Shen Wei is a Chinese choreographer and dancer. He lives and works in New York City and is director of the modern dance company Shen Wei Dance Arts. Wei is recognized for his vision of an intercultural, interdisciplinary, original mode of movement-based performance,[1] and his innovative blend of traditional Chinese opera, dance and music with Western performance art such as ballet.[2]
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Shen was born in 1968 in the Hunan province, China, as the son of Chinese opera professionals.
Shen left home at the age of nine to study Chinese opera, and subsequently joined the Hunan State Xian Opera Company, with which he performed leading roles from 1984 to 1989. In 1991, he became a founding member – dancer and choreographer – of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first such company in China.
In 1995, after receiving a scholarship from the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab, Shen moved to New York City, and presented his work at the American Dance Festival. Soon his work was performed at the National Theater of Taiwan (1996), The Place Theater (1997), Asia Society New York (1997), Stockholm Dance House (1999), Brighten Arts Festival (2000), the Edinburgh Festival Theater (2000), and the Millennium Moves Festival (Germany, 2000).
In 2000, Shen formed his dance company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, with performances of choreography Near the Terrace at the American Dance Festival. He has created several works for his company, which has toured extensively on five continents. For each of these works, Shen Wei also creates the sets, costumes, and make-up designs. He has also received varies commissions from mostly US-American dance and opera companies and festivals, including eight from the American Dance Festival (1995, 2000–2006).
Shen was a lead creative consultant for the opening ceremony at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.[3][4] In July 2008, he choreographed a fashion show at Paris Haute Couture for the label WUYONG by the Chinese designer Ma Ke.[5]
Shen has won a variety of awards, and was named a 2007 USA Prudential Fellow by arts foundation United States Artists.
As a visual artist independent of Shen Wei Dance Arts, Shen Wei is a painter, designer, and photographer. A series of paintings created in conjunction with his ballet Rite of Spring were first exhibited as part of the company’s New York debut at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2003. In October, 2006, the paintings toured with the company at the Hong Kong New Vision Festival, and in July 2007 they returned to New York in tandem with the company’s performance there of Second Visit to the Empress as part of Lincoln Center Festival. His book of photography, Tibet, was created to raise awareness of that region. Its proceeds support the Pandedajie School and Dickey Orphanage in Lhasa.