NEW YORK, April 20, 2018 — An excerpt from a Shen Wei Dance Arts performance of Neither. (3 min., 5 sec.)

Shen Wei, the acclaimed choreographer, painter, and founder of Shen Wei Dance Arts, reveals his artistic inspirations and working processes as a multi-media artist in a far-reaching dialogue on Buddhism, childhood memories, explorations of dreamscapes, and his journeys to Tibet with YiLing Mao, Executive Director of Art Collectives LLC. For this illuminating evening, Shen Wei's dance Company will perform some of his most iconic pieces including Folding, Re-Part II, and Neither. Selections of his paintings will be discussed in depth alongside a world premiere screening of his recent short film, Innerspace, a poetic exploration of how we navigate space, untethered from nature in our vast modern constructs–set in and around one of China’s striking new works of architecture. The evening celebrates Shen Wei and his artistic vision upon the third decade of his active engagement in the arts on the world stage.

About Shen Wei and Shen Wei Dance Arts:

Born in Hunan, China in 1968, Shen Wei founded Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2000. Performing across five continents, in 33 countries and 138 cities, his dance company has garnered worldwide acclaim for its striking, lissom, and category-defying originality. The lead choreographer for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic, Shen Wei has created dances for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal and Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo as well as the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. Recently, he choreographed, directed and designed a new production of Carmina Burana for the ballet, chorus and orchestra of Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy. The recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Award, Shen Wei has received numerous other honors including the U.S. Artists Fellow Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Australia's Helpmann Award, the Nijinsky Emerging Choreographer Award and the Algur H. Meadows Prize.

About YiLing Mao, Moderator:

YiLing Mao is the Founder and Executive Director of Art Collectives LLC, an independent art consultancy that advises and develops boutique projects with artists, curators, scholars, collectors. institutions and initiatives across the Chinese art world. She received her art history training at Harvard University (A.B. and A.M.) and Columbia University (M. Phil) and currently serves as Senior Advisor to Sotheby's Institute of Art, Beijing Design Week, the Tianlongshan 3D Buddhist Caves project at University of Chicago's Center for East Asia Studies, and the City Symphony in Beijing initiative at MIT Media Lab. A former Director at Sotheby's, Mao also freelances as an art critic, curator and a documentary producer and has served as a China Advisory Council member at Lincoln Center since 2012.