"It concerns the different ways bodies are moved," he explains. "The internal energy, energy that travels circularly inside the body and is used by dancers to motivate various body parts, is an ancient tai chi idea."

　　The movement, Shen explains, was combined with Western body movements, including the use of momentum.

　　Since his official appointment last April, there has been speculation that Shen's recipe for the Opening Ceremony will be "fusion" - that is, if he's eaten at enough Manhattan restaurants.

　　A look into the man's past offers some more concrete clues.

　　Born in Hunan in 1968, the year of the monkey, Shen describes himself as "always being a mover".

　　Following in the footsteps of his parents, Shen began training as a local opera performer at the age of 9. The role assigned to him, quite fittingly, was that of a wusheng, or fighting man, which calls for several somersaults.

　　"That experience really helped me understand the Chinese tradition. Opera is for me the best form of performance art ever born in China - combining music, vocals, acting and acrobatics all in one and evolving for hundreds of years," he says.

　　Shen's foray into modern dance was the result of an unexpected turn. In 1988, after studying opera for a decade, Shen entered a dance competition in Hunan.

　　"I was in it for the money. But since I had no formal training, classical or otherwise, I had no choice but to dance my own dance. And, they gave me the first prize," he recalls.

　　He pauses for a brief moment, "There are certain things you are meant to do with your life."

　　A misstep turned out to be a major step and Shen has never looked back since.

　　In 1995, he left everything behind and moved to New York after receiving a scholarship from the Nikolais/Louis Dance Theater Lab. Five years later, he founded his own dance company, the New York-based Shenwei Dance Arts.

　　In July 2007, nearly two decades after Shen's fateful switch to modern dance, the now-celebrated choreographer honored his memories with a New York premiere at his first dance-opera Second Visit to the Empress, or erjingong, which was also one of the first operas he learned back in Hunan.

　　In retrospect, Shen says his decision to pursue modern dance was in a sense precipitated by the larger social climate of the time.

　　"It was in the late 1980s, and there was a hunger for change in the Chinese society," says Shen, who has taken dozens of trips to various parts of the country in the past year.

　　"I went to the ancient Silk Road, to see how China has reached out and been reached by the outside world today as well as Tuesday. The country is on a fast train of change."

　　Luckily for Shen, he thrives in an atmosphere of change. In anticipation of the Opening Ceremony, Shen has been working with top-notch Chinese dancers since December, preparing them for a different world on the Olympic stage.

　　"It's tough because these dancers, amazing as they are, have no previous modern dance training. I have to show them how to use their bodies in a completely new way - to explore every possibility," he says. "I want the audience to look and say, 'I've never seen people move this way, but it's still beautiful'."