Excerpts from FOLDING will be part of special program with Shen Wei at New-York Historical Society on March 3 (photo by Stephanie Berger)
New-York Historical Society
The Robert H. Smith Auditorium
170 Central Park West
Tuesday, March 3, $38, 7:00
212-485-9268
www.shenweidancearts.org
www.nyhistory.org
“I have always been fascinated about the idea of Qi — the subtle energy that permeates everything in life and links all its elements together. This idea constantly makes me curious about how human beings and the material world are universally related and bonded to each other,” Hunan-born, New York-based multidisciplinary artist Shen Wei says about his latest photography exhibit, “Invisible Atlas,” continuing at Flowers Gallery in Chelsea through February 28. Shen Wei is curious indeed; since his founding of Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2000, he has guided his troupe in performances in such unusual locations as the Park Avenue Armory (in and around Ernesto Neto’s “Anthropodino” installation), the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Charles Engelhard Court, the Prospect Park Bandshell, and the Guggenheim Rotunda. On March 3, Shen Wei will be at the New-York Historical Society in conjunction with the exhibition “Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion,” beginning his company’s fifteenth anniversary season by participating in a discussion with dance critic and historian Suzanne Carbonneau; the two also spoke this past November as part of Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance festival, which includes Shen Wei’s Rite of Spring and comes to Lincoln Center later in March. The talk at the New-York Historical Society will feature video clips, selections of the MacArthur Genius’s photography, and live performances of excerpts from Folding, Rite of Spring, and the new Untitled 12-1 as the guest of honor recounts stories from his life and career.