Shen Wei, hailed as “one of the most expansive, creative minds in the arts” (The New York Sun), is a choreographer, dancer, painter, director, and an internationally renowned artist. He received a Nijinsky Emerging Choreographer Award, a MacArthur “Genius” Award, and a US Artists Fellow award. As a multi-disciplinary artist, he trained in Chinese opera, ink painting, calligraphy, Western visual art, modern dance, and film. In 1989, he began modern dance training at the American Dance Festival’s program at the Guangdong Dance Academy in China. In 1991, he became a founding member of the first modern dance company in China­–the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. He received a fellowship from Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab, moved to New York City in 1995, and founded Shen Wei Dance Arts In 2000.

His company toured in over 30 countries in 140 cities. He formed his own dance technique, “Natural Body Development,” and it has been taught in universities and dance centers as well as at the American Dance Festival. He received commissions from the ADF, Lincoln Center Festival, Kennedy Center, Park Avenue Armory, BAM Next Wave, Edinburgh International Festival, Het Muziektheater, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Dutch National Ballet, Teatro di San Carlo, Shanghai International Festival, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Metropolitan Museum of Art and was the lead choreographer for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His major solo exhibitions showed at the MDC Museum of Art + Design Miami, Shanghai Power Station of Art, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.