Organised by dancer and choreographer Felix Busuttil, the Malta International Dance & Competition Event 2015 (MIDCE), was the first large-scale dance competition to take place in Malta.
The event included a number of dance classes in difference styles held by international artistes and a final gala competition at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta.
The final competition was open to both local and foreign dance students, with winners awarded bursaries and scholarships among other prizes.
Entries were divided into dance style categories, whether solos, duets or group choreographies, as well as age categories: juniors (7-11), teens (12-15) and seniors (16-39). This allowed a wide range of possibilities for dancers to showcase their talents within various disciplines in this competition.
For the first event of its kind, the sheer amount of participants, apparently more than one thousand, was indeed impressive.
It was very heartening to hear that so many dancers from around the islands came to participate in this large-scale competition. This goes to show that dancers in Malta have a lot of energy and enthusiasm and seek more opportunities of this kind to showcase their talents.
From my experience, it is very rare to see so many local dancers come together under one roof to collaborate and perform in one space.
Therefore, the MIDCE 2015 competition was successful in its aim to encourage dancers and practitioners to “perform and compete in a supportive atmosphere while fostering creativity and collaboration”.
One thing that struck me immediately, and which I found surprising, was the advertised length of the performance – three hours and 30 minutes, according to the Mediterrnaean Conference Centre website.
This is an abnormally long time for any dance performance or competition, and not even renowned international dance competitions such as Prix de Lausanne or the Royal Academy of Dance’s Genée International Ballet Competition are that long.
Little did I know that there were 106 acts and that a really long night lay ahead of us.
Forty minutes after the advertised time, the performance had not yet started. Having some behind-the-scenes theatre experience myself, I am very aware of last-minute issues (technical or otherwise) that need addressing, but 40 minutes is a very long delay.
Anything past the 15-minute mark starts ringing alarm bells all around, and organisers lose control over the crowd.
This was evident by the time Busuttil took the stage to address the audience. It took him a good two minutes to gain everyone’s attention.
The event finally started 45 minutes later than expected.
The night progressed without hitches... or so I’d like to report. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case. With 106 performances, the initial acts were rushed back to back, until the judges had to slow down the pace so that they could write and judge appropriately.
All the successive technical faults took away from the enjoyment of the performances
While this is a necessary requirement for the panel to make a fair judgement, it only helped to prolong an already-heavily-programmed evening. The transitions from one act to the next were not as smooth as one would expect in a performance, with unnecessary waiting time, seemingly wrong light cues and music issues.
In one instance there seemed to be a fault in the music of one of the performers. Rather than having the issue resolved there and then, she was asked to return backstage and was called on stage about 18 dances later. I can only imagine the increased added tension and anxiety of the performer.
To make matters worse, two hours in and there was still no sign of a short intermission. This led to many people exiting the theatre for refreshments, and as more time went by it only added to the unease in the air.
To alleviate this tension, Busuttil held a running commentary during waiting times, to explain parts of the process or to encourage everyone to be patient with the lengthy proceedings.
However, this informal exchange of information turned the event into an informal sharing, as opposed to the professional gala event that was anticipated.
Although this might sound like a minute detail, the fact that Busuttil switched from English to Maltese without offering any translation felt slightly dis-respectful towards foreign audiences, who were left waiting in the theatre possibly without understanding what was being said.
The cherry on the cake was when the youngest competitors were performing close to midnight, and possibly later.
It is hard enough for an adult performer to stay alert and adequately warmed up (for so many hours) before they perform, let alone children as young as seven. This factor raises a lot of health and safety issues; in a cold theatre, dancers have to work extra hard at keeping their bodies warmed up and ready to perform.
Furthermore, children are more susceptible to tiredness at such a late hour. Tiredness and inappropriate waiting time could have resulted in serious injuries. Nevertheless, the junior acts that I watched were performed delightfully, considering the circumstances.
Regrettably, I had to leave the performance after the first intermission. This is an action I rarely take as I do not like disrespecting dancers and choreographers after all their hard work, but I did feel that the way the event was managed was unprofessional.
Seeing the pace at which the event was progressing, I estimated it would finish at about 4am – in actual fact, I later learned that it finished much later, at around 5am the following morning.
All the successive technical faults took away from the enjoyment of the performances. Nonetheless, it was apparent that the choreographies comprised a concoction of talent – from a student/amateur to a semi-professional standard.
Some entries were succinct and straight to the point, whereas others were exceedingly long – a point that could have been taken into consideration in programming the event.
There were also some exceptionally-talented dancers. This goes to show that events such as this are indeed required as they draw out local talent in the dance field.
Unfortunately the event programme did not include a list of the performances that were competing on the night, and therefore I have no reference to who these dancers/choreographers were.
While I understand that some of the competitors were notified on the day that they were meant to be competing that evening, the organisers should have foreseen this and planned accordingly.
An insert would have sufficed, such as the one included about ŻfinMalta Dance Ensemble’s short performance at the end of the evening – a performance that was called off since the gala finished so late. I believe that this was a responsible decision that priorit-ised the dancers’ safety.
Considering the broad range of categories, arrangements could have been made in the planning phase to separate the single gala evening into possibly three sessions spread out during the day, according to age group.
This would have been easier for everyone to plan accordingly and might have spared some of the younger audiences (and parents) some inappropriate choreographies.
All in all, the good intentions and aims of the MIDCE event were lost to a disorganised evening full of avoidable blunders.
If a future MIDCE is in the pipeline, it would be wise to take into consideration and correct all the shortcomings of the 2015 edition.
More importantly, the prospect and reality of 106 acts in a final is an exceedingly ambitious endeavour, even for renowned international dance competitions worldwide that are well respected within the international dance community.
MIDCE has a lot to learn from established and well-run inter-national dance competitions.