Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Virtual Presentation of “Awakening” at SOPAC Free for the Month of May

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Virtual Presentation of "Awakening" at SOPAC Free for the Month of May

(SOUTH ORANGE, NJ) — Maplewood Township, South Orange Village, SOMA Cross Cultural Will work and the AAPI Group unite to realize and rejoice Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Thirty day period. These companies stand in solidarity, the aim is on instruction, therapeutic and generating joy as we honor the richness and diversity of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures with an fascinating lineup of relatives oriented routines and applications. As section of the celebration, the South Orange Performing Arts Middle will share Nai-Ni Chen’s new program Awakening free on demand from customers all over the Month of May well.

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Corporation is an progressive global touring dance company that has been a major force Asian American modern day dance given that its founding. It’s director Nai-Ni Chen has led her Organization of 8 various dancers to create new dances and carried out in festivals and residencies in Europe, Asia, and South The us when maintaining near interactions with immigrant communities and academic partners in New Jersey, especially in universities serving learners with disabilities. In this yr of the pandemic, crisscrossing the globe with Zoom, Nai-Ni Chen has been building new associations with dancers and choreographers on her new dance system, The Bridge. These interactions and Ms. Chen’s distinct encounter as a female Asian American Immigrant choreographer impressed her to make a sequence of new, socially suitable operate in a scarce 60 moment extended production titled Awakening that demonstrates her exclusive viewpoint as an Asian American immigrant girl choreographer. The application also features opinions and interviews by mentioned dance skilled/author, Robert Johnson.

Highlights consist of Chen’s Truth Sure, Introspection, Luminescence, and Shadow Force. The system will be presented by SOPAC totally free, you should sign up on the internet.

Plan Highlights

Real truth Bound was formulated in the course of a residency in Trier, Germany in response to the disaster of religion and have faith in today makes use of newspapers as costume and Chen herself as the seeker on a journey. German dance critic Eva-Maria Reuther of Volksfreund explained: “Using their entire body and visible language sensitively designed fantasy and poetry. Tradition and experimentation are mixed with precision and dynamics.”

Introspection is a new operate where by the choreographer, in reaction to the simply call for equity and justice, is searching at her enterprise, her dancers and her own identification. As just about every dancer illuminates each and every other with lights of their individual, the audience and dancers begin to see the exact same human being from unique perspectives.

 

Luminescence (premiere) was established in reaction to the choreographer’s raising dependence on the energy of nature to be bodily and mentally resilient throughout the pandemic. The dance is her ode to nature’s grace, magic and surprise exactly where she discovered sanctuary. Through this dance, Nai-Ni Chen needs to remind us that human beings coexist with other existence forms on earth. To uncover the splendor in character and to respect and defend the ecosystem is essential to our ongoing survival.

Shadow Force (premiere) is one of the darkest dances the choreographer has designed as she witnessed the wrestle of the place and its folks to continue to be united below strong forces from diverse sides. 

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Virtual Presentation of "Awakening" at SOPAC Free for the Month of May

Nai-Ni Chen has been creating dances professionally for over thirty several years due to the fact coming to the US. She has developed a various repertoire of more than 80 authentic operates and toured to major venues in the US and global festivals in 12 nations around the world all around the environment. A cross-cultural choreographer who aims to deliver viewers across the cultural boundaries, she has designed exclusive motion and choreographic types that replicate the Chinese cultural traditions she examined in Taiwan given that youth and the dynamic spirit of modern-day dance that she obtained in New York from luminaries these kinds of as Mary Anthony, Bertram Ross, Doris Rudko and Patricia Rowe. 

Nai-Ni Chen has gained numerous Choreographer Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey Condition Council on the Arts. She has been a principal affiliate of the New Jersey Executing Arts Center and was a resident artist of the Harlem School of the Arts. Her contribution to the immigrant cultural encounter has been honored by OCA and the International Institute. As a life span dance educator, she was the receiver of The Distinguished Services to the Subject Award from the Affiliation of Training Artistes in 2020 at Lincoln Center and her perform with college students with disabilities has been regarded by the 2018 Innovator Award from the Cultural Obtain Community.

Commissions have come from the Joyce Theater Foundation, the Lincoln Middle Institute, the New Jersey Doing Arts Centre, Towson University, Dancing in the Streets, New Jersey Ballet, Ballet Achieved, and the Cleveland Dancing Wheels. Nai-Ni is presently in home in New Jersey Metropolis College in which she developed a new dance application for the college in collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet College as well as pioneering a application with the University’s A Harry Moore Laboratory College, serving children with many disabilities. 

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Virtual Presentation of "Awakening" at SOPAC Free for the Month of May

Programs of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Business are manufactured possible by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Condition Council on the Arts/Office of Condition, a Associate Agency of the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey Cultural Belief, th eMid-Atlantic Arts Basis (MAAF), the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York Condition Legislature, The New Jersey Arts Recovery Fund, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, E.J. Grassman Rely on, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, the Cultural Ministry of the People’s Republic of China, the Are living Tunes for Dance Plan of New Music United states of america, the Blanche & Irving Laurie Basis, the Rapid Reaction Method of American Dance Overseas, the Association of Doing Arts Presenters’ Cultural Trade Fund, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Basis, PSEG, Proskauer, WAC Lights, the Glow Foundation.


Bringing the dynamic liberty of American modern day dance collectively with the exquisite splendor of Asian artwork, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Firm is a single of the most visible Asian American dance firms in the United States. Ms. Chen’s unique choreography transports audiences beyond cultural boundaries to the prevalent floor in between custom and innovation, discipline and liberty, and sort and spirit.

Considering that its inception in 1988, the enterprise has gained a broad foundation of general public help and has toured thoroughly to important executing arts centers in the course of additional 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 Centre in Minnesota and the Cerritos Middle in California, the Organization has mounted extra than 20 nationwide tours and nine excursions abroad. Ms. Chen’s perform has been presented by these kinds of acclaimed intercontinental festivals as the Silesian Worldwide Modern Dance Competition and the Konfrontations Global Dance Pageant, both of those in Poland, the Chang Mu Worldwide Arts Festival in Korea and the Meet in Beijing Global Arts Pageant. The Enterprise was also honored by a distinct grant award from each the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities and the Division of Point out to signify the United States in a seven-city tour organized by the Tamaulipas Global Arts Pageant in Mexico. Also, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Business has the exclusive honor of getting gained additional than fifteen awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and several Citations of Excellence and grants from the New Jersey Point out Council on the Arts.

 

In addition to its substantial season of touring and undertaking, the organization has designed Arts in Schooling residency programs in university districts to bring culture and arts into educational settings. It is vibrant and participating in-faculty assembly plan “The Art of Chinese Dance” has been offered in hundreds of educational institutions in NJ, NY, CT and PA, reaching hundreds of thousands of youth. The Business is at this time in-residence at New Jersey Town College and assisting NJCU in the advancement of a new BFA in Dance.

originally published: 05/12/2021