Shen Wei

Shen Wei
沈伟

Born in Hunan province in 1968, Shen Wei was trained to become a Chinese opera performer in his childhood. He also studied calligraphy and traditional Chinese ink painting. He learned Western visual art as a student, which sparked an interest in modern dance. In 1989, he began modern dance training at the American Dance Festival's program at the Guangdong Dance Academy in China and became a founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company two years later.

Shen moved to New York in 1995 to further pursue this art upon reception of a fellowship and founded his own modern dance troupe there in 2001. He won the Nijinsky Award for Emerging Choreographer in 2004 and the MacArthur Award in 2007. In 2008, Shen was commissioned by the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony and choreographed the widely-acclaimed dance piece, Scroll Painting, in which dancers performed on a constant changing LED scroll of Chinese ink-and-wash paintings. He was honored with the American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in July this year.