Emio Greco (Brindisi, Italy; 1965) and Pieter C. Scholten (Vlaardingen, Netherlands; 1963) have worked together since 1995 in their joint search for new dance forms. Greco received his dance education at the Centre de Danse International Rosella Hightower in Cannes, and began his dance career with the Ballet Antibes Cote d’Azur. From 1993 to 1996, Greco danced in works by Jan Fabre, and from 1996 until 1998, he collaborated with Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara in various productions. Scholten studied drama and initially directed theatre productions about historical characters like Oscar Wilde, Yukio Mishima and Pier Paolo Pasolini. He subsequently worked with several choreographers as a dance dramaturge. In 1995, he developed the Dance Instants, short ‘work-in-progress’ projects for choreographers and dancers. For both artists, the search for new dramaturgy of the body is an important motivating factor. Greco and Scholten created their first joint work in 1995: the solo Bianco, which became the first part of the trilogy Fra Cervello e Movimento (Between brain and movement). In that same year, they wrote a manifesto setting out seven principles of dance and the impact of that on the body and the spectator.

They founded the Emio Greco | PC dance company in 1996. After the internationally successful dance productions that Greco and Scholten created between 1996 and 2001, they shifted their perspective and that of their company to opera, music, film and other multidisciplinary directions. At the request of the Edinburgh international Festival, they directed two operas: Orfeo ed Euridice and The Assassin Tree. Together with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, they made Teorema. In 2004, a continuous project, Double Points: +, about dance, music and interactivity with contemporary Swiss composer Hanspeter Kyburz followed. These interdisciplinary excursions gave rise to the trilogy that is inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. The first part, HELL, premiered in 2006; the second part, [purgatorio] IN VISIONE and [purgatorio] POPOPERA, followed in the Holland Festival in 2008. The final part, you PARA | DISO, premiered in 2010. The last time Greco and Scholten were at the Holland Festival was in 2012, with a return to pure dance in the site-specific project Addio alla Fine. This launched the series ‘the body in revolt’, a project followed by L’Etranger/One Man without a Cause (2013/14) and De Soprano’s (2014, in collaboration with Opera Zuid). Extremalism (2015) and Kindertotenlieder (2017) will round off ‘the body in revolt’ series.

Greco and Scholten have received various awards for their work, including the VSCD ‘Zwaan’ for most impressive dance production for ROCCO in 2011–2012, and the Prix du Syndicat de la Critique for best dance production for HELL in 2006 (Paris).