Welcome Jodee Nimerichter Presentation of the 2015 Season to Dr. Charles “Chuck” Davis by Jodee Nimerichter and Gerri Houlihan Performance Shen Wei Dance Arts Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 7:00pm Durham Performing Arts Center presents Shen Wei Artistic Director Geoff Cohen Executive Director Thursday, June 11 at 7:00pm Friday, June 12 at 8:00pm Saturday, June 13, 2015 at 7:00pm Durham Performing Arts Center Performance: 90 minutes including intermission Untitled No. 12-2 Concept, Choreography, and Set Design: Shen Wei Music: Echoes From the Gorge by Chou Wen-Chung Sound Design: Metronome Collage by Shen Wei, played live by the dancers Lighting Design: Christina Watanabe-Jensen Projection Images: Selections From Shen Wei’s Black, White, and Gray painting series (2013-2014) Projections Realized by: Rocco DiSanti Dancers: Catherine Coury, Gwendolyn Gussman, Jordan Isadore, Kate Jewett, Burr Johnson, Cynthia Koppe, Janice Lancaster Larsen, Russell Stuart Lilie, Chelsea Retzloff, Jennifer Rose, Austin SeldenGage Self, Zak Ryan Schlegel, Alex Speedie, Andrea Thompson, Michael Wright, Ricardo Zayas Program Note: Untitled No. 12-2 is a re-envisioning of a site-specific work, Untitled No. 12 - 1, presented at the Miami Dade College Museum of Art + Design, where dancers performed alongside Shen Wei's latest painting series, Black, White, and Gray. While these paintings are abstract, shapes and forms suggestive of a sublime landscape seem to appear from the thick layering of oil and acrylic on canvas. There are eleven untitled paintings in Black, White, and Gray—Untitled No. 12 - 2 is the twelfth painting, manifesting as moving bodies on a proscenium. Untitled No. 12-2 is commissioned by ADF with support from the SHS Foundation and the Charles L. and Stephanie Reinhart Fund. Untitled No. 12-2 is jointly commissioned by the American Dance Festival and Spoleto Festival USA. Intermission Map (2005/2015) MAP I. ROTATE MAP II. BOUNCE & REBOUND MAP III. INTERNALIZED ENERGY MAP IV. INDIVIDUALIZED INTERNAL ENERGY MAP V. ALL MAPS + CONTINUAL FLOW Concept, Choreography, and Set Design: Shen Wei Score: Selections from The Desert Music by Steve Reich: The Desert Music: First Movement (Fast) The Desert Music: Second Movement (Moderate) The Desert Music: Third Movement Part One (Slow) The Desert Music: Third Movement Part Three (Slow) The Desert Music: Fifth Movement (Fast) Rehearsal Direction: Kate Jewett Original Lighting Design: Scott Bolman Musical Assistant to the Artistic Director: Thea Little Dancers: Catherine Coury, Gwendolyn Gussman, Jordan Isadore, Kate Jewett, Burr Johnson, Cynthia Koppe, Janice Lancaster Larsen, Russell Stuart Lilie, Chelsea Retzloff, Jennifer Rose, Austin Selden, Alex Speedie, Michael Wright, Ricardo Zayas Program Note: Set to selections from Steve Reich’s The Desert Music, Map is a vigorous exploration of various movement concepts developed by Shen Wei. Throughout the piece, Shen Wei investigates the myriad possibilities of rotation in the joints; the varying aspects of bouncing, rebounding and suspension; and movement initiated from the core with energy extending to isolated limbs, leading to solo explorations of this idea. Alternating between metronomic precision and silky fluidity, the dancers converge and scatter as though caught up in a gust of wind until in the climax they flock, surging and swooping as one. Map was commissioned by the Lincoln Center Festival in 2005. Use of Steve Reich’s The Desert Music by arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes Company, publisher and copyright owner. About the Artistic Director Hailed as “one of the great artists of our time” (The Washington Times), choreographer, director, dancer, painter, and designer Shen Wei is internationally renowned for the breadth and scope of his artistic vision. Admiration for his talent has earned Shen Wei numerous awards, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the US Artists Fellow Award, a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Australia’s Helpmann Award, and a 2012 New York City Center Choreography Fellowship. Most recently, he was honored with the Audi-China 2012 Artist of the Year Award, GQ-China 2013 Artist of the Year Award, and the 2013 Chinese Innovator Award from The Wall Street Journal- China. A founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Shen Wei came to the US in 1995 to study with the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab. In the same year, he was invited to present his work at the American Dance Festival (ADF). In July 2000, he founded Shen Wei Dance Arts at ADF. The company quickly entered the international touring circuit, performing at premier festivals and venues worldwide. He has received numerous commissions to support his creative works for Shen Wei Dance Arts, including multiple commissions from ADF, Het Muziektheater, the Lincoln Center Festival, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Armory, Hong Kong’s New Vision Arts Festival, and the Edinburgh International Festival. Shen Wei, who was the lead choreographer for the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, has also created dances for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and the Dutch