The wake-up calls of Emio Greco and Pieter C. ScholtenOn the making and the revival of Fra Cervello e Movimento

PrologueDualism. According to the Shorter Oxford Dictionary: twofold division. A system ofthought which recognizes two independent principles.

Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten constitute Emio Greco | PC, the name thatrecognizes two independent names. Their meeting in 1995 resulted in a collaborationthat has lasted for nine years to date and has led to more than seventeen productions,including ten dance pieces, a theatre piece, an opera and two films. Noteworthyproductions to be loved or loathed that have the power to dazzle and awe, repulse orattract, but that never leave you indifferent. Perfor-mances with the effect and impetus ofan alarm bell, a fire alarm, a distress siren. Wake-up calls, present in each performancein the shape of strange twists, shock effects and contrary scenes. And in fact all thoseperformances together, the collected works today are one major wake-up call. A wake-up call to dance and to the theatre, to theatre and dance makers, to the audience, to Art.

With ‘Emio Greco is dead’, whispered into the microphone by a blond wigged dancer, theduo set the opening of their eighth production Rimasto Orfano in 2002. An ice-coldshower for the theatre production system with its ever higher expectations, but also amene tekel for the creative duo themselves. A warning to stay awake and not becomeparalysed by the artistic paradox which each artist sooner or later faces: the dread ofhaving to reinvent oneself at every new production; the danger of becoming repetitive.

For they invented themselves during their very first collaboration: Bianco, the ultra-white,the blank page, the first part of what was later to become, together with Rosso and ExtraDry, the dance trilogy Fra Cervello e Movimento (between brain and movement). In twosolos and a solo-for-two Greco and Scholten presented their credentials; their artisticprogramme and their vision. The reprise of the complete trilogy, in 2004, on an invitationby Romaeuropa meshes with the reflection on their own work, as initiated by Greco andScholten in Rimasto Orfano. It represents a return to the source from which they stilldraw inspiration and to the starting points that they still work with.

MeetingBrain and movement. A dualism that has existed since the very first collaboration and isa constant founding factor in the works they create. A duality, individually and as a duo,The dancer/choreographer and the theatre director/dramaturge. Italian and theDutchman. An embryonic primal scream searching for words and a vision of theatre anddance in search of a muse. Wasn’t the meeting of Greco and Scholten in 1995 a meetingof Cervello e Movimento?

Nine years and seventeen productions later:Emio Greco (EG): ‘No, because there has always been a lot of brain in the movement.’Pieter C. Scholten (PC): ‘And a lot of movement in the brain.’

EG: ‘I sensed I needed words. To me dance has always had the significance of acommentary. On one’s self, on humanity, on society, on art in general. And I knew that Ineeded someone with whose help I could translate that commentary and that primalscream into something that could be communicated. Through anthropological andphilosophical discussions about what dance can be, I might become better equipped to

harness that energy. Pieter was experienced in writing about theatre and dance. In him Irecognised the aversion to artificiality, the narrative, the anecdotal. But also his desire todig for the essence: the vulnerable presence of the dancer. At the time I was notconcerned with the matter of making of choreographies, but with understanding thequestion: ‘what does it mean to be a dancer?’

PC: ‘Talking about it now, it’s as if there was a certain logic in our meeting and initialdiscussions. That was absolutely not so. We had no idea what the future might bring.Emio had left from Jan Fabre in order to find his own path. But what does that mean:‘finding your own path’? He was very critical of the dance he saw around him, but did nothave a ready answer. I worked at Theater Cosmic in Amsterdam, had initiated the seriesDance Instants, was frustrated with the continued absence of funds with which to makemy own theatre productions and asked myself what turn my artistic ambitions could take.Then all of a sudden there was Emio standing before me and we got talking.’

ManifestoIn February 1996, Bianco premiered. A scratch on the history of dance. A primal scream,indeed, but mathematically harnessed, analysed to the bone, divided into seven scenesby analogy to the seven points of the manifesto that they had drawn up. For from theoutset, Greco and Scholten have been in search of ‘an intellectual as well as instinctiveapproach to dance’. They accompanied their debut by ‘a specific credo composed at aspecific moment.’ Saturday 3 March 1996 at 00:00hrs they completed the final touchesof Il Manifesto. The Seven Necessities.

