Choreographers Platform

World Premieres of Performances by Local Artists

Programme Day 3A - 25 July

Start Time: 5:15pm

Performances: DUALITÀ (Rosana Maya & Debbie Falzon) - A FLOW OF CONSCIOUSNESS (Milu' Di Lorenzo) - THE FALLEN (Bíbor Tulipán Berettyán) - QOLLA (Sara Bianchi) - LA TERNURA (Pearl Calleja and Martí Blanco Romeu)

Rosana Maya & Debbie Falzon (South Africa/Malta)

DUALITÀ 

Date: 25th July | Location: Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta | Duration: 10mins

Synopsis:

Dualità: a Flamenco dance performance exploring how opposing realities coexist within human experience. Guided by how life is experienced through duality - an ever-present constant amid change - it explores emotional and conceptual contradictions like despair and joy, force and vulnerability, separation and togetherness. The performance presents the physical contrast omnipresent in duality through fl amenco; the expressive medium through which these opposites are embodied, exhibited and embraced. Initially separated, two women share the stage through fl amenco’s contrasts: soft and forceful, grounded and lifted, uproar and silence; water is poured, sand crunches underfoot, metal surfaces are struck, and voice interweaves personal and collective narratives. Expressed through movement, gesture and shared rhythm, division gives way to co-existence while disconnection expands into the opposite of listening, care and responsiveness coupled with simultaneous individuality and togetherness. Dualità affi rms the necessity to embrace life’s contractions; choosing to live collectively despite division.

About the Company:

Born in South Africa, Flamenkhoi began out of a deep rooted need and passion for preserving and sharing our rich and shared heritage; African traditional dance can be observed in the European hybrid art of flamenco. The company has an interest in sharing our love of the natural world and with it, our humanity. By fusing diverse forms, and exploring the duality in all creation, we create a powerful and authentic expression of our vast ancestry. The motivation is to find our commonality through the universal language of music and dance. 

We observe the world through duality, without it there is no life, no sense of existence, and we experience life through the senses and all observe the elements - water, air, earth and fire, the sounds created by nature and ourselves; the vision, obscured or true, in duality and diversity. This vision for FlamenKhoi is driven by the principles of cultural preservation, global dialogue, and social responsibility; valuing our heritage, cultural diplomacy, and the sustainability of creative industries. 

Rosana Maya & Deborah Falzon - Co-Directors, Co-Choreographers & Performers 

Rosana Maya and Deborah Falzon are flamenco dance practitioners whose collaborative works bridge performance, pedagogy and social engagement. Maya is a leading exponent of flamenco and Spanish dance, with decades of experience performing, choreographing and teaching across four continents. She is the author of The Flamenco Fanatic, founder of Alegria Academia de Flamenco and Dance Company, and director of multiple initiatives including NPC Flamenco Fanatic and FlamenKhoi, exploring intersections between South African and flamenco traditions, most recently premiering Dancing in the Dust in 2024. 

Falzon, a flamenco dance artist and transcultural counsellor, brings a community-centred and research-driven approach shaped by years of practice in Seville and Masters in Flamencología. She is co-founder of Dance Beyond Borders, an artivist with ARDA Collective, and a performer with Alegria Dance Company. Her work explores flamenco as a tool for empowerment, healing and transformation, integrating co-creation across performance, community dance facilitation and academic contexts. 

Credits:

Dance Company: FlamenKhoi | Co-Directors, Co-Choreographers & Performers: Rosana Maya & Deborah Falzon | Music: 'Kuele, Dancing in the Dust' by FlamenKhoi | Costume: Flamenco Fanatic by Rosana Maya | Production: Deborah Falzon 

Supported by:

Spazju Kreattiv

Milu` Di Lorenzo (Italy/Malta)

A FLOW OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Date: 25th July | Location: Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta | Duration: 10mins

Synopsis:

A Flow of Consciousness is a reactivated choreography developed through the practice of stream of consciousness. The piece unfolds as a continuous flow of movement emerging from unfiltered thoughts, emotional overflow, and inner contradictions. Rather than pursuing formal perfection, movement surfaces instinctively, shaped by uncertainty, repetition, and interruption. Three performers inhabit parallel yet distinct streams, where personal memories and external realities coexist. Images, sounds, and fragments of the outside world—political tension, collective anxiety, distant and familiar events—permeate the body, altering rhythm, weight, and intention. The work has evolved into a landscape where chaos is dense and persistent rather than playful. There is no clear beginning or resolution, only a sustained state of becoming. Through this shared flow, the piece invites the audience to witness how emotional weight, often silenced or dismissed, can take form, accumulate, and move—without explanation, hierarchy, or control.

