The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, a renowned international touring dance company led by Chinese American choreographer Nai-Ni Chen announces an exciting 2018-19 season. Ms. Chen will lead the company to begin this season at its resident institution, New Jersey City University with classes offering a growing student population for Ballet, Jazz and Modern Dance.
In the 2018-2019 season, the Company will continue to be in residence at the New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ with extensive community activities including dance curriculum planning, teaching and rehearsing, research and choreography. The Company will begin with a series of Moon Festival Celebrations: Sat 9/15/18 at 7:30pm Rutgers Confucius Institute presents Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company at George Street Playhouse. Sun. Oct 14 at 4pm, Moon Festival will be held at Jersey City Theatre Center's White Eagle Hall in collaboration with South Indian Dance guru Akhila and Chetan Hebbar. The NJCU's Confucius Institute will also hold its Moon Festival on it campus in October. A time for family gathering and celebration, the Moon Festival is also a spiritual festival that emphasize the power of the female in the society. Thus, these programs will also be aimed to honor the spirit of woman.
After this series of festivals, the Company will travel to Luxembourg to work in Centre de Creation Choreographique Luxemburgeois (Luxembourg Center for Choreographic Creation) with Choreographer/Director Hannah Ma in the end of October on a new dance, on the subject of Chinese American immigrant around the world.
The Company will spend Nov and Dec to prepare a warm program for January and February 2018, to chase away the winter blues. This year, Nai-Ni Chen will showcase the eye-popping, colorful extravaganza of the Company's 21th Lunar New Year Festival, celebrating The Year of the Pig at Brooklyn College (1/27-29), Queens College (2/12-14), and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (1/30-2/3) and at Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic (2/6).
The Company launched a new production, A Quest for Freedom, with the renowned Ahn Trio in 2018 at NJPAC and the NextMove Dance Festival in Philadelphia in 2018. In this new season, the new production will tour to Washington State(2/22), Oregon(TBA) and South Carolina (2/28) this year in Feb and March.
In April, the Company will return to New York City/s Flushing Town Hall (4/7) for the Sixth CrossCurrent Dance and Music Festival featuring emergent and established Asian American dancers and choreographers in one of the most diverse neighborhood in Queens. We will also be appearing at the White Eagle Hall in Jersey City (4/14)
Our season will not be complete without an appearance on Ellis Island in the Asian American Heritage Month. The Company will be presenting the fourth Imagine Ellis Island Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Festival on 5/7/18 in the Great Hall of Immigration on Ellis Island.
Followers and audience can gain an early glimpse of the Company's new works during our open rehearsal sessions and at at pop-up locations around the NY/NJ area to be announced on our e-newsletter. Join our subscribers by sending an email to: info@nainichen.org with the subject line: Subscribe.
Besides developing new dances, Nai-Ni Chen is equally committed to introduce the Chinese American heritage to children and family in diverse communities. Her K-12 assembly program Red Firecrackers and The Art of Chinese Dance are performed throughout the year in schools and community centers in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. In addition to these mainstage presentations, a special production that tells the story of the origin of the Chinese New Year legend titled Red Firecrackers, will be offered through the NJPAC Education outreach to NJ K-12 public schools as well as to NYC Public Schools through the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts throughout the year.
Continuing its commitment to preserve and advance dance in the Chinese American community in New York and New Jersey, the Company offers regularly scheduled community workshops at the Metuchen Dance Centre every Saturday with award winning instructors from China, Taiwan and US.
For more information, please go to our website or contact: info@nainichen.org
