3 July, 7-8pm, La Vallette Square and surrounding area, Valletta

6 July, 7.30-8.30pm, La Vallette Square and surrounding area, Valletta

MESH invites audiences and passers-by to join in the making of a public ritual of togetherness in different public spaces. In response to our divisive global political climate, MESH explores how a participatory choreography for a large group can bring people together. It offers an experience of interdependence and collaboration through a shared physical practice.  It explores the choreographic-social potential of a collaborative and self-organising open group, reimagining new forms of public collective presence. An international group of dancers and local residents weave through streets, indoor and outdoor public spaces, creating co-operative, self-organizing, and sculptural formations responding to places and people.

MESH is part of a long-term choreographic research project by Vanessa Grasse (Sicily/UK) which explores the ecology of relational experiences. It is funded by Arts Council England (ACE) and is being performed in summer 2018 through a commission for The Great Exhibition of The North in Newcastel, co-produced by Yorkshire Dance and Dance City. MESH has developed through collaborations with practitioners from various disciplines including science, philosophy, and anthropology. MESH sharings in Valletta are hosted by Contact Improvisation Malta. More about MESH: https://meshjournal.wixsite.com/mesh

In Malta MESH will be addressing the changing sociocultural and urban landscapes of the island through an interactive performance event that asks how we are interconnected and intertwined, in spite of our cultural differences. MESH was conceived in the UK island and grounded in Vanessa’s personal experience of growing up in the Sicilian island. A key aspect of the research is questioning how we experience ‘edges’ physically, perceptually, geographically and socially, and how these experiences of containment and borders might be able to transform into an experience of permeability, interdependence, and interconnectivity.