Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Announces Dancers For “The Bridge” April 5-9

(FORT LEE, NJ) — In the midst of the COVID-19 disaster, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Corporation has set up a new dance institute through Zoom, The Bridge.  The Institute’s purpose is to bring alongside one another dancers, choreographers and administrators all-around the entire world to expertise the grasp academics of colour whose procedures are embedded in the local community and are concentrated on advancing the artwork of dance that change the private, environmental and metaphysical areas. 

Interested dancers can sign up for the class by registering on Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s web site.

As a digital dance institute, The Bridge will invite planet renowned as very well as up and coming dancers and choreographer to appear to visitor instruct the course. Superior/Intermediate level experienced or pre-expert dancers who are seeking to examine over and above their own boundaries and on the lookout for new dance encounters are encouraged to take part.

The core application is primarily based on Nai-Ni Chen’s Kinetic Spiral, which is a cross-cultural dance vocabulary that integrates the Chinese martial arts philosophy in TaiChi with present-day dance tactics she studied in The us. Guest artists will address a wide vary of folk and classical dance styles.

In this trying time of adjust and uncertainty, the arts is a supply of healing and unity, we would like to stimulate all people to support dance as dance is an crucial drugs for the modern society to recuperate from the pandemic that has prompted damage to our bodies and our hearts. Support for The Bridge can be made on the web.

The Bridge Class agenda for 7 days of 4/5/2021

Monday Yuka Notsuka (Kinetic Spiral)

Tuesday Zhongmei Li (Chinese Classical Dance) at 11:00am

Wednesday Nai-Ni Chen (Kinetic Spiral) at 11:00am

Thursday Rei Akazawa-Smith (Modern day – Taylor-influenced) at 11:00am

Friday Greta Campo (Kinetic Spiral) at 11:00am

About Nai-Ni Chen’s Kinetic Spiral: Tap into the creative vitality of the universe via Kinetic Spiral. Nai-Ni Chen’s signature approach is centered on the theory of at any time-transforming common forces of Yin and Yang. Dance phrases from Nai-Ni Chen’s repertory will be taught.

About Zhongmei Li’s Chinese Classical Dance: Zhongmei Li will instruct one particular of the most perfectly regarded Chinese classical dance technique, the Duanghuang method based mostly on up to date interpretation of the motion of the painted figures in the ancient caves of Duanhuang Grotto. The wonderful paintings in the caves had been created in the Tang Dynasty by Buddhist monks travelling on the Silk Road.

About Rei Akazawa-Smith’s Modern-day (Taylor-Influenced): Be a part of Rei Akazawa-Smith for an fascinating modern-day dance course. Rei has danced with the Paul Taylor Dance Organization as properly as operating with Mihi Orihara, HT Chen and other individuals. 

Rei Akazawa-Smith was born and elevated in Tokyo, Japan, wherever she commenced her ballet education in the system of Royal Academy of Dance underneath the route of Yuko Kojima. She graduated cum laude with a B.F.A. in Dance from Marymount Manhattan School, getting the Gold Important for Excellence in 2009. While a scholar there, she assisted in instructing and demonstrating Graham Method Master Courses for Miki Orihara and Alessandra Prosperi. She has danced with H.T. Chen and Dancers, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, and performed the purpose of Eliza in The King and I at Walnut Road Theater in Philadelphia. She participated in The Taylor College Summer time Intensive in 2012 and was questioned to be a part of Taylor 2 immediately afterward. Due to the fact signing up for the enterprise, she has also appeared with Paul Taylor Dance Enterprise.

Greta Campo is the Associate Artistic Director of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Business, She commenced her dance education in her indigenous Milan at the Carcano Theater, wherever she was initially released to Martha Graham’s function. She done with the Martha Graham Dance Firm in their 2012 New York Year and later on their global tour. Greta is a recipient of the 2016 Climbing Star Award from the Fini Dance Festival.

Zhongmei Li commenced her dance schooling at the Beijing Dance Academy, China’s foremost dance establishment, and continued in the U. S. successful entire scholarships to study at both of those the Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham schools. She done on Broadway in the extensive-operating musical “The King and I,” and she gained a master’s degree in good arts at the Tisch Faculty at New York College. In 1994, she developed the Zhongmei Dance Organization, with which she performed all around the United States. In addition, she has executed in several other nations around the world, including Singapore, France, Israel, and Brazil. She is a normal visitor performer with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. Zhongmei’s story is offered in a non-fiction reserve, “A Lady Named Faithful Plum,” by Richard Bernstein.

Yuka Notsuka was born in Fukuoka, Japan, is a member of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. She commenced her Ballet training in her hometown at age 4. Later on she broadened her coaching to consist of Jazz and Faucet. Later on Yuka moved to New York City to even further go after her job as a dancer. In 2015 she entered the Ailey College as a scholarship pupil. She carried out in Ailey Spirit Gala Concert at Lincoln Center choreographed by Tracy Inman (Co-Director, The Ailey University) and Robert Struggle (Creative director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater). Yuka joined the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Corporation in 2017. She also has been in education and served as Teaching Assistant at the Luigi Jazz Dance Center beneath Francis J. Roach.

About Nai-Ni Chen: Hailed as a Religious Choreographer by Dance Journal and recipient of various choreographic fellowships from the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey Point out Council on the Arts, Nai-Ni Chen has been developing dances skillfully for around 30 several years in the United States. She has crafted a diverse repertory of around 80 unique works and toured to significant venues in the US and intercontinental up to date dance festivals in 12 countries. She will be teaching her signature technique KINETIC SPIRAL which is a blend of the dynamic, at any time-evolving spirit of modern day dance and the grace and splendor of the Asian inventive traditions.

About the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company: Bringing the dynamic flexibility of American modern dance together with the tasteful splendor of Asian art, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Firm is just one of the most obvious Asian American dance organizations in the United States. Ms. Chen’s exclusive choreography transports audiences over and above cultural boundaries to the frequent ground between tradition and innovation, self-discipline and independence, and sort and spirit.

Considering that its inception in 1988, the corporation has earned a wide base of community assistance and has toured extensively to main performing arts facilities all over a lot more than thirty states. Introduced by some of the most prestigious concert halls in the United States, from the Joyce Theater in New York to the Ordway Heart in Minnesota and the Cerritos Centre in California, the Company has mounted additional than twenty nationwide excursions and 9 excursions overseas. Ms. Chen’s operate has been presented by these types of acclaimed global festivals as the Silesian Worldwide Modern Dance Competition and the Konfrontations International Dance Festival, the two in Poland, the Chang Mu International Arts Pageant in Korea and the Meet in Beijing Worldwide Arts Festival. The Firm was also honored by a unique grant award from each the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities and the Department of State to stand for the United States in a seven-town tour arranged by the Tamaulipas International Arts Festival in Mexico. Also, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Organization has the special honor of owning gained extra than fifteen awards from the Countrywide Endowment for the Arts and many Citations of Excellence and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

In addition to its intensive season of touring and executing, the business has made Arts in Schooling residency systems in college districts to deliver society and arts into instructional options. It’s vibrant and participating in-faculty assembly software “The Artwork of Chinese Dance” has been presented in hundreds of schools in NJ, NY, CT and PA, achieving hundreds of countless numbers of youth. The Firm is now in-home at New Jersey City University and assisting NJCU in the advancement of a new BFA in Dance.