“A dance experience of such creative brilliance and overwhelming emotion that even the most jaded critic could not help but be moved.” —Dance Magazine
Italian choreographer/director Emio Greco and Dutch theater director/choreographer Pieter C. Scholten have emerged as two of Europe’s most electrifying dance innovators, investigating formal choreographic structures as well as the limits of the human body. Their new large-scale performance, Hell, contemplates the concept of hell, and culminates in a fever pitch of gripping emotion and physical commitment. Their highly stylized movement, phenomenal unison work, and virtuosic company of eight dancers take movement to new heights, offering a riotous mix of dance forms: tango, waltz, dance hall, and classical. Hell will be performed Thursday–Saturday, May 3–5, at 8 pm in the Walker Art Center’s William and Nadine McGuire Theater.
Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten have worked together in their search for new dance forms since 1995, creating contemporary work that incorporates, transforms, and questions classical elements in a constantly changing context. Greco and Scholten make a contemporary dance that cuts its own path through established paradigms. Emio Greco | PC collaborates with artists from other artistic disciplines, explores the possibilities and limits of dance, and transfers insights to others through workshops at home and abroad. In addition, the company actively stimulates the discourse on dance in general. Equally important to the uncompromising vision of Emio Greco | PC productions is the impeccable integration of stage design, sound, and lighting. Throughout the creative process, these elements of performance support, contradict, provoke, compel, and evolve with the body in a state of discovery.
The reactions of the international press and the public have been positive, even euphoric. In 2005, Dance Magazine noted that the duo had created “a dance experience of such creative brilliance and overwhelming emotion that even the most jaded critic could not help but be moved,” calling Rimasto Orfano “a masterpiece.” Emio Greco | PC has performed in theaters and festivals throughout Europe and elsewhere. The Company was awarded the Philip Morris Arts Prize for dance in 1999 for “the well thought-out and logical way in which they explore their central theme in an original and surprising way, both choreographically and dramatically.” In 2001 they won the Sonia Gaskell Prize for Choreography, awarded by the Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, for the entire Double Points series. That same year, they won the Herald Angel at the Edinburgh International Festival for Double Points: One & Two, awarded by the critics of the Scottish newspaper, The Herald. In January, 2004, Emio Greco received the Time Out London Live Award.
The huge success of the company’s first major North American tour, produced by MAPP in spring 2005, of Rimasto Orfano and Double Points: One & Two was followed by two engagements in January 2006 of Conjunto di NERO at White Bird in Portland, OR, and the Joyce Theater in New York City. The 2006–2007 North American tour features the company’s latest creation, Hell. After exploring dance from the vantage point of other arts disciplines, Hell is Emio Greco | PC’s take on dance as their art form absolute. In recent years they have focused on theater (Pasolini’s Teorema in co-production with Toneelgroep Amsterdam) and opera (Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice in co-production with Edinburgh International Festival and Opera North). Hell premiered at the Festival de Montpellier in June, 2006.
Tickets to Emio Greco | PC are $25 ($20 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.
Related Events
Master Class with Emio Greco | PC for Advanced Modern Dancers
Saturday, May 5, 11 am
$15 ($10 Walker members)
McGuire Theater
Gallery Performances by Emio Greco | PC Dancers
Saturday, May 5, 2–3:30 pm FREE
Dancers from Emio Greco | PC will perform short dance pieces inspired by artworks in the Walker galleries.
