There was plenty of pickin’ and strummin’ amid the pirouettes Wednesday night as North Carolina Dance Theatre and Greasy Beans tickled each other’s fancy for some “Dance Innovations” at the Amphitheater.

But before the company served up Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux’s party-hearty “Shindig,” members of NCDT’s resident stable of choreographers took their turn with a pair of ballets that opened the program on a more solemn note.

Mark Diamond’s “How Do I Love Thee” held the promise of romance, built on the enduringly famous relationships between two 19th-century couples: Robert and Clara Schumann, and Elizabeth (Barrett) and Robert Browning.