As part of the Malta Biennale.Art activities, the national dance company ŻfinMalta will be presenting a double bill titled Dances for Gozo at the Aurora Theatre on the 6th of April. Under the artistic direction of Paolo Mangiola, ŻfinMalta will be performing Lesley Telford’s ‘Flesh & Stone’ and Mauro Bigonsetti’s ‘Cantata’.

Dances for Gozo – Double bill

Date & time: 6 April 2024, 20:00

Venue: Aurora Theatre, Gozo

 Cantata
Cantata by the inimitable Mauro Bigonzetti is a personal quest to read and recover the traditional musical heritage of Southern Italy. The passionate and visceral gestures of the choreography are evocative of its wild, Mediterranean origins. Cantata is an intuitive dance that stages a continuous game of opposites, sacred and profane, man-woman, sun and moon, love and violence, where music, sounds, voice and body are the main interpreters of the piece.

Mauro Bigonzetti (born 1960, Rome) is one of Italy’s pre-eminent dancers and choreographers. His training began at the Rome Opera Theatre, where he studied and worked from 1972 until 1983. The following year he joined Aterballetto as a dancer, where he remained for ten years before leaving to focus on choreography. His first creation, ‘Sei in Movimento’, was presented in 1990. In 1997, he was named Artistic Director and Principal Choreographer of Aterballetto, a position he held until late 2007. He has since choreographed for companies around the world, including English National Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Staatsballet Berlin, Ballet del Teatro Argentino, New York City Ballet, and Ballet du Capitole de Toulouse. In 2016 he directed the Corpo di Ballo del Teatro alla Scala. Most recently, he has staged ‘King Lear with the Stuttgart Ballet, performed by Egon Madsen, and ‘Madina’ at Teatro alla Scala, performed by Roberto Bolle.

Supported by the Italian Cultural Institute of Valletta, and Embassy of Portugal / Camões, I.P

Duration: 30 minutes

Age: 5+

Production team

Choreography: Mauro Bigonzetti 

Assistant choreographer: Vincenzo Capezzuto

Music: Original and traditional music by Assurd (L. Monti – C. Vetrone), Enza Pagliara and Enza Alessandra Prestia

Light design: Carlo Cerri

Costume design: Helena de Medeiros

Costume maker: Louie’ Noir

Flesh and Stone
Inspired by the temples of Gozo, this new creation by Canadian choreographer Lesley Telford, explores the echo and enormity of the influence of our mothers. Through her fascination with the myths of the Ġgantija giants of our past, Telford imagines how the power of those who came before us may seem super-human. Starting from the image of the mother goddess, the work questions: How do we fit into the larger-than-life remnants of our past and how do our regular lives, failures and stories relate to this colossal mother image?

Lesley Telford is a Vancouver-based choreographer and Artistic Director of Inverso Productions. Her work has been described as having ‘a profound way of tapping into very deep recesses of our emotional and intellectual landscapes’. Lesley danced with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Compañia Nacional de Danza in Spain, and Netherlands Dans Theater 1, where she worked with choreographers including Jiri Kylian, Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, Johan Inger, and Crystal Pite and others. She has choreographed new works for Ballet BC, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Netherlands Dans Theater 1, Hubbard Street Dance Company 2, Compañia Nacional de Danza 2, Ballet Vorpommern, Pro Arte Danza, and Arts Umbrella Dance Company, among others. She founded Inverso Productions to experiment with other art forms and ways of creating dance.

Duration: 30 minutes

Age: 5+

Production team

Choreography: Lesley Telford

Composer: Ruben Zahra

Light design: Dali Aguerbi

Bookings: Tickets may be purchased from https://teatruaurora.com/event/dances-for-gozo-2024/