Shen Wei Dance Arts

Location & Contact:

135 W 29th St # 1100
Manhattan, NY 10001
212-962-1113
Email Us
Visit our website

Description:

A CHAT WITH SWDA DANCER, ADAM WEINERT
Posted by Shen Wei Dance Arts on October 18, 2010 Leave a Comment
What would be your advice to young dancers who want to dance for Shen Wei someday?
Come take class.
Tell me about your first time experiencing the company. What was it like?
I first saw Shen Wei Dance Arts perform at the American Dance Festival in 2004. I was immediately struck by the breadth of his vision. Never before had I seen a world so completely realized onstage. Every element: costumes, decor, movement quality, musical choices seemed to be in service of this one singular voice. I knew then that I wanted to get closer to this man, to gain access to whatever it was that he and his dancers were connecting with.
By happenstance, the person sitting next to me during this performance, Jenna Fakhoury, would also later come to dance for the company. We didnt know it at the time, but she and I would premier a new work by Shen Wei at the same festival together five years later.
What do you think Shen Wei saw in you as a dancer?
One thing I respect about Shen Wei is that hes not interested in filling his company with people who look just like him, or any one kind of dancer. He employs a broad range of dynamic performers and encourages them to bring themselves to the work in intimate ways. I think he saw in me my eagerness to understand his technique, and my willingness to throw myself inside of it.
Who is your favorite dancer and why? Who are your big dance role models?
I had the good fortune of being exposed to Edwin Denbys Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Streets early in my training. This collection of dance writings opened me up to draw inspiration not only from the dancers I admire, but also the countless other forms of movement vocabulary on full view in subway cars, at sporting events, and among other incidents of live theater in New York City.
That being said, I was particularly thrilled to witness, in recent performances, the thoughtful, and expertly nuanced performances by artists in the companies of Pina Bausch, Ohad Naharin, and Merce Cunningham (Rainer Behr, Doug Letheren and Silas Riener, respectively, being standouts for me).
Did you have to overcome anything major in order to become a dancer?
Every dancer I know has faced obstacles along the way. No one (or no one I know anyway) was told that this was something they had to do. Very few, in fact, were readily encouraged. My path was perhaps a bit more roundabout than most spending time as an economics major at Vassar College, an intern at the United Nations, or as a shadow at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital are not known dance career jump starts but everyones path is different.
What song or piece of music makes you want to get up and dance?
Wendy Whelan, principal dancer with New York City Ballet, was once asked in an interview what she looked for in a dance partner. She replied: I like any guy who will look into my eyes. Then I can relax and let go. I feel similarly about music. Anything and everything that feels like its cutting through the noise to get to me, Ill get up and dance with.

Payment Options:

Cash, Credit