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Shen Wei Classic Repertory 《Near the Terrace》· 《Folding》
September 27, 2024 @ 20:00 - 21:30
About Shen Wei
Hailed as “one of the most expansive, creative minds in the arts” (Pia Catton, The New York Sun), choreographer, director, and painter Shen Wei is internationally renowned for the breadth and scope of his artistic vision.
Born in China’s Hunan province in 1968, the son of Chinese opera professionals, Shen Wei was trained from youth in the rigorous practice of Chinese opera performance and traditional Chinese ink painting and calligraphy and was a performer with the Hunan State Xian Opera Company from 1984 to 1989. During his student years, he studied Western visual art, which propelled an interest in modern dance. In 1989, he began modern dance training at the American Dance Festival’s (ADF) program at the Guangdong Dance Academy in China. In 1991, at the age of 23, he became a founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first such company in China.
Upon receipt of a fellowship, he moved to New York City in 1995 to study with the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab and, in the same year, was invited to create work at the American Dance Festival. In July 2000, he founded Shen Wei Dance Arts (SWDA) and his company quickly entered the international touring circuit.
The lead choreographer for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Shen Wei has also created dances for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and choreographed the Rome Opera’s production of Rossini’s Moise et Pharaon, conducted by Ricardo Muti. His most recent commissions include Integrate and Dong Po: Life in Poems which premiered in China in 2021 and 2023.
In 2022 Shen Wei was awarded the American Dance Festival, the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Choreography and the International Society for The Performing Arts’s Distinguished Artist Award.
Recently, his work as a visual artist and choreographer has entered into a new dialogue in a series of performative installations and site-specific works that have been presented at a number of museums and galleries. As a painter, Shen Wei has had solo exhibitions in leading galleries and museums.
I WANT TO CAPTURE AND FOCUS ON MOMENTS OF TRANSFERENCE…TO REVEAL THE JOURNEY OF DANCE-MAKING AND ART-MAKING, LIVE IN EACH PERFORMANCE.
– SHEN WEI
About the Company–Shen Wei Dance Arts
One of the premier international dance companies, Shen Wei Dance Arts has won worldwide acclaim for “amassing a body of works so strikingly original they defy categorization”(The Boston Globe). The work Shen Wei makes for his Company draws on influences as varied as traditional Chinese culture and arts, European Surrealism, American high modernism, and the ritual power of ancient drama. Transcending East and West, Shen Wei Dance Arts fuses these disparate forms to forge a startling new hybrid form of dance. The Company’s dances reflect the compositional rigor of Shen Wei the visual artist, dancer, and choreographe – incorporating vivid colors, striking design, and imaginative use of space into theatrical, kinetic paintings.
Since its founding in 2000, Shen Wei Dance Arts has performed in 138 cities, in 33countries, on five continents and has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide, including the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Spoleto Festival, annual performances at the American Dance Festival, the Los Angeles Music Center, Venice Biennale, Sadler’s Wells, the Barbican Centre, Het Muziektheater, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Berliner Festpiele and the Sydney Festival. In the United States, Shen Wei Dance Arts has performed in 25 of the 50 states, gave the first dance performances on the concert stage at Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall in Los Angeles and recently completed a unique 5-year performance residency at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The Company performs annually in New York City, where it has been presented by the Lincoln Center Festival (5 times), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Armory, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Asia Society, and Fall for Dance at City Center.
Dancers come from the United States, France, Italy, and China, and are seasoned performers who have graduated from top international art schools. They have long been studying within Shen Wei’s system and touring in important international art venues, with the most experienced dancers working with Shen Wei’s dance art for up to 20 years. They form an all-star dance team.
REPERTOTY
Near the Terrace (Part I)
2000
Concept, Choreography, Set, Costume and Make Up Design: Shen Wei
Music: Fur Alina and Spiegel im Spiegel by Arvo Pärt
Lighting: David Ferri
Dancer: Shen Wei Dance Arts
Running Time: 25 minutes
Premiered: 2000 American Dance Festival
Commissioned: American Dance Festival
“This is dance that must be savored moment by moment.”
—Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times
“A cherished classic in modern dance…I particularly miss this world, each time its performance ends. I cannot advise you to fall in love with a world which only exists for about a half-hour, at irregular intervals, in darkened rooms, in cities far apart. Nor can I advise you on how to keep from doing so.”
—Byron Woods, Indy Week, Durham, North Carolina
Folding
1999
Concept, Choreography, Set, Costume and Make Up Design: Shen Wei
Music: Last Sleep of the Virgin for Bells and String Quartet by John Tavener, and Tibetan Buddhist Chants
Music max: Kung Chi Shing
Original Lighting Original: Wang Zhiqian
Running Time: 40 minutes
Premiered: 1999 Guangzhou, China
Commissioned: American Dance Festival
“A dreamscape of signs and symbols, glimpses and shadows. So compelling is his vision—and so magnetic is the presence of his dancers—you can’t look away. You’re sucked into the dream, frozen for 30 minutes.”
—Dean Smith, The News and Observer
“The dance has a pureness of movement and simplicity of design that can only be described as elegant, but its power is in its haunting images of large-skirted, ghostwhite beings that are without question alien, yet, unmistakably human. Folding is dance that embeds itself in the audience’s consciousness and stays there.”
—Adam Castaneda, The Houston Press
“The interplay of elements—movement, music, decor—was infinitely absorbing. You couldn’t look away even if you wanted to.”
—Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post
Time:
September 27th 20:00
September 28th 20:00
Duration:
90min ( Intermission: 15 min)
*Near the Terrace (Part I) : 25 min
Folding :40min
Venue:
Pingshan Theatre
Price:
880/680/480/280/180/80 CNY
Venue Address:
Pingshan Theatre, Huide Road, Pingshan Distrect, Shenzhen （深圳市坪山区汇德路坪山大剧院）
Metro:
Line 14 to Pingshan Square Station (坪山广场站), Exit D1
Customer service:
Tel: 0755-89336660
Wechat ID: pdf89336660
Scan the QR code below to buy tickets：
