Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company to present NJ Chinese Dance Heritage Celebration

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
to present
NJ Chinese Dance Heritage Celebration
at the Morris Museum’s Bickford Theatre
joined by New Star Arts Center
Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 2pm

Metuchen, NJ – The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will present a festival of Chinese Dance featuring it students who have worked with the Company every Saturday in Metuchen, New Jersey. The annual concert will be in the Bickford Theatre in the Morris Museum on Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 2pm. This year, Nai-Ni Chen invited Ms. Shi Ying, who was a principal dancer of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and has started her own studio, New Star Arts Center.

Tickets are available online at http://nainichen.org/NextEvent or by phone at (800) 650-0246.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Workshop is located in Metuchen, NJ with a mission to provide a positive and optimistic learning environment for students to learn knowledge, skill and passion for dance. The instructors are all high level performers and experienced teachers who graduated from prestigious schools from the professional academies in the Chinese diaspora around the world. By studying and performing Chinese Dance we can foster a better understanding of the heritage of dance in the Chinese American community.

The classes are directed by Ms. Chen and conducted members of her company. In addition to lessons that improve body condition, movement/musical expressions, she will also bring master guest artists of traditional and contemporary dance art to give lessons in their respective fields.

Program of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Workshop
1. 手絹 – Handkerchief Dance
2. 飛天独舞 – Flying Goddess Solo
3. 雨伞舞蹈 – Umbrella Dance
4. 扇舞 – Fan Dance
5. 剑舞 – Sword Dance
6. 现代扇舞 – Contemporary Fan Dance
7. 双人飞天 – Flying Goddess Duet
8. 水䄂 – Long Sleeve Dance
New Star Arts Center program
1. 傣族追鱼- Fish Dance of the Dai People
2. 汉族小红伞 – Red Umbrella
3. 新疆盘子舞 – Xingjiang Plate Dance
4. 古典舞 – Classic Dance
5. New Star Arts Center
6. 傣族追鱼- Fish Dance of the Dai People
7. 汉族小红伞 – Red Umbrella
8. 新疆盘子舞 – Xingjiang Plate Dance
9. 古典舞 – Classic Dance
About Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
NAI-NI CHEN established her company in 1988 and has since grown to be one of the most widely toured and presented Asian American dance companies in the United States, with 18 awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, 8 tours abroad and over 30 national tours, reaching 40 states in America. Her works have been commissioned by the Joyce Theatre Foundation, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New Jersey Ballet, Ballet Met and Dancing Wheels. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is currently in residence at the New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ. Well known for her collaboration with renowned composers for original music such as Tan Dun, Jason Kao Hwang, Joan La Barbara, Kenji Bunch and Glen Velez, Nai-Ni Chen started the CrossCurrent series at Flushing Town Hall in 2013 focusing on collaborative works with artists from around the world.

Bridging the grace of Asian elegance and American dynamism, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a premier provider of innovative cultural experiences that reflect the inspiring hope and energy of the immigrant’s journey. The company’s ground-breaking works celebrate the cross-cultural experience. Its productions naturally bring forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality. In performance, the company’s graceful and athletic dancers carries the audience across time and cultural boundaries to a new place where tradition meets innovation and form unite with spirit. Each dance reflects Nai-Ni Chen’s personal vision as an American artist with deep roots in the Asian culture, developing extraordinary choreography influenced by cultures around the world,  The company’s powerful and elegant productions have been presented at some of the most prestigious concert halls in America, eight international tours spanning the globe as well as appearing on a number of television specials on PBS , ABC, CBS, and WNYC. 

Programs of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company are made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Cultural Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts with1 the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Turrell Fund, E.J. Grassman Trust, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, the Cultural Ministry of the People’s Republic of China,  the Live Music for Dance Program of New Music USA, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Rapid Response Program of American Dance Abroad, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters’ Cultural Exchange Fund, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, PSEG, Proskauer, WAC Lighting, and the Glow Foundation.  More information about the Company can be found at www.nainichen.org or email: info@nainichen.org