ROCCO

Choose a ringside seat for this intensely physical dance event set in a stylized boxing ring, and the sweat produced by this remarkable Amsterdam-based company may become part of the experience. In ROCCO, choreographers Emio Greco and Pieter Scholten put dancers face to face in a suite of choreographed bouts that are exhilarating, exhausting and deeply poignant—with a healthy dose of humor as counterpoint. With virtuosic performances, and plenty of nimble footwork, the competitors represent brotherly love with intense abandon: both the good and the bad, from Cain and Abel to Romulus and Remus to Laurel and Hardy. As in the film that inspired it, Luchino Visconti’s Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers), the artists expose both physical and psychological extremes in this powerful work that received Holland’s prestigious SWAN Award for Best Dance Production of 2012.