Undivided Divided (2011) 

Concept, Choreography,and Visual Design: Shen Wei

Musical Score: So Percussion

Lighting Design: Jennifer Tipton

Video and Animation Technicians: Josh Horowitz, Layne Braunstein, Blair Neal

Costume Design: Austin Scarlett

Sound Design: Lawson White

Running Time: 35 minutes

"I am forever fascinated by what the brain knows and what it may not be aware of. Because of this fascination, I have found endless parallels between the tangible world and our impalpable surroundings.”

—Shen Wei

Press/Reviews

"Visually stunning, a compact 35 minutes of sublime density. Shen's dancers become the hand and the brush in an interpretation of the writing body that embraces color and voluptuous sensuality. As such, rather than allude to the timeless, Shen's vision is temporary, almost painful in its evocation of the mortal journey: how we begin, differentiate, and fade, how life leaves marks on us and, to a lesser dimension, how we leave marks on it. His selection of dancers, each perfect in form and athleticism, seems yet another testament to vanitas."
—Irene Hsaio, San Francisco Weekly

"Beautiful, enormously striking visually"
—Mary Ellen Hunt, San Francisco Chronicle

"Undivided Divided is an exhilarating experience, seemingly for the dancers as much as for the crowd, an exuberant display of physicality that goes beyond mere sexuality and voyeurism, offering an energizing and thrillingly different relationship between audience and performer."
—Mary Rifkin, This Week in New York

"A fascinating experiment in theater and perception. You move from objective observation to subjective involvement, brought about by the unleashed energy and the slippery, smeary danger of the paint. You're a little afraid and a little in awe, and maybe even a little envious. It looks like such fun. With the music cresting and colors blooming around you as the dancers whirl and roll, you're in an emotional spin, too."
—Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post

More clearly than in any of the other dances in which Shen Wei has explored the idea of dancer as mark-maker, we can see that the dancer makes the marks, and the dancer receives the marks, the drenching color. While making art, the dancer becomes art. It's a delicious paradox that this occurs in an art museum because no edifice can preserve this art, which lives only in temporal bodies."
—Kate Dobbs Ariail, The Five Points Star