ŻfinMalta’s Creative Movement Intensive

 ŻfinMalta is calling all children and young people who love to move! 

ŻfinMalta and guests are looking to move and shake the islands from within our studios with a series of creative movement sessions for children and young people between 7 – 18 years old.  This creative movement intensive invites children and young people to join in creative movement sessions with expert somatic leaders Julienne Schembri, Sarah Vella and Rachel Calleja, over 4 days, without the need for previous dance experience. 

Participants will not be required to have a dance background and are encouraged to show up and get creative with their most familiar tool, their body!

ŻfinMalta provides a safe open space for somatic exploration to occur under the guidance of the below leaders.  The intensive occurs over 4 sessions, with a total of 6 hours training for each age group, between Sat 24th June – Sun 2nd July 2023. On Sunday 2nd July, we invite family and peers to attend a small sharing/presentation of the movement explored during the intensive during the last half hour of each session. 

7-11 Years

Thu 29th June – Sun 2nd July 2023 

Under the guidance of Julienne Schembri, this short intensive will facilitate participants’ ability to explore their own expressive language whilst engaging productively within a community.  The theme for the intensive is ‘Journeys’ and we will take inspiration from the journeys that happen in Nature ; animals on land, sea and air, to inspire novel expressions.  

“We will explore movement pathways, directions and Dynamics that influence the pace, flow and quality of how we transition.  We will create Maps, based on the journeys as means to create original dance scores which will allow participants to weave concepts together into a living expression of their learning.” 

The group’s learning and creativity will be shared in an informal performance for family and peers, culminating in a structured improvisation on Sunday 2nd July at 16:30 

About Julienne Schembri

Julienne Schembri is a movement and dance practitioner, performer and artist working with the community. She holds a Masters from The London Contemporary Dance School, and has recently graduated as a Movement Analyst. Independently, she works as a somatic movement educator through the Laban Bartenieff Movement System, to create communities of people moving together. She is co-founder of Dance Beyond Borders whose intention is to unite diverse people through the Arts. As an educator Julienne led Ballet workshops for Children and Young People with London Children’s Ballet from 2014 – 2019 for their ‘Ballet for a pound’ programme that introduced children to the world of Ballet. She also worked as an assistant on London Borough of Culture Projects, and Dance Ability at Laban Contemporary Dance School for DashDotDance. As a performer, she have extensive experience of performing in London, featuring as an ensemble dancer in Wicked, in the West End, and working on various projects from Community Dance to Film with artists like Rosemary Lee in ‘Passage for Par’, Amit Lahav in ‘Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires’ for the BBC2 and Anthony Van Laast in ‘Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again’

12 – 14 year olds

24th & 25th June, 1st & 2nd July 2023 

Under the guidance of Sarah Vella, these sessions will focus on exploring movement through a variety of improvisational exercises and structured activities.  

“We will roll, shake, stretch, release tension in the body and we will move in ways that feel comfortable and natural. We will explore and discover our own movement patterns and styles, use dance to connect, share experiences, get to know each other and understand feelings and emotions in a creative, interactive way. We will have the space to self-express, build more confidence and self-awareness and also calm the body and mind with gentle stretching and breathing exercises.” 

The emphasis of these sessions would be on encouraging participants to listen to their bodies, explore their own movement potential, and express themselves creatively through movement. Most of all, we will have fun, fun and some more fun! 

We invite family and friends to attend a small presentation of the work done over the four days on Sunday 2nd July at 11:00 

About Sarah Vella

Sarah Vella is a dance artist/choreographer, speech and language pathologist (Bsc. Hons), dance/ movement therapist (BTD), Heilpraktikerin für Psychotherapie (HeilPrG) from Malta. Sarah’s artistic practice spans from creating her own work, performing for others to collaborative creations. To date, she’s been involved in several projects for stage, film, opera, fashion and site specific works as a dancer/choreographer and has performed and worked in various renowned festivals locally and abroad. She has also developed multidisciplinary works in collaboration with dancers, visual artists and musicians. She has produced works that toured Malta, England, Italy, Norway and Germany.

Sarah leads various dance therapy groups and one-to-one sessions in clinics, practices and in special schools, with children and adults on the spectrum and other special needs. She also specialises in working with individuals suffering from mental health issues (depression, anxiety, addiction) and she collaborates on community projects with various entities and organisations. After 11 years living and working in Berlin, Sarah has relocated back to Malta and has been invited to work as a dance artist, teach workshops, guest choreograph and give presentations about her work, in Berlin, Malta and abroad.

www.sarah-vella.com

15 – 18 year olds

24th & 25th June, 1st & 2nd July 2023 

Under the guidance of Rachel Calleja, 15 – 18 year old participants will be led through the exploration between music and movement over four sessions.  

“We will exchange favourite pieces of music and find how they encourage us to move in different  

ways, playing with rhythm, dynamic, timing and styles.” 

We invite family and friends to attend a small presentation of the work done over the four days on Sunday 2nd July at 13:00 

About Rachel Calleja

Rachel is fascinated by the potential of creativity to connect people with their inner world and with each other. She believes that art can facilitate personal and communal growth and has sought ways of applying that by working in inclusion and as an educator since 2010 and as a performer, choreographer and community artist since 2014. To support this work she has studied for a B.A in Psychology (2006-2009) and a B.A. in Dance Studies (2012-2015) at the University of Malta and has recently graduated from an MSc in Creative Psychotherapy at Edge Hill University (UK). Being interested in accessible movement practices also led her to study as a DanceAbility teacher, which is an improvisation movement method that can be suited to groups of all abilities and bodies. Some key work experiences include working at Inspire between 2010 – 2015, choreographing for ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble (2016), co-founding the NGO Żugraga, working as a dance leader with Opening Doors (2016 – 2019) and writing a Dance Education Package with Spazju Kreattiv (2019-2021) to share movement tasks that expand awareness on gender diversity and equality. Currently Rachel works as a Creative Therapist offering one-to-one sessions with TAASC and as a freelance dance practitioner choreographing, teaching and working with different communities.

Price

ZfinMalta is offering the 4-day, 6-hour intensive for a total of 80€. Although the sessions will provide a journey of movement exploration over four sessions, children and young people eager for a small taster are welcome to book single sessions for 25€ per session.