Drifting away from the canvas, the dancers wade into the pool forming a circle for a gentle water dance. Refreshed from the immersion, the dancers gather at the buckets along the edges of the canvas to put on paint-saturated mitts to swirl their colors (same as their costumes) directly onto the floor. Thrusting and slapping their bodies onto the ground in circular and linear patterns, they dance their mark onto the canvas. This exploration and practice of connecting movement to paint to canvas started back in 2001 when Shen Wei began work on “The Rite of Spring.” Back then, he limited the palette to black and white. This is not the case now. “Mindscape” is a symphony in color.

The drama builds with each new application of paint. Some dancers pour cupfuls of color onto the canvas and themselves as they converge in duos and eventually in an interconnected group. Other dancers dip their socks into the pigment for a standing transfer of color. Fierce drumming frames the climax as the dancers walk onto the canvas bearing full buckets of tempera. They kneel and gracefully pour the liquid color over their bodies like a ritual immersion. Then in a complete merging of color, movement, and surfaces, the dancers roll, slide, swivel, and connect with the floor and each other. The dancers are brush and canvas—their costumes and faces slathered with every color.

After each performer dance-painted a final mark across the canvas ending with a reverent bow, Shen Wei offered a few remarks. He gestured to the site saying, “Here we have everything we need—the mountain, the water, and the people.” Because Shen Wei has the vision of a painter, he could see the requisite elements of Chinese landscape painting in Lincoln Center’s outdoor plaza and transform them . . . into “Mindscape.”