As he kicks off his sixth season at the helm of ŻfinMalta, artistic director and choreographer Paolo Mangiola speaks to Adriana Bishop about the young company’s achievements so far and his vision for the future.
Paolo Mangiola has a “huge ambition”. He wants to put ŻfinMalta firmly in the centre of the European dance map, “come un faro nell’ Europa”, like a beacon in Europe.
“I would love to see the company keep growing as an international dance hub which operates in many different ways,” he articulates in his calm, measured English which has lost almost all traces of his native Italian accent, no doubt eroded by his long years dancing around the world.
“I want to see the company not only producing work for audiences but also providing platforms for young artists and for professional students who want to enter the company. I would like to leave a legacy where the company develops like many other places in Europe, where dance keeps developing.”
Paolo Mangiola“The biggest achievement of the company so far is that we have really managed to increase the audience every season and that is something that happened because of the good work we are producing and the hard work of everyone on board.”
Paolo’s ambition extends to a wish to increase the small ensemble, currently consisting of 10 dancers, but that comes with a whole plethora of legislative issues.
“The idea of a career in dance is very new in Malta. We need to talk about the issues that are being addressed in other countries, to make sure we keep improving the dancer’s terms and conditions more in line with other arts professionals, while also taking into account what sets a dancer’s career apart, such as its brevity.”
Valuing dancers
Retaining dancers is tricky as many feel the urge to spread their wings and move on every few years.
“The career of a dancer is a short one – 15 years. Retaining talent is a very difficult job and there are many aspects that go into this: salary, quality of life, type of repertoire. I have managed to retain the dancers but then at some point you need to let them go.”
Paolo knows full well what it means to have to broaden your horizons in order to follow your dreams. He left Reggio in Italy’s deep south at a very young age for Milan to continue his dance studies and then moved further afield as his career progressed.
“The job of a dancer is very international. Mobility is in the DNA of our job. You move because you have that vocation, that urgency of wanting to keep experimenting,” he adds.
Paolo is now investing in the next generation of talent with the introduction of the “Aspire” intern programme for contemporary dance students which gives 10 young dancers a fully-funded opportunity to take their career to the next level. He concedes that auditioning dancers “is the hardest job ever” but it is not about age. “I would love to work more with mature dancers,” he adds.
In his first two months in Malta he had visited every single private dance school to get an understanding of the local talent and he found lots of potential. “I saw many talented dancers. The moment they leave the island they want to keep exploring what is out there. In Malta there is pretty much the same environment as in Germany or UK. I can’t force local dancers to come back to Malta. They know that Malta is producing really high quality work.”
Making a career in the very small arts scene on this very small island has always been a challenge but Paolo does not see it is a barrier to growth. “I see limitations as a sort of framework that I need to work with. Rather than look at it as a limitation I see it as a fact, a reality. The size of the island is not important. The company has a very international breadth.”
Photo: Alexandra PaceDance needs a theatre
While setting up and supporting a national dance company was a visionary move by the government, the question of a permanent theatre for ŻfinMalta remains. With no national dance theatre yet on the horizon, the company must rent out space wherever it performs, which can be costly, especially as theatres and alternative spaces don’t come fully equipped.
“We have a fully equipped rehearsal studio at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, which is great, but we don’t have a home theatre to stage our productions. During my career dancing all over the world, my experience has been that national theatres in particular curate a seasonal artistic programme which includes the national dance company, by invitation. Ideally, I would like to see this happen in Malta, with theatres ready to host an audience of dance.”
During his tenure Paolo has seen ŻfinMalta blossom but, more significantly, has seen the public interest in ŻfinMalta grow. When he was appointed artistic director in 2017, then aged 37, he was the youngest director of a national dance company in Europe. At the time he was the resident choreographer of Balletto di Roma after 18 years dancing around the world.
He had plenty of experience in the dance world but “they don’t teach you how to be a director of a dance company”. He recalled how he prepared himself for the job interview by studying “day and night” putting together a “huge presentation” outlining a three year business plan. He already knew the island and the local dance scene having spent a month lecturing at the University of Malta’s dance studies department in 2014.
From strength to strength
When he first joined the company, they barely sold 100 tickets. Now, the company can count on a solid paid audience of between 400 and 500 people. “This is huge,” he exclaims. “I had a few mentors that I followed. Through their help, through taking risks, making mistakes and reassessing what could work better and with the support of the board of directors we have managed to make a beautiful impact on the dance world in Malta. The increase in the audience numbers came through hard work and the very ambitious vision I brought forward but a vision can only work if it can be shared and the people around you thoroughly believe in you, not only the dancers who are incredibly versatile and ready to work with different choreographers but also the team in the office that really understands the direction the company is going. Each of them takes the lead in their area.”
“We are now a company that can compete easily in the international market with a repertoire that is unique for Malta and this is the beauty of it. I did not want to create a repertoire company that emulates other repertoire companies. I wanted to first of all have choreographers come make new work for Malta to allow them to be inspired by the landscape of Malta, by its history, and through their eyes they have the ability to capture the spirit of what is an important element, making repertoire which is relevant and most of all that local audience love. I can now take huge risks because we have a core audience which knows us. We could only achieve this because we had the full support of the government.”
Inspiring through dance
What inspires ŻfinMalta’s programme? While the company is rooted in Malta, its work is inspired not just by the island but by myriad influences from both local and international choreographers. Works such as “Sunrise Mass”, performed at Mnajdra Temples in a first-time collaboration with KorMalta and Heritage Malta and which will once again feature in the forthcoming season, celebrated the very essence of Malta’s history and culture.
One of the new works to be presented this season is inspired by Ġgantija Temple. But Paolo says the programme’s inspiration is wider than just Malta. He looks for choreographers “who are really able to say something with dance in unexpected ways, choreographers who remove what is superfluous, who are intelligent, create smart work, provide an experience for the audience that leaves them moved, inspired, touched, leaves them feeling that they have learnt something and most of all allows them to enter that space where they start wondering about that topic.”
This new season ŻfinMalta will put climate change front and centre of its programme.
“The story behind the new season is all about trying to give the audience the time and space to go to the theatre and reflect on the many layers that this current climate is giving us,” explains Paolo. “Every work touches on, not in a dramatic way but sometimes in an ironic way, understanding what the future will look like. The artists who are coming this season will all try to imagine how decisions taken now will affect our society.” The programme kicks off with a work created by Paolo that “engages with the idea of collecting things before an extinction comes.”
Every season ŻfinMalta works mostly with local artists providing a platform for choreographers who are locally based or from abroad. The rest of the artistic team behind the productions - set designers, lights, costumes – are all local.
“The whole concept of ŻfinMalta is to try and be as inclusive as possible. The work becomes really interesting for an audience that might not understand or love dance but can be engaged through visual art. We provide a platform for artists to experiment,” says Paolo.
“Dance is not about telling you a story but providing you with a thinking platform through evocative images, through body and space. It tries to engage the viewer on different levels which sometimes are not linear,” he adds.
ŻfinMalta’s new season will be officially launched on September 29. For more information visit zfinmalta.org