The second welcomed return of the 2003 edition of Oriente Occidente, following Brygida Ochaim, concerns Emio Greco. The thirty-seven-year-old choreographer of Italian origins, currently active in the Netherlands, had indeed made his debut as an author in Italy in 2002 at our Festival, during which he presented Double Points: 1 and 2, a performance praised by both the audience and critics, earning him the Danza&Danza Award 2002 for best choreographer and performer of the year.
Emio Greco, in tandem with the faithful Dutch director and dramaturge Pieter C. Scholten, returns to Rovereto with the Italian premiere of Rimasto Orfano, a work co-produced by Oriente Occidente in collaboration with KustenFESTIVALdesArts/Kaaitheater in Brussels, the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, and Théâtre de la Ville in Paris. Once again, Greco and Scholten explore synchrony, the desire for unity, and the coincidence of space and time among dancers. Since their artistic partnership began in 1995, the two authors have succeeded in creating a unique artistic universe where the body occupies a central role. The starting point of their dance and the inspiration for their works stem from a curiosity about the body and its inner motivations.
In their early works, such as the trilogy Fra Cervello e Movimento consisting of the solos Bianco ('95) and Rosso ('97) and the duet Extra Dry ('99), they explored the tension between mind and body, the mind's propensity to subjugate it, and the body's resistance to obedience. In the Double Points series, this duality is juxtaposed with the external, the other, the different. In Double Points: 1, the comparison develops with Ravel's Bolero music; in Double Points: 2, the utopian quest for synchrony between masculine and feminine is explored; in Double Points: Nero, the group of dancers confronts darkness and the diverse sensory perceptions that arise from it. This path is continued in the subsequent Conjunto di NERO ('01), where the choreography plays with the intensity of black and the density of darkness. Limitless depth and a gravity-free space constitute the subtle line between the tangible and intangible in this performance, from which Rimasto Orfano ('02) emerges.
Rimasto Orfano picks up where Conjunto di NERO left off, from the image of Emio Greco imprisoned in blue lines. This evocative image depicts the moment when the body, overwhelmed, chooses to abandon its search for harmony due to physical limits, allowing only reflection to enable further steps. The body is confused, attempting to regroup with itself and with others through a meditative phase.
Thus, the six bodies of Rimasto Orfano - exposed to the musical composition of American composer Michael Gordon and the dynamics of light - make their choices, responding to an external environment always ready to provoke and stimulate. What to do? Stay, leave, take charge, or adapt to the rear? The mind silences the body, leaving every explanation uspended.
A visionary choreographer, Emio Greco enriches his performances with an original choreographic vocabulary, a fusion of classical and post-modern alphabets, often imbued with an abstract theatricality of rare fascination.
