Trust Shen Wei, a MacArthur Award-winning choreographer, to elevate finger-painting -- and foot-painting and shin-painting and bicep-painting -- into an art form.
In Connect Transfer, to be performed next month at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, dancers dip their limbs into paint and slide across the white cloth-covered floor, transforming the stage into a giant canvas.
The piece combines elements of child's play with a serious meditation on the nature of movement.
In the eight years since founding his own troupe, Shen Wei Dance Arts, the 38-year-old New York resident has been lauded as one of the most promising choreographers of his generation. His work combines elements of Eastern philosophy, the theater, sculpture, architecture and especially Chinese opera, which he has studied since he was 9 years old.
In May, the troupe began a five-year residency at the Kennedy Center. However, Shen isn't spending much time in Washington at the moment; he's been hired to choreograph the Opening Ceremonies for the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing.
Here, he discusses the impetus behind what is perhaps his most high-spirited work:
IN HIS WORDS --Connect Transfer uses 14 dancers, both men and women, and lasts an hour and 15 minutes. The dancers daub paint on their hands and feet, so every time they move, every surface they touch, they leave a mark.
The paint is mostly red and black in the beginning, but by the end of the dance, we've used all different colors.
HIS INSPIRATION --In addition to being a choreographer and a dancer, I'm also a painter. In 2002 or 2003, I was doing Chinese calligraphy while listening to Stravinsky's The Rites of Spring.
I watched my paintbrush move across the canvas, and I thought, "What would it be like to dance like a paint brush?"
THE REHEARSAL PROCESS --It was pretty difficult in the beginning. This dance doesn't use the kind of movements you see in other productions. It was a big challenge for the dancers, and, in the beginning, I didn't know if it was going to work.
Dancing like a paintbrush means dancing as if you have no bones. In traditional dance, a movement has a distinct start and stop. In Connect Transfer, the dancers never stop. They flow from one motion into the next.
MEANING OF THE TITLE --I like to explore connections, how things relate to one another. I find it really interesting how music and dance are linked to the visual arts, and vice-versa.
Architecture and sculpture, for instance, have a lot in common with dance. They're all about the center of weight, and how it gets distributed.
EPHEMERAL NATURE OF DANCE --Most dance is here one moment, gone the next. Using paint changes that. It's like running in the sand. After you've stopped, you can still see your footprints.I wanted to leave a memory of the dancers' movement on the floor.
BEST KIND OF PAINT --The kind that children fingerpaint with in kindergarten. It won't damage our hands or skin.
AND THEN, IT'S SHOWER TIME --[Laughing] Pretty much. This dance is messy and it's exhausting. But, it's also really fun.
mary.mccauley@baltsun.com