Programme Day 4 - 26 July

ART UNDER THREAT (Bruno Duarte) - WATERKIND (Land Before Time) - LED Silhouette (Los Perros)

The performance at the Upper Barrakka Gardens starts at 6:00pm

Bruno Duarte (Portugal)

ART UNDER THREAT

Date: 26th July | Location: Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta | Duration: 20mins

This event will occur at Barrakka Gardens and attendance is free.

Synopsis:

In contexts shaped by rising extremism and social polarisation, freedom of expression is increasingly fragile. Voices are monitored, bodies are regulated, and difference is often treated as a threat. This project will reflect on what it means to exist, create, and be seen under such conditions. Art will be approached as a human necessity rather than a privilege: an act of presence in environments that encourage silence, conformity, or fear. The body becomes a place where pressure is felt and negotiated, where expression persists even when it is constrained. Attention is given to lived experiences of limitation, self-censorship, and resistance, particularly for those whose identities or perspectives are most vulnerable to erasure. The work will open a space for shared reflection on the role of artistic expression today: as a way to hold complexity, to remain visible, and to connect across difference. It invites participants to engage with art not as spectacle, but as a form of quiet insistence - one that continues to speak, even when expression is under threat.

Bruno Duarte - Choreographer

Bruno Duarte is a doctoral researcher in Contemporary Art at the University of Coimbra. He holds a Master’s degree in Dance Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Dance from the Escola Superior de Dança. He has performed with Grupo Experimental de Dança (2011/12), Quorum Ballet (2013), and Companhia Instável (2025), and has been a member of Companhia de Dança de Almada since 2013, where he is also a resident choreographer. He has created around twelve works for the company and directs the Laboratório Coreográfico Itinerante. His choreographic work includes L’Veltro (2016) and Metamorfose (2012) for Culturgest, and someone else ago (2013) for CCB/BOXNOVA. He has also participated in and co-created award-winning dance films (P48, 2012; 5, 2013; Noir, 2021). Bruno Duarte has undertaken training with international choreographers including Mikael Fau, João da Silva, Siri Dybwik, Jack Gallagher, and David Zambrano. He has taught workshops in China, Brazil, Croatia, Italy, and Portugal, and was a guest lecturer at the Escola Superior de Dança (2016 and 2019). He currently teaches at Ca.DA Escola and has been a guest choreographer for Projeto Quorum and the Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional. He has participated in the European projects CLASH! (2019–21) and Up2DANCE (2020–21), and received the Almada Artes – Young Talent Award in 2019.

Credits:

Choreography: Bruno Duarte | Participants: Amy Marie Abela, Anabelle Nguyenq, Anastasiia Kharchenko, Antea Buro, Diellza Ilgner, Eliora Sciberras, Eszter Szász, Leonora Tesi, Mireille Azzopardi & Wiebke Gottstein

Supported by: 

European Festival Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA), European Festivals Association (EFA), and Spazju Kreattiv

The performance at Malta Society of Arts starts at 7:00pm

Land Before Time (Sweden)

WATERKIND

Date: 26th July | Location: Malta Society of Arts Courtyard, Valletta | Duration: 26mins

Disclaimer:

This is mostly a standing event. Seating will be very limited while there will also be some cushions available.

Synopsis:

Waterkind explores the interplay and connection between two bodies without direct physical contact and is inspired by the movements of water, its flows, currents, and shifting forms. The work merges freestyle and popping elements into a meditation on receptivity, proximity, and space. The piece asks how we can experience connection and mutual understanding through improvisation and how vibrations, responsiveness, and subtle energy can bridge distance. Each movement emerges from the previous one, mirroring the cyclical and interdependent nature of water itself. The piece invites audiences into an embodied reflection on flow, empathy, and coexistence, drawing parallels between human connection and the rhythms of nature. Through its focus on water as both metaphor and movement language, Waterkind resonates with contemporary dialogues on ecology, sustainability, and interconnection within communities and the environment. 

Joanna Holewa Chrona - Choreographer & Performer

Joanna Holewa Chrona is a dancer, choreographer, project leader, and DJ based in Sweden and South Africa. Her dance practice is influenced by various movement traditions, ranging from the technically demanding and politically charged dance style of popping from the US to isiPantsula, Sabar, and Afro-Cuban dance from South Africa, Senegal and Cuba. Joanna's passion and motivation stem from the purity, honesty, and freedom found in improvisation, as well as her love for music, connecting with people, and viewing art as a healing and revolutionary force. Together with Yared Tilahun Cederlund she makes up the duo Land Before Time to, co-founded the non-profit organization AFIA with Theresa Gustavsson, and performs as a DJ under the name Shuwana. AFIA produces cultural events and stage performances, with a vision to honor and spotlight African cultures, particularly through the 'Afia Festival' established in 2016.

