(NORTH ADAMS, Mass.) – The New York-based dance company Shen Wei Dance Arts performs at MASS MoCA on Saturday and Sunday, October 26 and 27, 2013 (at 8pm and 3pm, respectively), in a co-presentation with Jacob’s Pillow Dance. Led by Chinese-born American choreographer Shen Wei, the performance – to be staged in the Hunter Center for the Performing Arts — blends his signature movement vocabulary with elements of film, theater, new media, and visual art. The program, which contains partial nudity, includes Shen Wei’s interpretation of Rite of Spring. It also coincides with the final weekend of MASS MoCA’s Xu Bing: Phoenix exhibit, an installation featuring two monumental birds fabricated wholly from materials reaped from construction sites in urban China.

The program includes Shen Wei’s interpretation of Rite of Spring (2003), in honor of the original production’s 100th year, and striking new work Collective Measures (2013). The company’s performances coincide with the final weekend of MASS MoCA’s Xu Bing: Phoenix exhibit, an installation featuring two monumental birds fabricated wholly from materials reaped from construction sites in urban China.

Widely known for the international acclaim he received as principal choreographer for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Shen Wei is revered for the broad span of his artistic vision as a prolific choreographer; stage director and painter; set, costume, lighting, and make-up designer. The Boston Globe has called his chromatic, movement-based spectacles “a vivid fusion of East and West, of Chinese opera and modern dance informed by the keen eye of a painter…”

Born in Hunan, China, Shen Wei began training in Chinese opera at the age of nine. In 1991, he became a founding dancer and choreographer of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first modern dance company in China. He was awarded a scholarship from Nikolais-Louis Foundation for Dance and relocated to New York City in 1995. By July 2001, he established Shen Wei Dance Arts with performances of Near the Terrace at the American Dance Festival. Veneration for his talent has netted Shen Wei many commissions and awards, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the U.S. Artists Fellow Award, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Nijinsky Award, Australia’s Helpmann Award for Best Ballet or Dance Work, and two accolades from the New York Times for the creation of one of the year’s best dance performances. Most recently, he was honored with the Audi 2012 Artist of the Year Award in Beijing, China. Jacob’s Pillow Dance presented Shen Wei Dance Arts in the Ted Shawn Theatre in 2004 and 2006.

Marking the centenary of the Paris premiere of the original Rite of Spring, Shen Wei Dance Arts will perform its rendition of this seminal work as half of its two-part program. In response to Shen Wei’s unique interpretation, Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times wrote, “The visual and emotional impact is overwhelming. [Shen Wei’s] vision is painterly, mathematical and idiosyncratic. In this eclecticism, movement becomes pure: this Rite of Spring dazzles with its amazing objectivism, its reach beyond ordinary meaning.”

Also on the bill is the newly created Collective Measures — Shen Wei’s salient exploration of personal separation within physical proximity of others. Meticulously designed, the work surpasses convention and delves into an uncommon, private space through its ambient sound score and surreal visual effects. American fashion designer Austin Scarlett, best known for his appearances on Project Runway’s first season and 2012’s Project Runway All Stars, designed and fabricated the costumes for this piece in collaboration with Shen Wei.

The gifted dancers of Shen Wei Dance Arts trained at North Carolina School for the Arts, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase. They have also performed with a variety of contemporary dance companies, including recent Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival artists BODYTRAFFIC and Abraham.In.Motion.

Shen Wei Dance Arts is a fitting farewell to Chinese sculptor Xu Bing’s storied Phoenix exhibition. Called “glorious” and “stupendous” by the Boston Globe, the more than twenty-ton sculptures have been hanging from the rafters of MASS MoCA’s signature, football field-size gallery since December 2012 in their first appearance outside of China. Fabricated entirely from materials harvested from construction sites in Beijing, the mythic birds bear witness to the complex interconnection between art, labor, and capital. Record numbers of museum visitors are mesmerized by “the birds,” part of a larger exhibition of key works by Xu Bing, considered among the most important Chinese artists working today. Xu Bing: Phoenix is on view through Sunday, October 27.

Performance and Ticket Information:

Saturday, October 26 at 8pm and Sunday, October 27 at 3pm; Hunter Center at MASS MoCA. Galleries are open until 7:30pm on Saturday, October 26. On Sunday, October 27, the galleries are open from 11am-5pm.

This program contains partial nudity.

Ticket prices: $39 premium / $32 orchestra / $20 mezzanine / $18 students

To order tickets: 413.662.2111 or www.massmoca.org.