Travelling to Malta to take part in an older dancers’ performance project with a group of strangers and making a new dance work in under a week for the Dance Festival Malta (DFM), could be seen as ambitious or brave. However, this is exactly what EncoreEast dancers Anna Mortimer and Jeanette Siddall did in July, and they had a ball! 

Choreographer Douglas Comley began working with the Maltese dancers a few days before the international contingent (Anna and Jeanette) arrived, and by the end of the first full day of rehearsal together they had been woven into the piece and its bones were complete. There followed three days of early evening rehearsals, then a couple of days free to enjoy the festival and a full day of technical and dress rehearsals prior to the one and only performance of ‘Into the Light’. The performance was in the gorgeous, baroque Teatru Manoel that dates back to 1731 and opened a programme that included Malta’s national company ZfinMalta, Danae & Dionysios from Greece, Clémance Juglet from France and Min Kim from South Korea. 

It was only the second year the festival had produced a performance with older dancers, and Anna and Jeanette were the first and only international participants.  For a small country, Malta has a strong, thriving and enthusiastic dance community who were generous in inviting, welcoming and looking after dancers from overseas.   

There are so many courageous elements to celebrate in this project. Headlining a new work with older dancers made in the two weeks prior to the festival was a brave programming decision by Artistic Director Francesca Tranter. Douglas Comley was heroic in taking on its creation and Sandra Misfud did an amazing organising job as part of the festival team, as well as supporting the choreography and performing in the piece. The resulting work, ‘Into the Light’, was evocative, powerfully atmospheric and came to life when it met its audience.  

Dance Festival Malta is truly a festival – a celebration of bold, eclectic, international contemporary dance. Performances took place in venues across Valetta and iconic open spaces alongside a full programme of workshops in which many of the performers took part. As Francesca Tranter writes in her introduction to the programme: “Our passion for dance stems from its extraordinary ability to connect people across borders, generations, and life experiences”. Malta can be proud of the artistic achievements of its Dance Festival, just as Anna and Jeanette came away proud of being a part of it.