Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company presents Alone but Not Alone in Quarantine

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, Nai-Ni Chen is shifting her focus from working on a stage with lights, costumes, and a company of dancers who rehearse and create daily with her, to advancing her art in the virtual world, attempting to discover the opportunities and impact of the coronavirus on the art of dance. Alone but Not Alone in Quarantine is the Nai-Ni Chen first step toward collaboratively with her dancers in different parts of the country creating new work while confined to our home spaces.  Dancers whose home is in the New York area are in small apartments with very limited space, while those who are outside of the New York City area have different environments.  These settings provide unique opportunities and challenges to the choreographer. Focusing on the theme of their confinement,  Company members improvised, filmed their choreographed pieces at home to their director.  Nai-Ni Chen then assembled the dance and added music according to the selected footages and her vision.  These dances reflect the collective state of the Company at this time.  The result can be viewed free online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=utdthQKRFxQ&t=70s.

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is also striving to help keep its dancers in shape by conducting regular Company classes online from both Nai-Ni and Company dancer’s living rooms. After a few weeks, as a Company rooted deeply in diversity and committed to the dancer’s artistic journey, Nai-Ni Chen began inviting both world-renowned and up-and-coming dancers and choreographers to join and teach the classes. At the same time, company dancers translated their online dance teaching skills to serve K-12 students and students with disabilities in underserved communities. The response has been extremely positive, especially in this time when Asian Americans community is experiencing racism and hate. Dance has brought rays of hope and joy to the dancers’ confined environments. 

Alone in our own domain,
forever dancing.
The sky is blue.
Our heart can hold the universe.
We celebrate the rich colors,
the love,
the wonderful smell of spring,
by connecting with each other through dancing. 
– Nai-Ni Chen

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

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.