Yared Tilahun Cederlund - Choreographer & Performer

Yared Tilahun Cederlund is a performer, a choreographer and a music composer. In 2006–2013 Yared was active in the Battle scene, taking part in Streetstar (Sweden) and Juste Debout (France). In recent years, he has participated as a dancer in a variety of performances, such as Idiom and Drone by Erik Linghede, Mental States of Sweden in Dance by Mattias Andersson with the Cullberg Ballet, Raised on Rhythm by Niki Tsappos, and Festen by Viktor Fröjd, Kontakt by Lisa Janbell, "This That Unravels" by Björn Säfsten. He is also the choreographer of the series of performances PULS. As a music composer, Yared has composed works such as “Sorry” and “YES” by Bam Bam Frost, “YEBO YES!” by Afia, among others. Through dance and movement, Yared found connection and a deep interest for music and sound. His compositions vary from groove based beats to more fluid soundscapes and melodies.

Performance Trailer:

Credits:

Choreography: Joanna Holewa Chrona & Yared Tilahun Cederlund | Dancers: Joanna Holewa Chrona & Yared Tilahun Cederlund | Costume: Joanna Holewa Chrona & Yared Tilahun Cederlund | Music: 'Waterkind' by Yared Tilahun Cederlund | Vocals: Ntsika Fana Ngxanga | Producers: Land Before Time | Distribution: Nordberg Movement | With Support from: Konstnärsnämnden, Region Skåne, Norrlandsoperan and Kulturrådet, Dalateatern 

The performance at Valletta Campus Theatre starts at 8:00pm

LED Silhouette (Spain)

LOS PERROS

Date: 26th July | Location: Valletta Campus Theatre, Valletta | Duration: 60mins

Synopsis:

Los Perros (The Dogs) aspires to reach a state of resistance; like dogs that wander, that find each other, that recognise themselves as vulnerable, that share joy, but also pain, that fall and get up, that dance, that rebel through love, generosity and commitment, to find in this common journey the meaning of their own lives, to overcome, together, violence and deterioration. The piece ranges from the trance of repetition to a fascination with successions of images; ones stolen from yesterday and thrown into tomorrow, from the present but smeared with the past, from the contemporary plastic to the atavistic, earthly form, in a constant intersecting of times and languages. The unfolding of a passionate dance that finds its purest meaning in repetition and catharsis. The story of the man who ponders himself in the other to find himself. Two men embracing. Two men dancing until it's all over and everything starts again.

About the Company:

Created and directed by Martxel Rodriguez and Jon López in 2016 and based in Spain. In parallel to their activity as performers with the company La Veronal, they began their stage as creators co-directing a collective of artists trained in different dance disciplines and influenced by contemporary art. Their works have been featured at several theaters and festivals in Spain and abroad, such as "Madrid en Danza", "Temporada Alta", "Festival Quincena de Dança Almada" in (Portugal), "Festival Internazional Nuova Danza" (Italy), “Sofia Festival” (Bulgary), etc. In addition to their own productions, they started to perform different works and participate in creation laboratories with several companies, creating a large-format piece for the "Companhia de Dança Almada" in Portugal in 2021. As a multidisciplinary collective they collaborate with visual/plastic, documentary and musical artists like Lukas Ulmi, Nestor Lizalde, Irantzu Pastor, Paula Olaz, Javier Chozas and Bertha Bermudez on different projects. They continue to explore new forms of movement to create their own methodology, where the body embraces as its philosophical foundation to become an event of movement and vitality.

Marcos Morau - Choreographer

A renowned and celebrated creator on the contemporary European scene, Marcos Morau founded La Veronal in 2005. Trained between Barcelona and New York, in Photography, Movement and Theater, he builds imaginary worlds and landscapes in which movement and image converge and engulf each other. The purpose of his artistic team lies in a constant search for new expressive media and cultural references, drawing on a language that is narrative and, at the same time, groundbreaking. This imagination has led the company to stand out on the map of international contemporary creation, laying claim to its own voice. As a director, choreographer and designer of sets, costumes and lighting, his work has been recognised by festivals and theatres and in various international contexts. In addition, Marcos Morau contributes as a guest artist at several companies and theatres around the world. Morau has won several national and international awards, such as the Spanish National Dance Award in 2013.

Performance Trailer:

Credits:

Project Direction: Led Silhouette | Idea and Artistic Direction: Marcos Morau | Choreography: Marcos Morau in collaboration with the dancers | Choreographic Assistance: Marina Rodríguez | Dancers: Jon López and Martxel Rodríguez | Texts: Carmina S. Belda | Translation: Gaizka Sarasola and Mattane Rodríguez | Translation to Maltese: Narcy Calamatta and Patrick John Sammut | Voice-Off: Oier Zúñiga | Technical Direction and Light Design: Andoni Mendizábal | Set and Stage Management: Iñaki Iriarte | Sound Design: Juan Cristóbal Saavedra | Special Collaboration: Verde Prato | Scenography: David Pascual | Photos: Irantzu Pastor | Costumes: Cobos Vestuario | Masks and Props: Juan Serrano - Gadget Efectos Especiales | Prothesis: Martí Doy | Production Assistance: Nagore Martínez | International Booking: Lola Ortiz Lanzagorta (New Dance Management) | With the Support of: DNA Program of Cultural Department of Navarra Government and INNOVA Cultural of Caja Navarra Foundation – “La Caixa” Foundation

Supported by: 

AC/E - Acción Cultural Española, PICE - programa para la Internacionalización de la Cultura Española & Embajada De España En Malta

Dance Festival Malta is sponsored by:

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