WEEHAWKEN, NJ: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performs in Summer Concerts on the Hudson
Company:
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performs and closes their season at Summer Concerts on the Hudson on Friday, September 10, 2021 at 7pm. The performance will take place at Lincoln Harbour Park, located just north of the Chart House restaurant, directly on the west bank of the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey. The concert is weather permitting. Audiences are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets and come join this joyous event. For more information visit HRPAC.org.
Come watch the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company perform with a fantastic front and center view of the Manhattan skyline across the Hudson River. This evening will feature the in-person premiere of Ms. Chen's major new work, Shadow Force, inspired by the pandemic. Shadow Forcecontains a collection of dances, set to a diverse range of music, and each part speaks of a different experience during the pandemic. Some are wondrous and joyful others are heart-wrenching and traumatic. The dances will be performed by eight world-class dancers in a mind-bending, foot-stomping choreography celebrating a re-opening, joy of nature, and our common, connected humanity in an eclectic blend of music. The music ranges from new age, jazz, classical and world ethnic sounds including: The Way of Five - Fire with music by Tan Dun, Raindrops with music by Sanko Namchilak. The New York Times says Nai-Ni Chen's Dance is "like endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy".
About Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company:
"Chen's phrases, part exoskeletal rigidity, part boneless grace, embodied an epic dignity." - Village Voice
Choreographer/Dancer, Nai-Ni Chen, is a unique artist whose work crosses cultural boundaries. Each of her dances reflect her personal vision as an immigrant and an American female artist with deep roots in the Asian culture. From this very personal perspective, she creates new works that reflect current issues with global influences. Some of her works have been developed in collaboration with renowned artists such as the Ahn Trio, Glen Velez, Joan La Barbara, and the members of the New Asia Chamber Music Society. 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 have focused on themes from ancient legends that reflect issues of the present time to purely abstract, contemporary dances influenced by a mix of cultures Nai-Ni Chen experienced in New York. An Asian American company that celebrates cross-cultural experience, the Company's productions naturally bring forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality. The Company has presented at some of the most prestigious concert halls such as the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center in New York, and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Florida. The Company appears annually at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Queens College, the College of Staten Island and on Ellis Island. Internationally, the Company has presented at international festivals including Open Look Festival in Russia, the Silesian International Contemporary Dance Festival, the Konfrontations International Festival in Poland, the Chang Mu International Dance Festival in Korea, the Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival in China, and the Tamaulipas International Arts Festival in Mexico.
The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has received more than 20 awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous Citations of Excellence and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Advancing Dance Education, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is currently in residence in New Jersey City University pioneering a program with the University's A Harry Moore Laboratory School teaching dance to urban children with disabilities. For additional Company information, visit their website, www.nainichen.org; write to Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, P.O. Box 1121, Fort Lee, NJ 07024; or call (800) 650- 0246.
Programs of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company are made possible by the generous support of our Board members, 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 Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF), the New Jersey Cultural Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, The New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund administered by the Princeton Area Community Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, E.J. Grassman Trust, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, New Music USA, the Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund, 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 and the Dragon and Phoenix Foundation.
Transportation to the event from NYC: Take the NY Waterway Ferry across the river to Lincoln Harbor in Weehawken; take Path to Exchange Place, walk a few steps to the Light Rail, and get off at Lincoln Harbor Station Weehawken; or take the New Jersey Transit Bus 158 to Lincoln Harbor. It is helpful to use Google Maps and njtransit.com/light-rail-to. For audience members who drive to the event, free parking is available.
The Hudson Riverfront Performing Arts Center, Inc. (HRPAC), a New Jersey nonprofit organization, presents this summer long series of open-air concerts free of charge to the public. Concerts are family friendly. Audience members are asked to bring a lawn chair or blanket and picnicking is permitted on the lawn. For more information including the full summer concert schedule, Covid policy, directions, parking info, rain dates, and updates, please check the HRPAC website www.hrpac.org or call the concert info line at 201-716-4540.
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