There are dozens of galleries and performance spaces in the Washington, D.C. area, but few actually allow you to observe as an original work is created each night.

In performances of Connect Transfer by Shen Wei Dance Arts in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall this weekend, twelve dancers will create a new work each evening with “live action painting” using varying colors of tempura paint on a white canvas. Fusing dance, music, and visual art, a different creation comes to life each time Connect Transfer is performed.

Shen Wei Dance Arts is still a young company— it was formed just eight years ago at the annual American Dance Festival, by Chinese artist Shen Wei. The ensemble has become well-known in this short period of time, in part because of talent and part because of its willingness to be innovative. The New York Times has noted that “Mr. Shen is pushing into new territory, exploring inventive and daring movement but also altering the way movement can be perceived.”

Photo courtesy of The Kennedy Center and Shen Wei Dance Arts

If you’re on the fence as to whether it’s your type of thing, the Kennedy Center has a short preview of the work which can be viewed on its web site. While reading a description of the work might bring to mind images of dancers using their bodies to splatter globs of paint on a canvas, the video preview shows this couldn’t be further from the truth. Their use of paint on the canvas is much more deliberate, and has often been referred to as “calligraphy” because of the beautiful sloping twists and turns the dancers create with the paint.

Shen Wei Dance Arts will perform Connect Transfer on Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. The Kennedy Center says that there are still tickets available for Saturday evening’s performance, but that there aren’t many left for tonight. Tickets are available at the Kennedy Center box office, but you may want to call ahead at 202-467-4600 to reserve seats before heading down there.

Just what exactly happens to the canvas? You can actually take it home with you. After each canvas dries, it is cut up into smaller portions and sold. Canvases from a previous performance will be available after tonight’s show, and typically range in price from $20 to upwards of $500.