1. Il faut que je vous dise que mon corps est curieux de moi. Je suis mon corps.2. Il faut que je vous dise que je ne suis pas seul.3. Il faut que je vous dise que je peux contrôler mon corps et en même temps jouer aveclui.4. Il faut que je vous dise que mon corps m’échappe.5. Il faut que je vous dise que je peux multiplier mon corps.6. Il faut que je vous dise qu’il faut que vous tourniez la tête.7. Il faut que je vous dise que je vous abandonne et que je vous laisse ma statue.

EG: ‘ The relationship between body and mind dominated our early discussions. Weunderstood that it is necessary to critically reappraise what is known in order to discoverwhat is unknown. What we had learned could at best lead to a reproduction of whatexisted already. In that case, what is the meaning of creativity? Then we beganimprovising. By carefully observing and interrogating my body as it was at work in thestudio we arrived at new insights. We tried as honestly as possible to recognise wherethe movements stemmed from. Where did the body follow the commands of the will, andwhere was it speaking for itself? Sometimes I purposefully brought the body intoconfusion by going straight against its habitual ways, sometimes I gave free reign tothose habits and placed them in a different context. Those seven points of the manifestoare linked to intentions of movements, representing the things we are working with eventoday.’

PC: ‘The manifesto was not written with the idea: we work with this for a few months,then discard it and write something else. This is to remain. With every performance wecreatewe rewrite the manifesto. Every piece refers to The Seven Necessities, sometimesdirectly as in Bianco, sometimes in ways that are only recognisable to us, as with

Rimasto Orfano. In all those years The Seven Necessities have lost none of their forceand validity. Perhaps they are a little naive, but that is how they were once conceived.And in a way I cherish the naivety that speaks from them.’

BiancoEG: ‘At that point in time we wanted to break through the wall of the dance world with anew vision of dance. Bianco was a happening, a 65-minute piece in which everything islaid bare. There is nothing to fall back on or hide behind. There is only one element atwork there: the maker, himself. For 65 minutes he displays a way of making dance. Thereprise can never have the same impact. Now I may dance the statement, at the time Iwas the statement.’

PC: ‘We couldn’t make another piece like Bianco now. Impossible. A reprise of Biancowill automatically be a commentary. One of The Seven Necessities states: Il faut que jevous dise que mon corps est curieux de moi. Je suis mon corps. With Bianco and Rossoin particular, the solos by Emio, it leads unavoidably to a new look on the materials,simply because Emio’s body is no longer the same as it was then.’

RossoA continuation of the collaboration after Bianco was not self-evident for Greco andScholten. They had made the statement they needed to make, there was little to add toit: “Bianco is Bianco and that’s it.’ It was Johan Reyniers, director of the KlapstukFestival in Louvain who offered Scholten and Greco a studio space to work in for sometime. Without the pressure of having to produce a new performance, perhaps as anopportunity to elaborate on Bianco, or maybe just as a chance to continue thecollaboration. That is how Rosso came about. Mysterious, mystical. The white cloth wasat once drenched in red, innocence lost forever.

PC: ‘That was indeed the intention. The red also stood for the expectations that hadgrown up around us. They were highly charged. Red is the most highly charged colour.Passion, love, blood, hell; you can project anything onto it. Our concept was to have oneperpetual, continual flowing of energy. In contrast to Bianco, where the structure wasbased on seven, and there were consequently seven states of lighting, we took a singlestate as our starting point for Rosso. The music was not to be conceived as music, butas a continuing tone that is already there when the audience enters and also when theyleave.’

EG: ‘I wanted to overcome Bianco by surpassing it in terms of effort, heroism andmovement idiom. All the same it had to be completely different. In that respect I am apurist. Actually, I had not wanted to present Bianco. I was flabbergasted when Pieterproposed to show the work. I was primarily concerned with our collaboration and with thethings that arose from it. Bianco was so new, even to ourselves, I felt quite insecureabout it and I had major doubts about showing it. The fact that Bianco did come abouthappened dispite me. It took us almost two years after that to make Rosso. I wantedeverything to be felt anew, the necessity, the conviction, the motivation. And then thingsslowly began to move. Rosso was an interminable tour de force; it is about an unen-dingcurrent, the dance has been developed on the idea of a monotonous stream. An endlessforce. Even for me, that is.’

Extra DryIt was only after Rosso that the idea of a trilogy began to form; Bianco and Rosso

belonged together and the thought occurred to have them followed by a third part. On arequest by dance festival CaDance in The Hague, Greco and Scholten first created theperformance Double Points: Two. For the first time there was another dancer besidesEmio, for the first time a duet, for the first time a choreography. It marked the overture aswell as the preliminary investigation for Extra Dry.

