NUOVA FIGURA is performed as part of ŻfinDays 2023: 1 DOUBLE BILL, 2 FULL LENGTH WORKS, OVER TWO WEEKENDS
ŻfinDays is an annual programme of works by choreographers who are currently in the spotlight on the international dance stage. Introduced in 2019 by ŻfinMalta’s Artistic Director Paolo Mangiola, ŻfinDays has become one of the company’s annual signature programmes, exposing ŻfinMalta’s company dancers, and its audiences, to the extraordinary diversity of talent on the European choreographic scene. For the first time, ŻfinDays 2023 will run over two weekends, each weekend featuring the D’Agostin/Mangiola double bill on the first night, and one full length work on the following two nights.
Nuova Figura charts the choreographic journey of Mangiola and the dancers, exploring the human gaze and images we create of our world. The work takes as its starting point the world map of the cosmos drawn in 1603 by Gozitan cartographer, astronomer, and astrologer, Antonino Saliba. In this extraordinary document Saliba combined ancient pagan and medieval Christian cosmology with Renaissance beliefs and experiences. He imagined a world that appears at once orderly and chaotic, spiritual and temporal, familiar and fantastic; filled with decorative hemispheres, rings of fire, demons, salamanders, and people digging into the earth.
Nuova Figura transposes these images into a contemporary context. A multi-layered canon of words and movement emerges, mapping our present-day image of the world. The demons of our time unfold in the densely atmospheric space – the over-forming of our nature, the consequences of the pandemic and the effects of war – as circular, explorative movements simultaneously reveal our capacity to move forward with hope and a desire for something better to come. A work inspired by Antonio Saliba’s celestial map of the universe, held in the collection of Heritage Malta.
Commissioned and funded by the Ministry for Gozo.
Date & Time: 17 & 24 FEBRUARY 2023, 19:30
VENUE: Valletta Campus Theatre
Duration: 30 mins
Age: 5+
Choreography: Paolo Mangiola, in collaboration with the company dancers
Cast: 11 dancers
Set design: Jacob Saliba
Dramaturg: Thomas Schaupp
Original score: INSYK Collective
Light design: Moritz Zavan Stoeckle
Costumes: Jeandor Farrugia
Dramaturg: Thomas Schaupp
Duration: 30 mins
Age: 5+
Nuova Figura has been specially commissioned and funded by the Ministry for Gozo.
