Shen Wei - Philosophy

Philosophy

Shen Wei considers himself an artist that is fascinated with the human body. In an interview with Zinta Lundborg of Bloomberg (2011), Shen Wei stated, "Dancers should show expression through their body movement. They're not actors." His "Natural Body Development" technique takes a holistic approach to dance, integrating breath-work with proprioception, visual focus, weight, and gravity. For Shen Wei, movement can be initiated by chi or breath. This idea is further guided by his philosophies of internal and external energies and how the two are mutually affecting, constantly generating and generated by the physical body. As such, Shen Wei argues against dualist philosophies, believing dancers should "develop their minds as much as their bodies." He states, "I don't use dancers to copy some movement – human beings are not just puppets. A dancer has to have a really open mind, and be willing to take a risk."

In his choreographic process, Shen Wei also employs structured improvisation, allowing dancers to use their intuitions to create novel movement assemblages. His seminal work, Rite of Spring, contains a series of carefully guided improvisations that result in a "set structure with a balance between movement exactitude and movement intuition."

Shen Wei has stated that his number one goal when making art is "inspire other human beings". He has proclaimed, "When you're an artist and you're creating new works you have to have passion because you want to make it the best that you can. You want to make it as clear as you can and you want to do things you've never done before. You want to make things that have never existed before, you want to make new things; you don't want to repeat yourself. At the same time you want people to feel these things are new, make them communicate, become part of the culture and to inspire other human beings – this is my number one goal when I make new work. That's the pressure."