Trailer of the EG | PC dance performance [purgatorio] POPOPERA, performed at the HOLLAND FESTIVAL in The Netherlands, Amsterdam. World Premiere, 19 juni 2008, Amsterdam.

After their kaleidoscopic HELL (2006), Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten continue their journey through Dante’s La Divina Commedia with a [purgatorio] diptych. In [purgatorio] POPOPERA, Bang on a Can composer Michael Gordon enriches the typical EG | PC research on the relationship between dance and music using structural elements from rock music. Seven dancers intertwine with gleaming black electric guitars. A cross? A third arm? A lump of suffering? Dancers mutate into instruments. Raging guitars become fragile flesh and blood sound-boards. Chained by strings a crowd of dancers seeks purification in a redeeming rhapsody. [purgatorio] POPOPERA blends raw unpolished musicality with fine physical virtuosity and dissolves the borders of music and dance.

Concept, design and choreography by Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten.
Composition: Michael Gordon
Music and Dance: Ty Boomershine, Victor Callens, Vincent Colomes, Emio Greco, Nicola Monaco, Marie Sinnaeve, Suzan Tunca
Voice: Michaela Riener

Lighting design: Henk Danner
Set design: Marc Warning
Costume design: Clifford Portier
Projections: Joost Rekveld
Development sound system: Will-Jan Pielage
Camera/Editing: Erik Lint