Milu` Di Lorenzo - Choreographer

Milu` Di Lorenzo is a dance artist, choreographer, and educator whose work explores the relationship between bodies, spaces, and emotional landscapes. Trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance, she develops a practice rooted in movement research, improvisation, and the interplay between intuition and structure. She holds a BA (Hons.) in Dance Studies and an MA in Dance Studies (by Research) from the University of Malta, where her research focused on how creative movement unfolds in studio and site-specific spaces. Her performances and choreographies have been presented in Malta, Italy, the UK, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates, including appearances at the Malta International Arts Festival (MIAF) and the ZiguZaij Festival for Children & Young People, reflecting an ongoing dialogue with diverse audiences, cultures, and environments.

Alongside performing and creating, Milu` continues to engage with residencies, workshops, and collaborations that expand the possibilities of movement as a form of emotional, social, and spatial inquiry. Her choreographic work and artistic practice are guided by curiosity, emotional resonance, and the pursuit of connection through the ever-changing flow of movement, with a commitment to inclusion and accessibility for all audiences and participants.

Credits:

Performers: Gloria Borge, Helga Kiss & Sarah Sammut | Choreographer: Milu’ Di Lorenzo | Music:  – 'Verbal Fight' by Shukar Collective & 'Il cielo in una stanza' by Mina

Supported by:

Spazju Kreattiv

Bíbor Tulipán Berettyán (Hungary/Malta) 

THE FALLEN

Date: 25th July | Location: Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta | Duration: 7mins

Synopsis:

The Fallen delves into the persona of Lucifer, the fallen angel, inspired by Alexandre Cabanel’s The Fallen Angel (1847). The work focuses on the moments immediately following his fall from Heaven, beginning with shock and loss and progressing to rage and rebellion. The dance depicts Lucifer’s struggle with his new condition and resistance to an all-powerful force through repeated attempts to rise and fly. Spoken portions from John Milton’s Paradise Lost depict a psychological watershed moment, as pride and ego drive his rejection of remorse, resulting in isolation and perpetual inner strife.

Bíbor Tulipán Berettyán - Choreographer & Performer

Bíbor Tulipán Berettyán is a dedicated mover and current student at the University of Malta’s Dance Department, driven by an intensive interest in the intersection of contemporary movement and physical expression. As an aspiring artist, Bíbor focuses on the relationship between rhythm and physicality, constantly seeking opportunities to challenge her technical limits.

Performance Trailer:

Credits:

Choreographer & Performer: Bíbor Tulipán Berettyán | Music Edited by: Bíbor Tulipán Berettyán (using parts of 'Happiness Does Not Wait' by Ólafur Arnalds & 'Lines' from John Milton's Paradise Lost)

Supported by:

Spazju Kreattiv

Sara Bianchi (Malta)

QOLLA

Date: 25th July | Location: Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta | Duration: 12mins

Synopsis:

This reimagined and modernised choreographic work revisits Qolla—the Maltese dance piece originally created by Tanya Bayona and inspired by the symbolic stone urn linked to ancient Mother Goddess traditions—through a contemporary feminist lens. Where the original placed one woman among three men, this adaptation casts four female dancers who collectively embody evolving facets of the protagonist’s identity. Through shifting movement languages and a newly forged dance idiom, the work turns inward: questioning, unravelling, and reconstructing the layers that shape both personal and Maltese consciousness. The dancers become mirrors, echoes, and extensions of the self, revealing how Maltese heritage, memory, and womanhood intersect within the Island’s cultural landscape. Rooted in Qolla’s narrative essence yet re-elaborated, the piece honours the original’s emotional core while carving new pathways of expression. It becomes not a search for romantic love, but for belonging, resonance, and self-definition—an embodied dialogue between past and present, Maltese tradition and invention, the individual and the collective.  This contemporary adaptation is choreographed by Sara Bianchi, with Nicoletta Pizzicotti as assistant choreographer and is performed by dancers from Company of Dance Arts.

