Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Free Online Company Class May 18-22, 2020

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is keeping its dancers in shape by conducting regular Company Classes and rehearsals online from Nai-Ni and Company dancer’s living rooms using Zoom.  After a few weeks, Company members and Nai-Ni invited former dancers of the Company and friends to join through Zoom.  At the same time, company dancers translated their online dance teaching skills to serve K-12 students and students with disabilities in underserved communities.  Dance has brought them rays of hope and joy in their confined environment. 

As a Company rooted deeply in diversity and committed to the dancer’s artistic journey, Nai-Ni Chen began inviting her friends who are world renowned as well as up and coming dancers and choreographer to come teach the Company class.  The response has been extremely positive, especially in this time when Asian Americans community is experiencing racism and hate.  

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company invites dancers from around the world to join the Company at noon for a free one-hour Company Class every weekday.  Interested dancers can join the class by registering on Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s website:  http://nainichen.org/company-class   

Classes are as follows: Week of 5/18/2020Monday             Greta Campo (Kinetic Spiral)Tuesday            Barkha Patel (Indian)Wednesday       Greta Campo (Ballet) Thursday           Kerry Lee (Chinese)Friday                Yuka Notsuka (Contemporary)

Greta Campo is the Associate Artistic Director of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, began her dance training in her native Milan at the Carcano Theater, where she was first introduced to Martha Graham’s work. She performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company in their 2012 New York Season and later on their international tour. Greta is a recipient of the 2016 Rising Star Award from the Fini Dance Festival. Greta also teaches modern dance at Peridance.

Barkha Patel is an Indian classical Kathak dancer, choreographer, and educator. As a preservationist of Kathak dance, Barkha believes in sharing stories through abhinaya, deep facial expressions, and nritta, traditional and innovative movement. Recently, Barkha completed her choreographic fellowship with Jersey Moves and received the prestigious Choreographer Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. As an educator,  Barkha conducts dance classes and master workshops in New York and New Jersey.  

Kerry Lee is the Co-Artistic Director of the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company and a former principal dancer of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. After graduating from Stanford University with an engineering degree and working for a top ranked economic consulting firm, she followed her heart into the professional dance world in New York City. As a traditional Chinese and modern/contemporary dance artist, Kerry performed throughout the US and the British Virgin Islands with the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, H.T. Chen & Dancers, Dance China NY, and gloATL before returning home to co-lead the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company with her mother Hwee-Eng Y. Lee. Among other honors, Kerry was the only Chinese dancer among the finalists who received a ticket on So You Think You Can Dance Season 11. Learn more about Kerry at www.kerryylee.com  

Yuka Notsuka born in Fukuoka, Japan, is a member of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. She began her Ballet training in her hometown at age four. Later she broadened her training to include Jazz and Tap. Later Yuka moved to New York City to further pursue her career as a dancer. In 2015 she entered the Ailey School as a scholarship student. She performed in Ailey Spirit Gala Concert at Lincoln Center choreographed by Tracy Inman (Co-Director, The Ailey School) and Robert Battle (Artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater). Yuka joined the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in 2017. She also has been in training and served as Teaching Assistant at the Luigi Jazz Dance Center under Francis J. Roach.

Hailed as a Spiritual Choreographer by Dance Magazine and recipient of multiple choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Nai-Ni Chen has been creating dances professionally for over thirty years in the United States. She has built a diverse repertory of over 80 original works and toured to major venues in the US and international contemporary dance festivals in 12 countries. She will be teaching her signature technique KINETIC SPIRAL which is a blend of the dynamic, ever-evolving spirit of contemporary dance and the grace and splendor of the Chinese artistic traditions.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

A blossom of color, energy and motion, “like endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy,” says the New York Times.

About the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

Bringing the dynamic freedom of American modern dance together with the elegant splendor of Asian art, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is one of the most visible Asian American dance companies in America. Ms. Chen’s unique choreography transports audiences beyond cultural boundaries to the common ground between tradition and innovation, discipline and freedom, and form and spirit.

Since its inception in 1988, the company has earned a broad base of public support and has toured extensively to major performing arts centers throughout more than thirty states. Presented by some of the most prestigious concert halls in the United States, from the Joyce Theater in New York to the Ordway Center in Minnesota and the Cerritos Center in California, the Company has mounted more than twenty national tours and nine tours abroad. Ms. Chen’s work has been presented by such acclaimed international festivals as the Silesian International Contemporary Dance Festival and the Konfrontations International Dance Festival, both in Poland, the Chang Mu International Arts Festival in Korea and the Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival. The Company was also honored by a distinctive grant award from both the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities and the Department of State to represent the United States in a seven-city tour arranged by the Tamaulipas International Arts Festival in Mexico. Also, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has the unique honor of having received more than fifteen awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous Citations of Excellence and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

In addition to its extensive season of touring and performing, the company has developed Arts in Education residency programs in school districts to bring culture and arts into educational settings. It’s colorful and engaging in-school assembly program “The Art of Chinese Dance” has been presented in hundreds of schools in NJ, NY, CT and PA, reaching hundreds of thousands of youth. The Company is currently in-residence at New Jersey City University and assisting
NJCU in the development of a new BFA in Dance.

For additional Company information, visit our website, www.nainichen.org;
write to Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, P.O. Box 1121, Fort Lee, NJ 07024; or call
(800) 650-0246.