Re-(III) (2009) 

Concept, Choreography, Set Design: Shen Wei

Lighting: Jennifer Tipton

Composer: David Lang

Violin: Todd Reynolds

Video Animation Technicians: Layne Braunstein and Josh Horowitz

Sound and images recorded on China’s Silk Road by Shen Wei

Projection Design: Shen Wei and Daniel Hartnett

Running Time: 25 minutes


“The dance’s movement vocabulary is inspired by the dialogue between the individual and the collective, the past and the future. In making Re-(III), I drew upon the images of rural communities along the Silk Road and my impressions of a radically transformed Beijing, which I encountered while choreographing the 2008 Olympics. Unlike the other dances in the Triptych, I wanted an original score for this dance. Something new, unheard before.”

—Shen Wei 


Press/Reviews

"This piece is laced with ambiguity and endless possibility; inspired by China, its many layers of meaning reflect the country's rich and varied past, present and future. The dancers' movements are repetitious, oscillating as they support and restrain one another. On occasion a dancer will express individuality, but only within the confines of the group rhythm, and Shen Wei uses transference to great effect, passing a movement along his dancers with eloquence and subtlety."
—Bryony Byrne, Aesthetica Magazine

"Shen Wei's whole creation breathes with the colours and shapes of nature, and the patterns he creates through clutches of performers often have a slightly random, asymmetrical feel to them, like wondrous imperfections in the natural world. In Re-(III), pale earthy greens give way to a chaos of grey-clad dancers as the digital landscape behind them shifts from mountains to skyscrapers. David Lang's twinkling electronic score has a distinctly urban feel to it, but even in the final moments there is still a lone dancer left in green, her gentle motion an echo of what has come before."
—Lucy Ribchester, The List