Re-(I) (2006)
Choreography, Set and Costume Design: Shen Wei
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton
Music: Tibetan Chants (Traditional); Vocals by Ani Choying Dolma
Projection Design: Shen Wei and Daniel Hartnett
Running Time: 25 minutes
"I made several personal trips to the Tibetan Plateau in 2005 and 2006, observing the culture, speaking with the people, and visiting places of religious significance. In sharing these experiences with my Company, I focused on my feelings of the Himalayan Mountains—the huge sky and feeling close to the clouds, the movement of the monks as they journeyed on long pilgrimages, crouching into the earth, slowly standing up and moving forward. In the high altitude, I became very aware of the act of breathing. In making this dance, I used breath as the initiator and root of all movement."
— Shen Wei
Press/Reviews
"Mysterious and wonderful"
—Hilary Ostlere, The Financial Times
"Shen's imaginative, transformative movements figure largely in the spell he weaves."
—Susan Broili, The Herald Sun, Durham, North Carolina
"Even as we file into the auditorium, the mesmerizing spectacle has begun. The dancers sit holding golden bowls, calmly anointing the final touches on a huge mandala—a geometric Buddhist symbol—made from blue and white confetti covering the whole stage. There is a hypnotic weightlessness to the movement as limbs lift one by one. But it's not fragility—on the contrary, the performers look as if the energy is smoothly cascading through their torsos and limbs, as if they have no bones at all and are being blown peacefully by the wind."
—Lucy Ribchester, The List, Edinburgh, Scotland
"That aspect of heaviness, of being rooted to the ground, defines this piece, and it's amazing what a freeing, soaring feeling the piece has nonetheless. I've never seen anyone create such visual interest with dancing so close to the floor. Shen has brought the massiveness of the Tibetan steppe, and the punched-in-the-gut shortness of breath one must feel at those altitudes, onto the stage in simple, fascinating ways...creating such a high."
—Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post