Classic works
Shen Wei's chic painting of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony
In his hometown of Hunan Province, Shen Wei, who inherited his father's business, began to learn opera at the age of eight. As the Cultural Revolution passed, Shen Wei learned dozens of artistic roles. He later moved to Guangzhou, where he co-founded the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, one of the earliest such dance companies in China. At the Olympic opening ceremony, under his guidance, dancers used their bodies as "pens" and splashed ink on the giant paper in the center of the stadium. Shen Wei said that these dances are based on instantly recognizable Chinese cultural elements, but they are expressed in abstract forms with the help of twisted body movements. He pointed out that just like the sharp edges on a brush, dancers must keep moving and their bodies must be as soft as if they were boneless.
Shen Wei mainly created "Picture Scroll". Shen Wei's vision is artistic, logical and heterogeneous. Hunan's unique Hunan Opera has a great influence on Shen Wei. When he was five or six years old, Shen Wei was "on the stage of Hunan Opera in Xiangyin County" Shen Wei has been training in Chinese calligraphy, painting and Peking opera performances since childhood. These comprehensive qualities created Shen Wei. Shen Wei admitted that there is more or less "Shadow of Hunan" in each of his works. Shen Wei's dance steps and body movements are inspired by Western dance traditions and Chinese drama, acrobatics and martial arts. "The more national art is, the more global it is." This saying will never go out of style. As long as it embodies "people" and is based on "people", there is nothing that Eastern and Western audiences cannot accept. It can be said that the success of "Picture Scroll" is also due to this reason. In the center of the magnificent "Bird's Nest", a landscape painting slowly unfolds. In the swirling light and shadow, a dancer in black turns gracefully and gorgeously, leaving ink marks on the yellow canvas like rice paper... This is The first program performed at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on the evening of August 8, 2008 was the modern dance "Picture Scroll".
15 actors in Tsing Yi used their bodies and modern dance techniques to complete a Chinese landscape painting on a specially made huge canvas. Accompanied by the melodious melody of the guzheng, they sometimes danced with long sleeves and sometimes twisted their waists. Their smooth and freehand movements not only made the 100,000 people in the "Bird's Nest" excited, but also attracted the attention of the whole audience. The world is in front of a television audience. The performance of "Picture Scroll" requires the dancers to dance continuously like the sharp edges on a brush, with their bodies as soft as if they were boneless. At the same time, every movement and every stroke is required to be perfectly coordinated. The actors wore gloves stained with black and blue ink. Black ink is used to depict landscapes, while blue is used to draw clouds, which disappear after two minutes of contact with the canvas. In order to paint the sun well, he used his own body to experiment again and again on the canvas. He drew thousands or tens of thousands of circles and rolled them on the ground every day, making his whole body green. Shen Wei likes to dip his soles in ink and create "dance calligraphy" like flowing clouds and cursive script. He explores body language and turns dynamic visual lines into splashes of ink on the scroll. Although the light and shadow will pass by, the lingering traces of the dancing limbs in the air will leave colorful traces on the white cloth. Shen Wei himself also realized, "I originally wanted to make a record of my choreography and study the details of the dance movement design, but upon closer inspection, it turned into a painting." Shen Wei has a stubborn insistence on artistic standards. When he was looking for a new body language, he once asked the actors to throw away all the dance steps they had practiced for many months and rearrange the exercises. The final performance at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony moved everyone, including Shen Wei himself.
Modern dance
The 2008 Beijing Olympics came to China. In order to bring this theme to international recognition, the organizers of the Beijing Olympics specially hired Shen Wei, a dancer born in China, who immigrated to New York in the United States in 1995 and became a well-known choreographer there. Shen Wei, 40, joined a creative team led by Chinese film director Zhang Yimou as a consultant and chief choreographer.
After the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, Shen Wei told reporters in the control room that the Olympic organizers asked him to join the team because everyone wanted to create a Chinese style that incorporates contemporary characteristics.
In the center of the performance venue is a 480-foot-long Chinese scroll. On this LED "painting paper", scenes of Chinese history are played back like a movie. During the performance, China's past and present scientific and technological achievements are displayed one by one, such as the ancient invention of movable type printing, which later evolved into the computer keyboard, performed by real people.
Shen Wei’s own cross-cultural background enables him to meet such challenges. In his hometown of Hunan Province, Shen Wei, who inherited his father's career, began learning opera at the age of eight. As the Cultural Revolution passed, Shen Wei learned dozens of artistic roles. He later moved to Guangzhou, where he co-founded the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, one of the earliest such dance companies in China.
Performance Inspiration
The performance choreographed by Shen Wei in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was inspired by Zen Buddhism. The image of China presented was completely different from what many people had previously imagined: they originally thought There will be hundreds of Chinese soldiers performing locksteps to communist hymns. Shen Wei said that the audience never expected that the Olympic Games could open with such a beautiful and concise performance, but this idea has a more Chinese flavor. With Shen Wei's guidance and the effect of the ink fading, the dancers' movements left a beautiful image on a huge canvas, and this canvas became an element throughout the opening performance. The canvas was much heavier than organizers had originally imagined and had to be cut in half during rehearsals. The picture shows that the audience and athletes share the same green mountains and sun, vividly interpreting the theme of "One World" of the Beijing Olympics. In the traditional athlete entrance ceremony, the players walked through this scene one after another, leaving their own mark on the scene.
Shen Wei said that this is a picture created jointly by everyone. The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony also carries the expectation of persuading the audience to change their minds, a challenge that previous opening ceremonies have rarely encountered.