Undivided Divided - Park Avenue Armory (2011)
Still Moving - Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011)
Public Space Performances - New York City (2010)
Repertory - Guggenheim Rotunda, Guggenheim Works & Process (2009)
Behind Resonance - Park Avenue Armory (2009)
Connect Transfer II - Judson Memorial Church (2008)
Sign up for the SWDA Newsletter
PRESENTS
.v2.gif){kind=logo}
November 29 - December 4, 2011
To cap his yearlong creative explorations as a Park Avenue Armory artist in residence, Shen Wei and his company will launch their most ambitious program to date, celebrating ten years of the company’s repertoire in a site-specific world premiere heralding a bold new direction for the artist’s continually evolving work.
WORLD PREMIERE
Generously Commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory
With additional lead support from Richard Feldman and The SHS Foundation, and the Benefactors' Council
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue - New York, NY (directions)
November 29 - December 4, 2011
ARTISTS
Choreography and Visual Design: Shen Wei
Original Score: So Percussion
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton
Video Design & Animation: Josh Horowitz, Layne Braunstein and Blair Neal
Costumes: Austin Scarlett
Sound Design: Lawson White
LEAD DANCERS
Cecily Campbell, Sarah Lisette Chiesa, Evan Copeland, Andrew Cowan, James Healey, Kate Jewett, Cynthia Koppe, Sara Procopio, Joan Wadopian and Brandon Whited
DANCERS
Rachel Abrahams, Kira Blazek, Jessica Harris, Daniel Howerton, Jordan Isadore, Burr Johnson, Gina Kohler, Janice Lancaster, Russell Stuart Lilie, Zuzanna Mrozek, Carson Reiners, Chelsea Retzloff, Ryoji Sasamoto, Kana Sato, Austin Selden, Nicole Smith, Alex Speedie, Meg Weeks, Andrew Wojtal, Michael Wright, and Yang YiZi.
"Still Moving was, if not a product of traditional notions of dance,
an extremely stimulating, thought provoking, and visually stunning performance . . .
Through a multimedia, intercultural, and interdisciplinary approach, Shen Wei effectively establishes the body as a work of art.
The location of the performance—a statue gallery—aids this establishment."
—Jessica Geiger, NY Arts
Christopher Duggan, Photographer.jpg)
Christopher Duggan, Photographer
ARTIST STATEMENT
"In this performance work I am experimenting with juxtaposing the beauty of the body in stillness with the beauty of the body in motion,
to create a dialogue with the gallery’s sculptures – marble and bronze figurative works by such American master sculptors as
Hiram Powers (1805–1873), Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (1880–1980) and Paul Manship (1885–1966).
This piece will celebrate the body as works of art from the past as well as the body in movement in the present."
– Shen Wei
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Still Moving was a Site-Specific Art Performance in the Charles Engelhard Court of the American Wing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The work was generously commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with additional support provided by the Fund for the City of New York, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Community Trust, New York State Council on the Arts, The SHS Foundation, Winston Foundation, and Silas & Celia Chou.
Part I, inspired by the work of surrealist Belgian painter Paul Delvaux, was commissioned by the American Dance Festival with its premiere in 2000 as Near the Terrace.
Original music to Parts II and III were made possible, in part, by generous support from The O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation.
PRESS
"At the Met, the Art Moves" - The Wall Street Journal
"Shen Wei’s Naked Dancers Glide Through Met Gallery: Interview" - Bloomberg
"Shen Wei was catapulted onto the world stage when he choreographed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
He's been fairly quiet since then—
until Thursday when his New York-based dance company Shen Wei Dance Arts
kicked off a world tour of street performances in Times Square.
The performance was part of the Times Square Alliance's Public Art Program,
which seeks to bring free art to the area."
—Perry Santanachote, WNYC
.jpg)
Ka-Man Tse, Photographer
.jpg)
Ka-Man Tse, Photographer
In collaboration with the Times Square Alliance (TSA), SWDA mounted public performances of Shen Wei's Re-(Part III), the final segment of his full-evening Re- Triptych, or Re- (Part I, II & III),in a manner reconfigured for a “street” setting. Eight performances in all, the company traversed New York City in true marathon style over two days, attracting many curious bystanders as they made their way from landmark to landmark.
On October 28 & 29, 2010, the company made appearances at Bowling Green Park; by the Wall Street Bull; in Union Square Park; in Battery Park near Korean War Memorial; in Columbia University’s Main Square; in Grand Central Station’s Main Terminal; outside by the tables of the New York Public Library; down near the escalators of the 42nd Street Subway Station; in Duffy Square (while projected upon the jumbo Times Square screen in real-time); and finally outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this final landmark where the company would soon perform in a very different capacity (See Still Moving).
PRESS
"NY Choreographer Shen Wei Brings Street Performance to Times Square" - WNYC Culture Desk
Yi-Chun Wu, Photographer
.png)
Yi-Chun Wu, Photographer
ABOUT THE WORK
During this performance event, Shen Wei was in conversation with former critic of The New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff about his "Natural Body Development Technique,” with demonstrations from Rite of Spring, Re- (Part II), Re- (Part III) and Map. This was followed by excerpted performances from Connect Transfer, Near the Terrace and Folding in the Museum's atrium, with the audience lined along Frank Lloyd Wright's famous spiral ramps.
"For us earthlings, this was an affair to remember."
—THE ECONOMIST
.jpg)
.jpg)
ABOUT THE WORK
This performance was a site-specific response to Ernesto Neto's monumental site-specific installation Anthropodino. Live musicians first enter the hall to provide a soundscape designed by Tom Chiu, an experimental violinist. Shen Wei imagines Anthropodino as the dancers' natural habitat. The sleek arthropods of his company moved with eyes glazed, expressions vacant and their skin brushed with a silver-white patina. The dancers' sarongs (for the men) and evening gowns (for the women) were fashioned from swathes of pewter-colored crushed velvet, fastened by a single safety-pin at the hip. They drifted among the spectators as the music escalated, from the harmonic drone of violins into a stunning chaos accented by wailing bagpipes and a bassoon.
ABOUT THE WORK
Performed in the historic Judson Church in New York's West Village where the Judson Dance Theater rocked the dance establishment and made international dance history. Shen Wei re-staged Connect Transfer to be interactive with the audience in a format which is ideal for performances in museums and gallery settings.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
.jpg){kind=spacer}