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