A & E

Provocative European sensibilities made the local debut of the Emio Greco/PC dance company for Pittsburgh Dance Council a peculiar experience Saturday night at the Byham Theater.

"PC" is a reference to Greco's partner, Peter C. Scholten, not to being politically correct. The company is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The show opened with an extended disco scene that served to introduce each of the dancers and was a sonic assault with idiomatically very loud music.

The hyper-kinetic introduction created the most extreme contrast for the next section as dancers entered through an arcade-lights archway, only to stand posed in silence.

The spare set included a barren tree, but Greco denied the seemingly obvious allusion to Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot" during a post-performance question and answer session.

When dancing gradually resumed, Greco's deconstructionist choreography was impressively original in its use of repeated fragments of movement and gestures. The expressive world he inhabited was fragmented, too, and also frequently but not always, erotic.

Cigarette smoking on stage was part of "Hell," not surprisingly.

One of the most compelling moments occurred when a male dancer was extended prostrate and began banging his head on the floor, followed by body spasms that included rhythmic knocking by his feet.

Midway through the show, a mysterious man in black entered, satanic in both his puppet-master manipulations and his delight in dancing directly with the misfortunate ones who are his guests.

Male and female nudity was part of the show, including one scene where the dancers completely disrobe, move around, and put on other dancers' underpants and other clothes.

The entire first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was performed as a completely nude set piece, exemplifying the choreographer's desire to mix sacred and profane. Yet the choreography itself was fairly straightforward, mainly strong and angular but with a slinky sexuality for Beethoven's tense lyrical theme.

Greco's desire to be provocative was abetted by often extremely loud recorded sound between quieter sections, including explosive outbursts that made it difficult to know when to cover one's ears.

Yet because his "Hell" was open to viewer interpretations, his desire to shake up the status quo could be taken different ways. He said during an interview a few weeks ago that placing sacred and profane together is liberating. However, "anything goes" is a characteristically modern form of Hell.

Hell is said to be eternal, but Greco's "Hell" lasted a hour and 40 minutes -- quite too long for me.

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