Sometimes it takes a shot in the dark to score a bull's eye. LABCO Dance artistic director Gwen Hunter Ritchie went to New York City last year to target a performance by German modern dance maven Pina Bausch. But she got an unexpected bonus that weekend.

As it turned out, her friend and host suggested that they also see some experimental downtown dance at P.S. 122. The group's name was Palissimo, which literally meant "the best of Palo," the nickname for Pavel Zustiak, a Czech-born choreographer who gravitated to New York about eight years ago.

"I haven't been moved by a performance like that in a long time," enthuses Hunter Ritchie at the Attack Theatre studio in Bloomfield where her company was rehearsing for the group's upcoming performances at the New Hazlett Theater this weekend. "I mean I've seen performances that I enjoyed and found interesting. But that night I literally cried."

Hunter Ritchie went up to the 36-year-old choreographer after the performance and told him that she wanted him to come to Pittsburgh to do a world premiere for her company.

All they needed was the funding.

Zustiak had heard that story before and honestly didn't expect the communication to go any further. Neither did Hunter Ritchie. But the resourceful LABCO director pursued several avenues.

One was the prestigious Princess Grace Foundation, an organization that has identified and assisted young American talent in dance, film and theater through scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships for the past 25 years.

Hunter Ritchie rolled up her sleeves and applied to have a large portion of Zustiak's expenses covered for the LABCO project. It was accepted, one of three winners from more than 250 applicants.

That meant that Zustiak could attend a gala event at Sotheby's in New York in October, where the glitterati included Prince Albert and Princess Caroline of Monaco and film director George Lucas, who was the 2007 recipient of the Prince Rainier III Award.

But in the meantime, he set about creating a work that would be custom-made for the Pittsburgh company -- and that didn't mean the frozen men's shirts that would be dripping onto the stage floor.

It began with the title, something that usually comes last. Zustiak chose "(S)even," a word that is an odd number, but is built on another word, "even." "I loved the tension that the word contains," he says. "I feel that life is like that, always full of contradictions."

But the word "seven" can be full and complete or it can be uneven and out of balance. That formed one element of thought behind the new work.

When faced with a cast of five women, he promoted the idea of individuality within a community. "I like dancers of different body parts, different backgrounds," Zustiak explains, something he favors in his own company. "I love to see when they are doing movement in unison, how the material is interpreted differently. That's how life is for me."

He is also attracted to how pure movement resonates emotionally without showing the emotion specifically. "On stage the dancer cannot feel the emotion because the audience won't," he says. "It's a paradox, but it intrigues me."

Zustiak then centered on the women's relationships outside of the company, how they could alternately freeze and melt. Working with New York scenic design artist and Carnegie Mellon University graduate Nick Vaughan, the pair focused on the outline of a house filled with various elements, including the shirts, freezers and a melting block of ice.

It seems disparate. But in reality, everything in Zustiak's world "has equal power to contribute to the narrative," and hopefully ready to make an imprint that lasts.