PC: ‘It was never determined beforehand: let’s make a trilogy, starting with white, thenred and concluding with gold. Every piece brought on its own consequences. After thered of Rosso we found it impossible to use any other colour. Moreover, we realised thatBianco and Rosso could never be danced by anyone else. Nor are Bianco and Rossochoreographies; they are statements. With Extra Dry it was clear from the start that wehad to investigate new things. To put ourselves into perspective, we needed thecommunication with a third person, another dancer. We had developed a desire to letothers in, to share.’

EG: ‘Extra Dry is one of my finest experiences if we talk about working from intuition.The title, the concept of space, the gold. The scenery stands midway between acathedral and a steppe desert. And then two people journeying around the stage. AfterRosso we became conscious of our quest. We could reflect on the elements that we’reworking with. We first took up the contrast between the sacred and the profane whileworking on Extra Dry. Likewise we then consciously developed the notion of a space in-between, an interspace.’

PC: ‘In Extra Dry everything revolved around the core notion of syn such assynchronicity, syncopation, synergy. Still a breakdown according to The SevenNecessities, but with an added twist. Synchronicity came into focus naturally throughworking with a dancer alongside Emio. The doubling, the simultaneousness. Someonewho managed to stay standing beside Emio without becoming his double.’

Unisono synchronicityTwo entities juxtaposed to see what may happen, what may be possible in the way ofcross-overs, where the specific loses its outline and where it unmistakably distinguishesitself from its counterpart. In Bianco and Rosso the body of one dancer spanned theduality of body and mind and took up the space between the two, the interspace, thetwilight area between the poles. The duality of the I and the not-I, subject and object,consciousness and existence, body and mind, the profane and the sacred. Extra Drymarked the beginning of multiplication: the duality made visible by the two dancers onthe stage. And even when a complete unisono synchronicity in dance and movementseems to occur, there is never complete unity. The more synchronicity there is, the morethe individuality of the dancers is emphasized.

PC: ‘When it is performed well, as a synchronous unisono journey of a set of dancers onthe stage, then it becomes like a single breath, but with a clear-cut view of thecharacteristics of each individual dancer.’

Unity duality multiplicityBesides being a given fact, duality is also a basic precondition for the creative process ofGreco and Scholten. It is in this interspace that new things are created.

PC: ‘There is constant friction between the elements. Dance and lighting, lighting andmusic, music and dance. Unity does not exist, though you may reach for it. If unity were

to be achieved, the work would cease to be, in which case life itself would be impossible.That aspiration and that friction are recurring elements in our work. Neither Emio nor Iconstitute a unity. Our collaboration is based on friction.’

EG: ‘Duality marks the first fission of the entity. That very first division, that first greatseparation, that is gigantic. Unity is broken and fragmentation has set in. What follows ismultiplication, repetition. We are programmed to aspire to unification, in the knowledgethat we shall never accomplish it. Such is life. The desire of oneness is the driving force.’

EpilogueEG: ‘After Bianco I expected we would stop. Everything had been said. And similarlyafter ‘Emio Greco is dead’ in Rimasto Orfano I thought that we could quit. But newopportunities keep arising, new areas to investigate, like working with other theatricaldisciplines. The juxtaposition of dance and textual theatre, dance and opera. Apparentlyit never stops.’

PC: ‘Apparently you may return from the underworld more than once. Just like Euridice.’

No strategy, no course. One thing follows from another. A continuing investigation of howfar you can go. After Rimasto Orfano there was a desire to leave the path of dance.Double Points: Bertha – The Bermudez Triangle came about, a portrait of dancer BerthaBermudez Pascual, developed together with dance critic Helmut Ploebst. Teoremafollowed, an adaptation for the theatre of Pasolini’s book and film of the same title incollaboration with Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Then came Orfeo ed Euridice the opera. Andnow the reprise of Fra Cervello e Movimento. A return to the source in order to set outagain from there. A new dance production is on its way. The title is already set: Hell.

Gabriel Smeets - Amsterdam, August 2004Translation from Dutch: The Loft v.o.f.

This interview was commissioned by Emio Greco | PC for the programme of Fra Cervelloe Movimento – Bianco, Rosso and Extra Dry at the Brakke Grond theatre in Amsterdam,28 September to 5 October 2004.