Sara Bianchi - Choreographer

Sara is the Artistic Director of Company of Dance Arts and a teacher and choreographer at the Academy of Dance Arts. She began dancing at the age of three under Daphne Lungaro Mifsud and trained in classical ballet (RAD) at The Ballet School, while also studying jazz, character, and contemporary dance. She later specialised in flamenco under Rosanna Maya, completing Spanish Dance Society and Alianza Flamenca syllabi and obtaining the Primer Diploma de Ensenanza. Sara was awarded a Comsec International Scholarship and a bursary to further her flamenco training in Spain, and later achieved Spanish Dance Society teaching qualifications IdB I and II where again she was awarded a Bursary to further her training in Spain. A founding member of Alegria Dance Company, Sara has performed extensively in major theatres, festivals, and productions locally and internationally. She has directed and choreographed Company of Dance Arts productions including Carmen, Beyond Redemption, and Romeo and Juliet. Sara continues her professional development through workshops and festivals and is an administrator of the Sharon Sapienza Foundation. She choreographs for various theatrical productions, festivals, including The Malta International Arts Festival, various events and also prepares dancers for international competitions, where they have won numerous awards and scholarships across Europe and the United States.

Credits:

Choreographer: Sara Bianchi | Assistant Choreographer: Nicoletta Pizzicotti | Artistic Collaborator: Tanya Bayona | Dancers: Santea Aquilina, Mattea Bianchi, Ella Sciberras & Sophie Borg Barthet | Principal: Rowena Grech | Costume Designer and Seamstress: Katrine Agius

Supported by:

Spazju Kreattiv

Pearl Calleja & Martí Blanco Romeu (Malta/Spain)

LA TERNURA

Date: 25th July | Location: Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta | Duration: 12mins

Synopsis:

“La Ternura” explores how social evolution challenges traditional ways of relating between individuals based on distinctions. Within a context of continuous growth and expansion, contemporary society leaves no space or time to pause and reflect, making it difficult to engage in critical thoughts, to reconsider inherited structures and imagine alternatives grounded in care, respect, and equality that could truly represent us all. As young artists based in Malta, we are interested in opening spaces for both personal and collective questioning, rethinking assumptions we have learned without previously challenging them. We understand art as a powerful tool to resist this constant rhythm and raise subversive questions. “La Ternura” emerges from personal research into how relationships function in today’s society. 

Pearl Calleja – Dancer & Choreographer 

Pearl was born in Malta in 2002. She started dance at the age of five and has trained in classical ballet, contemporary, and spanish dance, graduating from Seed Dance Studios in 2019. She furthered her studies in contemporary at Dance Arts Faculty in Rome. Pearl has worked with artists including Mauro Astolfi, Michele Merola, Liliana Barros, Sita Ostheimer, Paolo Mangiola, Roy Assaf and Tânia Carvalho. Pearl was also a finalist for the Young Artist of the Year Award in the 2022 & 2025 edition of Premju ghall- Arti, organised by Arts Council Malta. She joined ŻfinMalta National Dance Company as an apprentice in 2020 and as a company dancer in 2021. 

Martí Blanco Romeu – Dancer & Choreographer 

Born in Barcelona in 2001, Martí started dancing at the age of six at the school Oriol Martorell, which focused on music and dance. Later, he studied for seven years at the professional dance conservatory of the Institut del Teatre, Barcelona, specialising in contemporary dance. Martí graduated in 2020 and was selected for the company IT Dansa, as an apprentice for the first year and then as a company dancer. He performed in both repertoire works and new creations, by choreographers including Akram Khan, Alexander Ekman and Ohad Naharin. Martí moved to Malta to join ŻfinMalta National Dance Company in 2023 under the artistic direction of Paolo Mangiola. 

Credits:

Choreographers: Pearl Calleja & Martí Blanco Romeu | Music: 'Only Water' by Jay Taylor, 'Reclaim' by Megan Wofford & 'Felt' by DEX 1200 

Supported by:

Spazju Kreattiv

IMPORTANT

The programmes for Dance Festival Malta Day 3 (A & B) occur separately for which two separate tickets need to be purchased.

Dance Festival Malta is sponsored by:

APS Bank, Atlas Insurance, Camilleri Preziosi Advocates, GSD Marketing Ltd, MAPFRE, and Visit Malta