Duration: 30 minutes

Age: 5+

 

 

Production team

Choreography: Kor’sia (Antonio de Rosa, Mattia Russo)

Music: Claude Debussy – Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune and Alejandro da Rocha

Costumes: Luca Guarini

Set Design and Lighting: Kor’sia (Antonio de Rosa, Mattia Russo)

 

 

 

 

Programmers and Agents

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]]> IGNIS https://www.zfinmalta.org/portfolio_page/ignis/ Fri, 31 Jan 2025 16:19:34 +0000 https://www.zfinmalta.org/?post_type=portfolio_page&p=32581 The post IGNIS appeared first on ŻfinMalta.

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IGNIS ŻfinMalta National Dance Company Repertoire Liliana Barros

IGNIS

In IGNIS (Latin for fire), we plunge into a world of deep arousal. 

 

In this dance creation for ŻfinMalta, Portuguese choreographer Liliana Barros relies on the relationship of cause and response and sets out to ignite deep energies and channel profound emotions. 

 

We burn inside, we explode.

 

Let us radiate in our exquisite physical condition in space.

 

We do not want to hide; we want to amplify. Let it flare up, let it spark!

 

Is it a poisonous inner impulse or the path to love and salvation?

 

Let us be kind.

 

In this shout out, IGNIS reveals itself as a transformative power. The focus is on the emergence of forces, on the flow of energies that cannot be directed, and on channelling them as if into a roadmap for the liberation of all the physicality they contain.

 

Supported by The Austrian Embassy to Malta

 

Duration: 30 minutes

Age: 5+

 

PRODUCTION TEAM
Choreography: Liliana Barros 
Composer: Martin Mitterstieler 
Light design: Dali Aguerbi 
Costume design: Liliana Barros 
Costumier: Linda Rowell 

 

 

 

Programmers and Agents

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