MOVEO Dance Company’s latest piece Għajn Xtutna, showing at Valletta Campus Theatre on February 3 and 4, will pay tribute to Malta’s watchtowers that once guarded the island against coastal threats.

The piece is an artistic collaboration between Moveo Dance Company and eight Malta-based, freelance artists, including four dancers, a choreographer, a dramaturg, a costume designer, and a composer. 

The dance will exude the fear, determination and sense of community defence elicited by watch towers as it tackles the modern challenges of the Maltese islands.

Diane Portelli and Dorian Mallia came up with the idea to use the infrastructure available to them as an established cultural entity to nurture an open artistic exchange with other artists based on the island.

Moveo’s studio served as an open space in which artists could come together.

Moveo’s studio served as an open space in which these artists could come together and experiment to build on a pre-established concept.

“This is a rare opportunity for freelancers seeing the limited spaces available to artists to create,” they said.

One of the collaborators is Cheryl Loffreda from The MVMT who, together with Charlotte Carpentier and Gabriele Farinacci, will be choreographing the piece. Music for the piece will be composed by John Matthew Spiteri with costume design by Maria Cutajar.

“Cheryl comes from a different stylistic background, specialising in a more urban/open style so together with the other choreographers an interesting fusion of styles has emerged,” say Portelli and Mallia.

The concept draws inspiration from Malta’s watch towers which historically served as vigilant strong points, defending against coastal threats with nightly manned surveillance.

This dance fusion transcends boundaries and explores the essence of Maltese identity.

These towers were Malta’s stronghold, safeguarding our livelihood and people. From this emerged the concept of Maltese identity and what its modern-day threats are.

“This dance fusion transcends boundaries and explores the essence of Maltese identity, questioning our vulnerabilities and seeking innovative defences against today’s challenges. We question who we are as people and if there is such a thing as a pure Maltese identity.”

Għajn Xtutna is showing at Valletta Campus Theatre on February 3 and 4. For tickets, visit showshappening.com.