April 28, 2005 -

OTTAWA -- Emio Greco | PC, from The Netherlands, inaugurate the National Arts Centre’s Dutch Dance Focus with their performance of the edgy Rimasto Orfano (Abandoned Orphan) in the NAC Theatre on Tuesday May 10, 2005 at 20:30. Dutch Dance Focus throws a welcome spotlight on the enormous inventiveness and creativity evident throughout the dance scene in the Netherlands. The NAC celebration includes a photographic and video exhibition, dance master classes, as well as seven performances of three separate dance events, showcasing the work of seven Netherlands-based choreographers from different generations.

Italian choreographer Emio Greco and Dutch theatre director Pieter C. Scholten have worked together in their search for edgy new dance forms since 1995. The search for synchronicity; the desire for perfect unison, as well as for the unity of mind and body, is an ever-present theme in their work -- and Rimasto Orfano echoes the first seven years of their collaboration. It is a synthesis of past explorations but also a new beginning in which the six dancers advance, withdraw, and regroup in their exploration between control and chaos, togetherness and individuality. This is the first time Greco and Scholten have created a piece that uses the material of one specific contemporary composer as well as a sound collage by Wim Selles. Michael Gordon's powerful music brings a dynamic element into this work, emphasising and contrasting the need for silence and contemplation.

For Emio Greco and Scholten, the curiosity towards the body and its inner motives serve as the starting point for creating dance. In their performances, movement is seen as self-sufficient and capable of creating its own time and space. Dance is not used as a medium to convey a message or decorate theatrical space, but is seen as having an intelligence of its own, capable of communicating a wisdom of the body that needs no added explanations. Throughout the working process, all the elements of performance – stage design, sound, lighting – are there to support, contradict, provoke, compel and evolve with the body in a state of discovery.

Rimasto Orfano is a provocative vision on duality, synchronicity, time and place, set against the prospect of abandonment. The body, forced into silence, questions any next step: to withdraw or regroup, to lead or remain behind. Emio Greco and his performers compellingly articulate the struggles between body and mind. The dancing is classical one moment, tribal and gutsy the next, as unseen forces seem to propel the dancers. The lights, sound and set design for Rimasto Orfano perfectly complement the intent of the dance. These combined efforts create a trademark style, which has resulted in euphoric responses from the international press.

“Greco's dance is nothing short of mesmerizing. Emio Greco … moves unlike anyone I've ever seen (in fact, he makes you wonder if this was the kind of impact Nijinsky once had). And from the moment he appears on stage he compels you to watch him by virtue of the utter originality, emotional ferocity, dynamic thrust and sheer difficulty of his work.”

“A performer of almost Mephistophelian intensity… Greco is in command of one of the most exciting, original and eccentric dance vocabularies of anyone in contemporary dance!”

“Despite the twitching, stop-start movement and grimacing faces, Greco controls and steers his movement with a daring elegance.”

This production is funded in part by the Netherlands Culture Fund, Consulate General of The Netherlands in New York, Theater Instituut Nederland, and the National Dance Project (NDP) of the New England Foundation for the Arts. Lead funding for NDP is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and The Ford Foundation.

Emio Greco | PC performs Rimasto Orfano in the Theatre of the National Arts Centre on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 at 20:30. Tickets are $41, $38 and $29, and $21.50, $20 and $15.50 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at (613) 755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s web-site at www.nac-cna.ca. Last-minute tickets (subject to availability) for full-time students are $9.50 at the Live Rush Centre in the NAC Foyer after 18:00 on the day of performance only, upon presentation of a valid `Live Rush’ card. Groups of 20 or more save up to 20% off regular priced tickets; for reservations, call (613) 947-7000 x384 or toll free 1-866-850-2787, x384 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca

Photos for all dance events can be viewed and downloaded at: www.nac-cna.ca/media/

Information:
Gerald Morris
Marketing and Media Relations,
NAC Dance Department
(613) 947-7000, ext. 249
gmorris@nac-cna.ca

EMIO GRECO
Emio Greco (Italy) merges classical and contemporary elements to arrive at a new movement language. He is more concerned with exploring the connection between body and mind rather than being limited to the physical possibilities of the dancing body. Following his classical ballet training in Cannes, Emio Greco danced for several years with Ballet Antibes Cote d’Azur. From 1993 onwards he performed
in several stage productions of Belgian visual artist and theatre director Jan Fabre as well as in Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara’s work.

PIETER C. SCHOLTEN
The search for a new dramaturgy of the body has always been a central motivator
in the work of theatre director and dramaturge Pieter C. Scholten (The Netherlands). His early stage productions include performances on Oscar Wilde, Yukio Mishima and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Scholten worked for several years as a dance dramaturge and advisor to a number of choreographers and initiated Dance Instants, a work-in-progress programme for Netherlands-based dance makers.