Shen Wei thinks big with new dance in New York

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Chinese-American choreographer Shen Wei is using one of New York’s most cavernous spaces to premiere his latest dance Tuesday ― but for the man behind the opening ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics nothing is too big.

The Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, a one-time military drill hall, hosts “Undivided Divided” and by the sound of things anything less than that vast hangar-style roof mightn’t have been able to contain Wei’s creative flair.

“It will be something nobody experienced before and that I myself have never tried before,” Wei told AFP in an interview during a break in final rehearsals for the show.

Performed by the Shen Wei Dance Arts company, “Undivided Divided” will combine dancers painting as they move, digital projections, and what is billed as a “wholly immersive experience” in which audiences will be inside the set.

At Monday’s rehearsal, dancers were not even able to go through all the new production since all that paint would have to be cleared up in time for the premiere.

Wei, though, seemed to revel in the uncertainty that an only partially rehearsed show promises.

“I don’t know what will work,” he said. The performance, will be like “the whole journey of life and not just trying to set up a repeat. There’s nothing repeat in our lives.”

The Chinese-born American has won global fame for his mastery of dance, his bridging of East and West, and skill at combining different performance arts.

His role as head choreographer of the Beijing Olympics ceremony, watched by billions of people on television, no doubt included a great many rehearsals ― and very little of the “will-it-work-or-not” edginess coming to the Armory.

The diminutive maestro’s meticulous side was on view Monday when journalists were allowed to attend a last rehearsal for “Folding,” a dance that premiered in 2000 and which will also be on Tuesday’s program.

Originally created for China’s Guangdong Modern Dance Company, “Folding”sees wraith-like figures in long black or red skirts glide across the huge stage space in the middle of the Armory, twisting and bending as if blown in the wind.

At one point, Wei, a boyish figure in black jodhpurs and tight sweater, dashed down from his command point in the audience area to perform his own brief role in “Folding” before racing back up to his seat to observe the others.

“Don’t put your butt out. Straight up,” he commanded a male dancer in a red skirt.

“Much, much better,” he encouraged a female dancer, calling down from his perch through a microphone.

Reflecting afterwards, Wei said there were big differences between dancers in the country of his birth and his new homeland, where he is a citizen.

“In China how people express themselves is different. The Westerners they like to ask questions and get the answer immediately. In China they don’t ask questions,” he said.

Asian artists, he said, are “more internal,” whereas his Western colleagues are “more external,” but also “more sharp, more dynamic.”

But then Wei added the nuance: Chinese dancers, he said, may “try to find out the answer by themselves. That’s the good part. In West, some people just ask questions ― and they don’t want to find out the answer.”

“Undivided Divided,” along with “Folding” and “Rite of Spring,” opens Tuesday and runs at the Park Avenue Armory through Dec. 4.