It was the light that mesmerized me. First just the thinnest strip of white along the base of the back wall, silhouetting the dark ankles of a girl en pointe. Then came five shafts of light, falling from the ceiling at even intervals like a forest of tall, conical pine trees. And then there was that shocking moment when the darkened stage was finally revealed. Dozens of beams of light pooled on the gray walls, suggesting long cathedral windows with rounded arches at their tops.Along the base of the back wall (where the ankles had been) sat a row of small, ruby-colored lights.

The play of light and shadow is exquisite in Emio Greco|PC’s “Conjunto di Nero,” a 2001 piece now having its long-overdue New York debut at the Joyce. But no less riveting than the lighting (by Henk Danner) and the theatrical concept (by company cofounder Pieter Scholten) is the singular choreography by the Italian-born dancer Emio Greco.

The six dancers (including Mr. Greco), clad in vaguely monastic black woolen shifts, have unbelievably supple joints. Undulating and sweating, these performers look like the most warmed-up dancers you’ve ever seen. Arms whip around the torsos as if the shoulder sockets were oiled; legs sink silkily into deep lunges. But just as often, these same bodies jerk and stutter. A tense neck is yanked to one side; outstretched arms fibrillate like wings; a back foot shakes as if palsied.

Mr. Greco’s own dancing is the epitome of his movement style – liquid, puissant, incomprehensibly quick. Sporting a shaved head, muscled like a Michelangelo statue, he is ruthlessly physical.Mr.Greco came to ballet training late, and though there are occasional fouettes and a section of pointe work in “Conjunto di Nero,” the dance is primarily constructed from his own stock of motions – which are emphatically not like anyone else’s.

His company’s artistic manifesto asserts that one must be curious about the body, and here Mr. Greco makes arresting images from the most organic movements: elongated stretches on tiptoe, squared-off squats, lunges, twitches. He creates excitement from something as simple as an arm curved over the head, the hand dangling from a floppy wrist.

Mr. Greco’s obsession with arms and hands in “Conjunto di Nero” extends to his way of triggering movement. Often the bodies seem to be pulled into motion by their attached (but insubordinate) arms. At times the dancers appear to hold the reins to their own bodies; when they snap them, their legs lurch into motion. At other times they take off, like dog-walkers being yanked by the leash. And when the hands are held out in front, as if cuffed, the feet simply won’t move.

There was rapt silence in the theater for most of “Conjunto di Nero,” as the six superb dancers moved through eerie, dream-like scenes. Shards of silver light cut the darkness and mist into ever-changing patterns, and the sound score (by Wim Selles) shifted with the light. First came a girl en pointe, with her back to the audience, dancing urgently, hypnotically to thin, unmelodic music. Behind her, a girl emerged from the fog, mirroring her. Then the girls disappeared.There was birdsong, and a man woke up in an invisible forest and began to dance.

His sweeping arms cut at the air, his feet took unexpected flight. Then the night crickets came out and a vigorous, uneasy trio began. In one vivid sequence, the dancers galloped across the dark stage, their white limbs re flected in its shining surface like white birds on a black lake. Then came the ungodly shriek of a train whistle and the sound of a locomotive chugging down the tracks. Dancers charged the stage at manic speed, darting from corner to corner as if trying to outrun that infernal engine.

After so much invigorating dancing, the last sections were a letdown. When the music downshifted into retro lounge jazz, and the dancers began moving to notes and beats, the dance seemed to wander away from its icy core.

The final minutes of “Conjunto di Nero” lacked the striking clarity of its first hour. Still, as the exceptionally strong dancers took their bows, there was a palpable thrill at having witnessed something uncommonly good. Emio Greco|PC has been feted in Europe, but the company has rarely performed here.The New York premiere of “Conjunto di Nero” should rectify that.

“Conjunto di Nero” will be performed again tonight and January 20 & 21 at 8 p.m., and January 22 at 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. (175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, 212-242-0800).