Shen Wei's main works

Shen Wei painted the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games very smartly.

In his hometown of Hunan Province, Shen Wei followed in his father's footsteps and began to study opera at the age of eight. With the passing of the Cultural Revolution, Shen Wei learned dozens of artistic roles. Later, he moved to Guangzhou, where he co-founded Guangdong Modern Dance Company, one of the earliest modern dance companies in China. At the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, under his guidance, the dancers used their bodies as "pens" and splashed ink with their hands on the huge drawing paper in the center of the stadium. Shen Wei said that these dances are based on China cultural elements that can be recognized at a glance, but they are expressed in an abstract form with the help of the twisting dance of limbs. He pointed out that just like hair on a brush, dancers must keep dancing and their bodies should be as soft as boneless.

Shen Wei mainly created this picture. Shen Wei's vision is artistic, logical and heterogeneous. Xiang opera is a unique drama in Hunan, which has a great influence on Shen Wei. At the age of five or six, Shen Wei was a walk-on on the stage of xiang opera in Xiangyin County, but Shen Wei trained China's calligraphy, painting and Peking Opera performances since childhood. These comprehensive qualities have made Shen Wei. Shen Wei admits that there are "Hunan shadows" in each of his works. Shen Wei's dance steps and body movements are inspired by western dance traditions and China's drama, acrobatics and martial arts. The phrase "the more national art is, the more cosmopolitan it is" will never go out of date. As long as it is something that embodies "people" and art based on "people", there is nothing that eastern and western audiences can't accept. It can be said that the success of "Picture Scroll" is also the same reason. In the center of the magnificent "Bird's Nest", a landscape painting slowly unfolds. In the rotation of light and shadow, the dancers dressed in black turned around gorgeously, leaving rice paper-like ink on the yellow canvas ... This was the first program that appeared at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on the evening of August 8, 2008-the modern dance "Scroll".

15 The actors dressed in Tsing Yi completed a China landscape painting on a huge canvas with their bodies and modern dance skills. Accompanied by the melodious guzheng melody, they sometimes dance with long sleeves and sometimes twist their waist. Mo Yun's hearty and free-spirited action not only made 65,438+people in the "Bird's Nest" boil, but also fascinated the audience in front of TV sets all over the world. The performance of "The Picture Scroll" requires dancers to keep dancing like the front end of a brush, and their bodies are as soft as bones. At the same time, every movement and stroke should be harmonious. The actors wear gloves with black and blue ink on them. Black ink is used to interpret the landscape, 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 experimented with his body on the canvas again and again, drawing tens of thousands of circles every day and rolling on the ground until he was blue all over. Shen Wei likes to dip his feet in ink, dance "dancing calligraphy" like flowing cursive script, explore body language, and turn dynamic visual lines into splashing ink on a picture scroll. Although the light and shadow will pass away, the aftertaste of dancing limbs in the air leaves colorful traces on the white cloth. Shen Wei himself realized, "I originally wanted to make a record of my choreography and study the details of dance action design, but after careful investigation, it became a painting." Shen Wei has a stubborn insistence on artistic standards. When he was looking for new body language, he asked the actors to give up all the dance steps they had practiced for months and rearrange their practice. The final performance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games touched everyone, including Shen Wei himself.

modern dance

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games came to China. In order to gain international recognition for this theme, the organizers of the Beijing Olympic Games specially hired China-born dancer Shen Wei, who immigrated to new york, USA in 1995 and became a famous choreographer there. Shen Wei, 40, joined the creative team led by China 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 organizers let him join the team because everyone wanted to create a Chinese style with contemporary characteristics.

In the center of the performance venue is a 480-foot-long picture of China. On this LED "drawing paper", the history of China repeats itself like a movie. In the performance, China's past and present scientific and technological achievements were displayed one by one. For example, movable type printing was invented by ancient real people and then evolved into a computer keyboard.

Shen Wei's own cross-cultural background enables him to meet such challenges. In his hometown of Hunan Province, Shen Wei followed in his father's footsteps and began to study opera at the age of eight. With the passing of the Cultural Revolution, Shen Wei learned dozens of artistic roles. Later, he moved to Guangzhou, where he co-founded Guangdong Modern Dance Company, one of the earliest modern dance companies in China.

Performance inspiration

Shen Wei's performance at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games was inspired by Zen Buddhism. China's image was completely different from many people's imagination: they thought that hundreds of China soldiers would perform the lock step in the proletarian ode. Shen Wei said that the audience never thought that the Olympic Games could start with such a beautiful and concise performance, and their ideas were more China-like. Under the guidance of Shen Wei and the fading effect of ink, the dancer's movements left a beautiful picture on a huge canvas, and this canvas became an element throughout the opening ceremony. This canvas is much heavier than the organizer first thought, so it had to be cut in half during rehearsal. The picture shows the audience sharing the green hills and sunshine with the athletes, vividly interpreting the theme of "One World" of the Beijing Olympic Games. At the traditional entrance ceremony for athletes, the players walked through this picture one by one, leaving their marks on it.

Shen Wei said that this is a picture created by everyone. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games also carries the expectation of persuading the audience to change their ideas, which is a rare challenge in previous opening ceremonies.