Shen Wei @ the Met

Tuesday afternoon Liz and I went to the Metropolitan Museum to join Shen Wei, along with his company's executive director, France Pepper and donors, trustees, friends and a few of the dancers.  We walked through the exhibition of Chinese painter Xie Zhiliu, one of modern China’s preeminent traditional artists (you can see an online catalog of the exhibition here).  Throughout the exhibition, France and Shen Wei performed a pas de deux of words.  France discussed the art work from an art history perspective (she recently came to SWDA from the China Institute in America and has a background in art history), and then Shen Wei would discuss the parallels between his experiences as a painter and his work as a choreographer.  

 Shen Wei Dance Arts in Connect Transfer

What I found most interesting was listening to him speak about calligraphy and how the calligrapher uses energy to express emotion.  Shen Wei described how every hand position and gesture carry a purpose and an energy in calligraphy, and the same is true of his choreography.  Much like a calligrapher, in Connect Transfer the dancers dip themselves in paint and create fluid movements that draft beautiful strokes and images with their bodies.  Even though the choreography is always the same, the finished canvas from Connect is always different because of the emotions and energies that the dancers project while moving.  It was particularly fun when the dancers in attendance talked about how they use their energy flow and momentum to connect the movements in Shen Wei’s choreography.  We even got a behind-the-scenes tidbit about how the company does a pre-show circle to connect each other's chi and concentration for the performance. So that’s their secret to such beautiful and fluid performances!