Monday, August 21, 2006

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in PAE Showcse, Baltimore

Sept 28th, 2006 9:20PM
The world renowned Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, recently returned from its triumphant ambassadorial mission to Poland to represent the diverse dance art forms of America, has been selected to showcase at the Performing Arts Exchange (PAE) in Baltimore. The Company is well known for its diverse, colorful repertory that crosses the boundaries between traditional and contemporary, Asian and western. That repertory is highly innovative yet also includes works that preserve the Chinese traditional dances that serve as inspiration to its choreographer. In the upcoming PAE Juried Showcase, presented by the Southern Arts Federation, the Company will present three dances: the first will one of the most vibrant and acrobatic dances in traditional Chinese dance repertory and the second will be the Lion Dance, and an audience favorite that represents the lyrical side of Ms. Chen’s unique cross-cultural style, Duet on the River of Dreams. The Juried Showcase will be held at Baltimore’s historic Lyric Opera House; the Company’s performance will begin at 9:20PM. After the PAE Showcase, the Company will return to Poland to showcase one of Ms. Chen’s most visceral and theatrical mixed-media works, Dragons on the Wall, at the Konfrontations International Theatre Festival in Lublin; from Lublin, the Company will travel to seven cities in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas to perform its celebrated Unbroken Thread as part of a mixed repertoire at the Tamaulipas International Arts Festival. For more information on the Performing Arts Exchange in Baltimore, please go to www.southarts.org For more information on Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, please visit the Company’s website at www.nainichen.org

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Upcoming Performances and Celebrations

2007 Performance Update
September 27, 2006
Opera Under the Stars
A Symphonic Concert Production of Puccini's
Turandot
in Collaboration with
Westfield Symphony @ PNC Arts Center
Ticket Info: 800-650-0246 or 908-232-9400

September 28 to September 30, 2006 9:00PM
Performing Arts Exchange Showcase
Southern Arts Federation
Lyric Opera House
Baltimore, MD

October 2 to October 7, 2006
International Tour
Konfrontation International Theatre Festival
Music Hall of Lublin
Lublin, Poland

October 12 to October 24, 2006
International Tour
Tamaulipus International Arts Festival, Mexico
Neuvo Laredo
Tampico
Victoria
Metamoros
Mante
Mier
RioBravo
Supported by the Presidential Committee for Arts and Culture and the State Department of the United States of America

October 28, 2006 @ 7:00pm
DePauw University, Kresge Auditorium
Greencastle, Indiana
Ticket Info: 765-658-4689

October 30, 2006 @ 8:00pm
Northern Kentucky University, Corbett Theater in Fine Arts Center
Ticket Info: 859-572-5434

November 3rd and 5th
Patriot Theatre of the War Memorial in
Trenton, NJ
A Full Production of Turandot
In Collaboration with Boheme Opera of New Jersey

November 29 to November 30, 2006
University of Wisconsin

January 16 to January 17, 2007 @ 10:00 & 11:30am
York College, York College Performing Arts Center, Jamaica, NY
A Dragon’s Tale
Ticket Info: 718-262-3722



February 1, 2007 @ 10:30am
Colden Center for the Performing Arts, Queens College
Flushing, NY
Ticket Info: 718-997-2785

February 14 to February 16, 2007 @ 10:00am & 12:30pm
NJPAC, Newark, NJ
Year of the Pig (School Time Performance)
Tickets Info: 888-GONJPAC



February 17 to February 18, 2007 @ 2:00pm
NJPAC, Newark, NJ
Year of the Pig (Family Performance)
Tickets Info: 888-GONJPAC



February 27 to February 28, 2007
College of Staten Island
Enrichment Through The Arts
A Dragon’s Tale



March 5 to March 8, 2007
California University, World Theater
Monterey Bay, CA
Ticket Info: 831-582-4580


March 10 to March 12, 2007
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ



April 2 to April 3, 2007
Alma College
Alma, MI


April 4 to April 5, 2007
State University
Grand Valley, MI

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Company Returns from Poland

Nai-Ni Chen Returns
Triumphant from Poland

collaborates With Westfield Symphony and Boheme Opera of New Jersey on
Turandot
to be presented in two venues in September and November, 2006.

Fort Lee, NJ – The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, one of the New Jersey’s foremost dance troupes, has returned from its multi-city two-week engagement in Poland. A tour highlight was the European premiere of American Landscape in Chelm, where the Company represented the United States during the American Embassy’s American Days celebration. Then, in Bytom and Krakow, the Company once again represented the United States in the Silesian Dance Theatre’s XIII (Thirteenth) Annual International Contemporary Dance Conference and Performance Festival’s American Platform. The Company performed to full houses, cheered by audiences who welcomed the return of these remarkable American dancers to Poland for the third year.

In addition to performing, the Company led more than 20 workshops for students and professionals from across Poland and other EU countries and engaged in several youth outreach activities that culminated in a performance of Nai-Ni Chen’s Ribbon Dance for SDT’s junior conference festival—the III Little Dance Conference. The Company will return to Poland in October 2006 for the Konfrontation Theatre Festival in Lublin to perform Dragons on the Wall.

The tour was supported through funds from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the American Embassy in Poland, the Silesian Dance Theatre, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Both American Landscape and Dragons on the Wall were commissioned by Baraka Sele, Curator of the Alternate Route Series of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Immediately upon her return, Ms. Chen began choreographing for a major new project with two NJ partners. She is working with David Wroe, Conductor of the Westfield Symphony, and Joseph Pucciatti, Artistic Director of the Boheme Opera, to develop dances for their productions in autumn 2006 of one of Puccini’s most famous and beloved operas, Turandot. The Westfield Symphony will present, in partnership with the New York City Opera, a concert version of Turandot at the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ, on September 27th; the Boheme Opera will present a fully staged production of the opera in the Patriots Theater at The War Memorial in Trenton on November 3rd and 5th, 2006.

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Westfield Symphony, and Boheme Opera are supported by grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Audiences who missed the Company’s performance of American Landscape at NJPAC can see an abbreviated version at the Company’s website.