Artists in Conversation and live performance of Connect Transfer by Shen Wei Dance Arts

October 19 2025 12:30pm - 2:00pm

Join us for a special edition of Artists in Conversation, between renowned artist and choreographer Shen Wei and the KMA's Director and Chief Curator Michelle Yun Mapplethorpe, for a discussion on the artist's multifaceted artistic practice spanning nearly fifty years. The talk will be accompanied by a presentation of Connect Transfer performed by Shen Wei Dance Arts.

$25 / $20 Members

Shen Wei (b. 1968 in Hunan, China. Lives and works in New York, NY, U.S.A. and Paris, France) is an internationally renowned choreographer, dancer, director, and visual artist. He served as a performer with the Hunan State Xian Opera Company from 1984-1989. In 1991, the artist became a founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first of its kind in China. In 1995, Shen Wei moved to New York City for a fellowship from the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab and subsequently founded Shen Wei Dance Arts in New York at the American Dance Festival in 2000. His company has toured to over 140 cities across 30 countries and received over 23 commissions from the American Dance Festival, BAM Next Wave, Dutch National Ballet, Edinburgh International Festival, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Kennedy Center, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Lincoln Center Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Park Avenue Armory, Teatro di San Carlo, and the Shanghai International Festival among others. Shen Wei was the lead choreographer for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Artist has been the subject of international solo museum exhibitions including at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College, and the Shanghai Power Station of Art. He has been the recipient of an Asian Cultural Council John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award, Dance Magazine Award, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur “Genius” Award, Nijinsky Emerging Choreographer Award, Samual H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in choreography, and a US Artists Fellow award. The artist’s dance technique “Natural Body Development” has been widely taught in universities and dance conservatories. 

EXHIBITION SUPPORT

Shen Wei: STILL/MOVING is made possible with generous funding from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Additional support has been provided courtesy of the Cai Foundation, the Friends of the Shanghai Museum, The Serica Initiative, Westech Solutions, LLC, The Shen Wei Exhibition Leadership Committee, the Katherine C. and David E. Moore Exhibition Fund, and The Director’s Circle of the Katonah Museum of Art: Paul Bird and Amy Parsons, Lisa Byala, Mike Davies, Isabelle Harnoncourt Feigen, Virginia L. Gold, Linda Nordberg, Yvonne S. Pollack, Rebecca Samberg, and Richard and Audrey Zinman. The performance Shen Wei: Connect Transfer is made possible with funds from Arts Alive, a regrant program of ArtsWestchester with support from the Office of the Governor, the New York State Legislature, and the New York State Council on the Arts. The Katonah Museum of Art is proud to be supported by ArtsWestchester and Westchester County Government and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.