training included voice, dance and theater performance. At the same time he also self-taught Chinese Traditional Painting and calligraphy. From 1984 to 1989 Shen Wei was a member of the Hunan State Xian Opera Company, performing leading roles in the company. Following China's reestablishment of diplomatic and economic ties to the West in the early 1980s, Shen Wei began to study western classic oil painting techniques and styles of artists such as Michelangelo, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Modigliani, Francis Bacon and Lucian Michael Freud. In 1989 he discovered a passion for modern dance and moved to Guangzhou to study at China's first modern dance education institution, the Guangzhou Modern Dance Academy. During his two years at the academy he was taught by master teachers such as Ross Parks and David Hochoy from the Martha Graham Dance Company, Betty Jones and Fritz Ludin from the Jose Limon Dance Company, Claudia Gitelman from Alwin Nikolais Dance Company, and Liz Walton from the Paul Taylor Dance Company. The program was jointly supported by the American Dance Festival and the Asian Cultural Council. In 1991, Shen Wei became one of the founding members of the China's first modern dance company, the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, choreographing and dancing with the company until 1994. Early creations Shen Wei's early work is influenced by multiple disciplines within traditional Chinese and Western art. During the early 1990s he created 10 dance works for the Guangdong Modern Dance Company and many oil paintings. "Still Child", "Racing With The Sun", "Colored Relations" and "Insomnia" became part of the repertory of the company during this time. Additionally, he is the one of China's first underground experimental performing artists. In 1994 he created his one-man, experimental multi-media show "Small Room", which toured in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Hong Kong, and which catapulted him into the public eye. In 1994 he was awarded the First Prize in both Choreography and Performance at the National Modern Dance Competition in China. New York City (1995–present) Early New York life and work (1995–1999) After receiving a three-month scholarship from the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab, Shen Wei moved to New York City on Jan 15, 1995 and began his 5 years of artistic experimentation in New York City. During this time he expanded his artistic knowledge, studying artists such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Federico Fellini, Mark Rothko, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Igor Stravinsky, and Steve Reich. In dance, he explored release