New Artefacts

An idealized Arcadia bathed in glaring artificial light and a melancholic daydream in the autumn rain.

Arcadia (Mythology: Idyllic place of beauty and harmony)
Matthew William Robinson

On the edge of what might be a sports field, athletic bodies move in glaring, artificial light as if on a catwalk. Everyone seems absorbed in their own self-expression. And although they are in the same space, they have little to do with each other, serving more as a social backdrop for one another. A strange emptiness spreads.

With the title Arcadia, choreographer Matthew William Robinson refers to a place of longing that everyone strives for, but whose fulfilment remains unattainable. He relates this to the artificially generated images of perfection in a digital present—today’s ideals that drive us. Together with Of Curious Nature, he looks at the human, narcissistic circling around one’s own image, reproduced a thousand times on social media.
The Choreographic images refer to the obsessive scrolling through the constructed worlds of digital self-staging. Arcadia thus examines the media-amplified variant of an age-old human dilemma: wishing for a beautiful, ideal new world and losing touch with the present.

Black Rain
Helge Letonja
Water runs down oversized windows and feeds the agonizing longing for torrent rain to break the ongoing paralysis. In a silent film-like setting, Of Curious Nature plunges into a melancholic daydream whose images take on a surrealistic life of their own. The difference between outside and inside gets blurred. People seem to be stuck, their actions come to nothing, disturbing and touching in their absurdity. A hint of nostalgia and regret is in the air. And above all hovers the question: What loss is actually being lamented here, if nothing can be retained anyway?

Matthew William Robinson, director of Malta’s national company Zfin Malta, and Helge Letonja, artistic director of Of Curious Nature, have initiated a long-term artistic exchange between their ensembles, enabling guest choreographies and guest performances in Malta and Bremen. 

_{Choreography: Matthew William Robinson , Helge Letonja | Choreographic Assistance: Mario Manara, Mariko Koh | Dance: Lys Cabral, Wan-Yun Chen, Agathe Mas, Jed Nagales, Panna Pozsony, Tiago Reis, Daniel Sabia, David Schmidt, Pere Sansaloni Servera, Carolina Verra | Lighting Design: Carlos Heydt | Technical Direction: Nathaniel Johnson | Production Management: Moritz Petri | Video Documentation: Médoune Seck | Photos: Mariann Menke}

_{Production Office: steptext dance project | A production by TanzRAUM Nord gUG and steptext dance project, funded by the Senator für Kultur and the Karin-und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung.}

Tue. 15.01.2026 | 7:30 pm | Tickets
Fr. 16.01.2026 | 7:30 pm | Tickets
Sa. 17.01.2026 | 7:30 pm | Tickets
_{Schwankhalle Bremen}

November 2025

Tue. 30.10 | 7:30 p.m | (Preview with solidarity-based pricing system)
Premiere: Fr. 31.10. | 7:30 pm
Sa. 01.11. | 7:30 pm
Su. 02.11. | 4:00 pm
_{Schwankhalle Bremen}