Home & + | Search
Featured Categories: Special Focus | Performance Reviews | Previews | DanceSpots | Arts and Education | Press Releases
Join ExploreDance.com's email list | Mission Statement | Copyright notice | The Store | Calendar | User survey | Advertise
Click here to take the ExploreDance.com user survey.
Your anonymous feedback will help us continue to bring you coverage of more dance.
SPOTLIGHT:
PRESS RELEASES
ExploreDance.com (Magazine)
Web
Other Search Options
Michelle Tabnick
Calendar
Dance Events
Dance New York
Performance Programs
Press Releases
Chinese
Modern/Contemporary
New York City Center
USA
United States
New York City
New York
New York, NY

NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY to Perform at The Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference APAP|NYC 2017

by Michelle Tabnick
January 3, 2017
New York City Center
130 West 56th Street
(Audience Entrance is on West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues)
(Entrance for Studios and Offices is on West 56th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues)
New York, NY 10019
212.247.0430
NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY to Perform at
The Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference APAP|NYC 2017
January 7 – 8, 2017

The critically acclaimed Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will perform Crosscurrent, A Quest for Freedom, and Red Firecracker – Legend of the First Chinese New Year at The Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference APAP|NYC 2017 in New York City on From January 7 – 8 2017 at The New York City Center Studios 130 W. 56th Street, NYC, Studios 4 and 5. For more information or to register for the conference visit www.apapnyc.apap365.org.

“Like Visual Poetry, Chen’s phrases, part exoskeletal rigidity, part boneless grace, embody an epic dignity.” -Village Voice

SCHEDULE

Saturday, January 7, 2017, New York City Center, Studio 4
7:00-7:30pm – Crosscurrent with the New Asia Chamber Music Society
7:30-8:00pm – A Quest for Freedom with the Ahn Trio

Sunday, January 8, 2017, New York City Center, Studio 5
5:00-5:30pm – Red Firecrackers – The Legend of the First Chinese Lunar New Year (Family Program)
8:30-9:00pm – Crosscurrent with the New Asia Chamber Music Society

About The Nai-Ni Chen Program at APAP|NYC 2017
Crosscurrent is a fusion of harmony and dissonance, joy and melancholy, fluidity and angularity. It is Nai-Ni Chen's most recent creations that features her singular voice in the world of dance. A production of 8 gorgeous dancers of power and grace, Crosscurrent is a tapestry of mesmerizing dances set to unusual, goose-bump inducing musical scores from different parts of the world. Crosscurrent is a personal global journey of music and dance.

A Quest for Freedom is an adventurous evening of music-making and dancing where the alluring, poetic sound of the Ahn Trio become immersed in the visual element of the dance along with the the grace and physicality of the dancers. This production is a collaboration of the Ahn Trio and Nai-Ni Chen featuring music by David Bowie in Space Oddity and Prince in Purple Rain, along with Yurung by Pat Mathney and other Ahn and Chen's favorites commissions.

Family Program

Red Firecrackers – The Legend of the First Chinese New Year is the Story of Nian and The Origin Chinese Lunar New Year Customs. It is a spectacular production of dazzling props, colorful costumes,  mesmerizing music, fantastic acrobatics and lively dance by 7 top notch performers telling the story of the origin of the Chinese Lunar New Year. In this legend, a group of villagers, working, dancing and praying together, defeated an a terrifying monster of the ages. Red Firecrackers – The Legend of the First Chinese New Year is also a heartwarming story highlights the intrinsic value of coming together, courage, hard-work and ingenuity. It also explains some of the origin of the tradition of the Chinese Lunar New Year when everyone is wearing red, giving red envelopes to children, putting up red decorations, and lighting up all the dark corners the firecracker and making loud noises. Learn how you can Celebrate the Chinese New Year with Red Firecrackers – The Legend of the First Chinese New Year. It is an educational production that is full of activities and fun, engaging the whole family to explore the stories, culture and custom surrounding the Lunar New Year.

ABOUT NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY

The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art. The Company’s productions take the audience beyond cultural boundaries to where tradition meets innovation and freedom arises from discipline. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a vital resource of culture in the eastern United States. Each year, thousands of audiences are transported beyond cultural boundaries to the common ground between tradition and innovation, discipline and freedom, and form and spirit. According to The New York Times, they "…essentially recreated nature…"

Choreographer and dancer Nai-Ni Chen is an artist whose work defies categorization, as she is continually working on new ideas from influences around the world. Her mesmerizing and dramatic contemporary choreography has gained increasing recognition among domestic and international presenters and festivals. Recently, the Company was 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.

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 twenty national tours and seven 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 China International Dance Festival.

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company also 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 the First China International Dance Festival in Kunming, Yunan, the China Dance Association presented to the Company its most prestigious honor for companies not based in China, the Golden Lotus Award.

The Company’s commissioned dances include American Landscape (New Jersey Performing Arts Center), Peach Flower Landscape (Lincoln Center Institute), Qian Kun (Joyce Theater),Tianji/Dragons on the Wall (Andrew W. Mellon Foundation through the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust), The Way of Five (Towson University) and Unfolding (Dancing in the Streets).

ABOUT APAP|NYC 2017

APAP|NYC 2017 is the members conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters and the world’s premiere gathering of performing arts professionals. More than 3,600 presenting organizations, artists, managers, agents, support organizations, vendors, consultants, speakers and arts leaders from all 50 U.S. states and more than 33 countries attend. APAP|NYC offers five days of unmatched opportunities to engage in professional development, attend live performance showcases, participate in the world's largest performing arts marketplace, network with colleagues, and conduct business. Every January, more than 45,000 people from around the globe flock to New York City for public festivals and industry gatherings, featuring over 1,500 performances by thousands of world-class artists of all disciplines and genres, including world music, theatre, dance, jazz, and more. The dates for APAP|NYC 2017 are January 6-10 with pre-conference events taking place January 5-6, 2017. The conference sets up in The EXPO Hall, which is the largest global performing arts marketplace of its kind with more than 370 booths fueling the presenting field worldwide. The hall offers artists, managers, agents, producers, vendors, service organizations and presenters an unparalleled opportunity to meet face-to-face. With more than 1,000 performances happening in and around the conference, artist showcases are one of the top reasons presenters come to APAP|NYC. The APAP Annual Awards Ceremony and Luncheon on Monday, January 9 celebrates APAP members and luminaries. Past awardees include Chuck Davis, Midori, Philip Glass and Judith Jamison. APAP|NYC is part of "January in NYC is the Place to Be for the Performing Arts," celebrating the unmatched convergence of performing arts professionals, audiences and events in New York City. For more information, visit www.apapnyc.apap365.org
Search for articles by
Performance Reviews, Places to Dance, Fashion, Photography, Auditions, Politics, Health