National Ballet, and he choreographed the Rome Opera’s production of Rossini’s Moise et Pharaon, conducted by Ricardo Muti. In 2013, Shen Wei choreographed, directed, and designed a new production of Carmina Burana for Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy. The production, which included Shen Wei Dance Arts’ dancers, toured last fall to the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia and will have its American premiere at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2016. As a visual artist he has had solo shows in both New York and Hong Kong, and most recently at the Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Texas. In December 2014, Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art+Design hosted a solo exhibition of his work in conjunction with Art Basel/Miami Beach. About the Company One of the premier international dance companies, Shen Wei Dance Arts has won worldwide acclaim for “amassing a body of works so strikingly original they defy categorization” (The Boston Globe). The dances Shen Wei makes for his company draw on influences as varied as traditional Chinese culture and arts, European Surrealism, American high modernism, and the ritual power of ancient drama. Celebrated for its “gorgeous visual imagery” (The London Times ), the company’s works reflect the compositional rigor of Shen Wei the visual artist—incorporating striking design and imaginative use of space into striking kinetic stagescapes. The company’s dancers have been hailed as “a breed apart: lissome, precise, expressive—and totally at one with Shen Wei’s choreographic vision” (The Herald, Scotland). Since its founding in 2000, Shen Wei Dance Arts has performed in 138 cities, in 31 countries, on five continents, and has appeared at prestigious festivals and venues worldwide, including the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Spoleto Festival, frequent performances at the American Dance Festival, the Los Angeles Music Center, Venice Biennale, Sadler’s Wells, the Barbican Centre, Het Muziektheater, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Berliner Festpiele, and the Sydney Festival. In the US, Shen Wei Dance Arts has performed in 25 of the 50 states, gave the first dance performances at Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and recently completed a unique 5-year performance residency at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. The company performs annually in New York City, where it has been presented by the Lincoln Center Festival (5 times), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Park Avenue Armory, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Asia Society, and Fall for Dance at City Center. Recent company highlights include performances at the Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogotá in Colombia; the Festival de Danse in Cannes, France; a 3-week tour to China with performances at the Shanghai International Arts Festival and Beijing’s National Theatre of China, as part of the quadrennial Theatre Olympics Festival; performances at the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow, Russia; and a four-city tour of Italy, including Milan. In December of 2014, the company premiered a site specific work at the MDC Museum of Art + Design in Miami in conjunction with an exhibit of Shen Wei’s paintings during Art Basel/Miami Beach and took part in the inaugural season of Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance at Lincoln Center. Upcoming engagements include performances at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Florida State University in Tallahassee, and the Detroit Music Hall Center for Performing Arts, as well as tours to Italy, Austria, Germany, and China. Biographies Artistic Collaborators Scott Bolman (Lighting Designer) is a New York City-based designer and educator working in a diverse array of performance mediums, including theater, dance, music, and opera. As a lighting supervisor and production manager, Scott has traveled across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for companies such as Shen Wei Dance Arts, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Köln- based music ensemble musikFabrik, the State Ballet of Georgia, and Seattle-based KTDance. Scott graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College (Amherst, MA in 1997) and received his MFA from the Yale School of Drama (New Haven, CT in 2003). Scott served as an adjunct professor at Montclair State University, a substitute teacher at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is currently in his second year of teaching for the MFA directing program at the Brown-Trinity Rep Consortium. Scott is a founding member of Wingspace design collective. Elena Comendador (Costume Designer) began her costume design career more than 15 years ago. She has designed for Ailey II, Colorado Ballet, Compleixions Contemporary Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, Montgomery Ballet, ABT II, Philadanco, Morphoses, and Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, among others. She has collaborated with various choreographers such as Jessica Lang, Troy Powell, Francesca Harper, Kevin Wynn, Sean Curran, Elie Lazar, and Darrell Moultrie.