Collective Measures (2013)
Concept, Choreography, Set Design:
Shen Wei
Composer: Daniel Burke
Musical Score: Crossing Now Bridges Intact by Illusion of Safety, Traveler Pierced by Arrows-Landscapes Elsewhere by Asher, Feller by Feller of Translation As Rhythm by Jerry Feller, Original Score by Daniel Burke
Video Animation Technicians: Layne Braunstein and Josh Horowitz
Original Lighting Design: Matthew Lewandowski and Shen Wei
Costume Design: Austin Scarlett and Shen Wei
Running Time: 35 minutes
Commissioned By: American Dance Festival
"Collective Measures is an exploration of how we navigate the modern world, living in close proximity to one another. This dance is an extension of my study of movement possibilities within confined realms and a continued inquiry into the boundaries between body and image, investigated in my 2011 work, Limited States. In Collective Measures, the spatial dimensions of my canvas open up, but it is now densely populated."
— Shen Wei
Press/Reviews
“Collective Measures will probably be seen in the future as the first dance of Shen Wei’s mature period. It is as if he has been inventing an alphabet and a syntax, and can now get into the tales to be told. But the magisterial mystery of his movement style remains, following not the brittle logic of words, but the inarguable logic of flowing water...Collective Measures has a new authority, a confidence based in experiential wisdom."
—Kate Dobbs Ariail, Classical Voice of North Carolina
“Collective Measures was captivating. Shen Wei Dance Arts creates intriguing visual scenes that evolve out of movement. Combined with genius lighting design by Shen Wei and Matthew F. Lewandowski II, what we get are live scenes with surreal visual effects you might expect to see only in photo editing — soft matte with images blending into each other.”
—Triangle Arts and Entertainment