Malta's national dance company ŻfinMalta is making its UK debut this month. Martina Zammit takes you with the dancers on the journey.

Bulging backpacks, and we're off. Just about managed to pack in the essentials. The definition of what is 'essential' is pretty much subjective to the packer.

'Emotions run high'. Photo: Niels Plotard

As a group we are not particularly clingy, however after much aimless wandering around airports we always manage to bump into each other. Chance conversations over tea, wine, coffee. We flit between physical and virtual sociability depending on WIFI availability.

I watch as Bristol appears through the fog. Flying at night (part 2 of our long itinerary) is my favourite as it feels so cosy inside the plane and cities are lit as if by fairies in the dark night.

READ: ŻfinMalta dances its way to London's top theatres

After a day off, the work begins. The Taliesin theatre is a beautiful intimate space right on Swansea University campus. It feels good to do class after being 'immobile' for three days. Rehearsals go smoothly and plotting too. We finish off the day with a crucial tech run. Next day we're all packed up in the morning and drag our luggage to the theatre.

The class is on stage to help us get in tune with the space, and we need another run to get ready for the Triple bill that same night.

It's the first time we get the chance to perform Selah in a while and it's Joao's Selah debut along with Danae and Jure's Kick the Bucket debut. It is beautiful to see the emotions run high during the performance and we're all on a high post-performance eating take-away pizza lovingly brought to us by Elaine. Still digesting our food and 'coming down' from our euphoric state we jump onto a bus for a three-hour bus ride to Birmingham.

Photo: Niels Plotard

The following day is hectic to say the least. We squeeze in class, rehearsal, plotting of two pieces and a performance into one day. Tensions run high as time presses on and the performance that night becomes our first run of the double bill. Stark contrast to the two days we had to prepare for our Swansea performance.

We enter stage cold (we nicknamed our backstage entrance 'the cold room') and seemingly unprepared. Pulling it together we give Mavin and Gabin all our happy thoughts for their first performance of Kick the Bucket and give it our all in our first performance of Home. All in all we have a blast and some special impromptu moments within the piece have us in fits after the performance.

Next morning we are scheduled to leave for Doncaster at 12 and we somehow manage to shove some breakfast down our throats. Again we jump into a bus for a two-hour ride to our next destination.

This is the first of three ŻfinMalta blog posts chronicling the dance company's UK debut