In perpetual blooming, despite the gods is a study on channeling the energetic charge of an operatic prelude. A fascination with this vehicle and its potential: the moment before the word, in its germinal state, of blooming. The choreography and original music composition have been created with the challenge of slowness, the stretching of time, insistence, and a perpetual rise.
Standing on the threshold of several temporalities at once, the performer is inspired by “silent” texts, such as the first six missing pages of the Gospel according to Mary Magdalene, or by the contradictory words of the ancient poem The Thunder, Perfect Mind, in which the unknown writer claims a being of multiplicities: being silence and loudness. Being the whore and the holy woman, the bride and the groom. Being “she, the lord” and, at the same time, the root of sin.
In the suspended temporal space of the performance, the dancer’s body becomes the conduit and container of a woman catapulted through time. Inhabiting the body of paradoxes, she arrives as a spirit, carrying within herself a lack of voice that is at once age-old and present. A vital force advancing, continuously morphing, transforming, relentlessly blooming, despite adversity.
Maya Oliva is a dancer and choreographer from Florence. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dance from P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels and a Master’s degree in Choreography from the University of the Arts Helsinki.
She has danced in Italy, Belgium, France, Finland, Iceland, India, North America, and the Czech Republic. Her work has received support from Centro Nazionale di Produzione Virgilio Sieni, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Arts Promotion Centre Taike, and the Goethe-Institut. She has, together with Tina Afiyan Breiova, also won the first prize for choreography at the Jarmila Jeřábková Award in Prague. She has been selected for platforms dedicated to emerging choreographers, including NEU NOW ELIA (Europe’s Emerging Artists), Danse Dense / Les Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, and DNAppunti Coreografici. In 2025, she received the international Impulstanz DanceWEB scholarship in Vienna.
In 2026, she presents her new works Love&Making and feathered mouths in Helsinki and takes part in the Visiting Artist Programme at the One Dance Festival (Bulgaria), with the support of Zodiak and Side Step Festival.
concept, choreography and performance Maya Oliva
original score Atte Elias Kantonen
lighting design Saana Volanen
costume design Meri Craig
production Maya Oliva, Nexus Factory
supported by Centro Nazionale di Produzione della Danza Virgilio Sieni, MigraMenti, Arts Promotion Centre, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Danse Dense
thanks to Daniela Pascual Esparza
the performance on September 8 is presented within Short Theatre’s DRIFT DAY, with the support of DRIFT
ph. Giulia Lenzi