Mark Your Calendar
Olympics Opening Ceremony dance masters are heading to Houston for massivetheatrics
Editor's Note: As part of CultureMap's State of the Arts series throughout the month of August, we are highlighting upcoming fall arts events you won't want to miss.
Hold on to your Bird's Nest folks, the very artist who orchestrated some 16,000 performers in the awed-over Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics is headed our way.
The New York City-based Shen Wei Dance Arts will make its Houston debut on May 18, 2013 at the Brown Theater in the Wortham Center, closing the Society for Performing Arts Tudor Family Dance Series. Shen Wei replaces Bejart Ballet, which had to cancel its 2013 U.S. tour.
Shen Wei is known for creating highly-stylized visual feasts, which are powerfully theatrical.
Trained as both a dancer and a visual artist, Shen Wei is known for his large scale meditative spectacles. His spellbinding work has graced the Park Avenue Armory in New York City and other landmark sites.
Shen Wei is known for creating highly-stylized visual feasts, which are powerfully theatrical, while remaining emotionally cool. Works often have a ritual nature, and unfold with an extended sense of time and space. Paint, minimal costumes, intricate set design and striking lighting are often part of the stage picture.
The celebrated company will perform two signature works:The Rite of Spring (2003), which nicely coincides with the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s composition; and Folding (2000), a highly stylized piece set to Tavener and Tibetan Buddhist chants. Since premiering Near the Terrace at the American Dance Festival in 2000, Shen Wei Dance Arts has performed at New York’s Asia Society, The Space in London, the Stockholm Dance House, the Brighton Arts Festival, the Festival Theatre Edinburgh and the Millennium Moves Festival in Germany.
For multi-disciplinary loving audiences, this is my don't miss performance extravaganza.
Watch an excerpt of Shen Wei's Folding.
