Urban Symphonies

Dance Festival Malta - Community Dance Performance Art, default

art

Urban Symphony investigated the continuum of harmony and disharmony in the urban environment of Valletta, The performance has comprised of movement, voice and musical instruments and it took place in Valletta, during the Dance Festival.

Community Dance Performance Urban Symphonies Nataša Pantović with Tibetan ball and dancers in Republic Street

St. George’s Square Valletta dancers in front of the Palace

Performance Urban Symphonies at Dance Festival Malta in Valletta photographer Elisa von Brockdorff dancers

Performance Urban Symphonies at Dance Festival Malta in Valletta Photographer Elisa von Brockdorff

"Moving Communities in Urban Spaces was led by Julienne Schembri (Malta) and Maya Felixbrot (Israel). This community project investigated the continuum of Harmony and Disharmony in the urban environment of Valletta, and question how the movement of the collective - the performing community as well as the people in the city - connect and engage with the city. Taking the symphonic structure as a container, the community collective experimented with the resonance of the urban environment in Valletta. The performative language comprised movement, voice and musical instruments that take inspiration from the rhythms, architectural character, and the visual and sonic structures in Valletta. The score, comprising of movement and sound, curated around the musical symphony and the artists look to structures used in the Maltese Għana to support the phrasing of the group’s movement in body and sound. The lead artists amplified the already playing symphony in the city and the spaces; the structure of the fountain, the movement of the water, the existing movement of the public in the city, the sonic textures we hear in these locations, the collective memories and the visual harmonies." The Project Description, Dance Festivas Malta

Biographies

Julienne Schembri

Julienne is a performer, community artist, and creative producer. She creates communities of people moving together and has been active in the field of dance and movement for over ten years in London and more recently in Malta. She is a Certified Movement Analyst and movement educator. She is co-founder of Dance Beyond Borders, where she co-produces Refugee Week Malta. Currently, she shares a practice with Opening Doors, ZfinMalta, the University of Malta, and the Malta Dementia Society, where she is working as a board member for 2022/3.

Maya Felixbrodt

Maya Felixbrodt is a musician, Violist, and composer. She reconnects sound and music through music and the Laban Bartenieff Movement System. She is a Certified Movement Analyst and movement educator. She is the co-curator of Screen Dive, co-founder and artistic director of Moving Strings, and a member of the duos Zvov and NO HORNS. ARTIST BLURB: Urban Symphony will investigate the continuum of Harmony and DisHarmony in the urban environment of Valletta, and question how the movement of the collective - the performing community as well as the people in the city - connect and engage with the city. 

Dancers:

Verda Zincirkiran
Sarah Chou
Kelly Diakoulaki
Eliza Paś
Ġagħel Dingli
Deborah Falzon
Nataša Pantović
Eve Cocks
Nicole Zammit
Sarah Sammut
Amy Vella
Charlene Galea
Michal Gil

Urban Symphonies Nataša Pantović Dance Festival Valletta Malta

Marinella Senatore, School of Narrative Dance, Valletta, Nataša Pantović dances in red

Marinella Senatore founded The School of Narrative Dance, focused on the idea of storytelling as an experience that can be explored choreographically, on non-hierarchical learning, self-training and the creation of an active citizenship through informal education.