Force of Nature

Force of Nature

Nai-Ni Chen and her company, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, prepare to perform their annual Chinese New Year celebration.

Posted December 12, 2011 by Karyn D. Collins

If the only thing that choreographer Nai-Ni Chen and her company, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, did all season was their annual Chinese New Year celebration, scheduled for January 21 and 22 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Victoria Theater, the group would still be noteworthy.

The annual event—this year celebrating the Year of the Dragon—brings together dancers and musicians from New Jersey and New York City’s expansive Chinese cultural community. The experience, which immerses audiences in the sights and sounds of Chinese culture—will be further enriched by a traditional Chinese New Year banquet following the January 21 matinee.

But there’s more to the magic of Nai-Ni Chen than her Chinese New Year extravaganza.

In the 24 years that Chen has been part of the New Jersey arts community, the choreographer has gained a reputation as the creator of richly constructed works that seamlessly blend Western modern dance with aspects of culture from Chen’s native Taiwan, from having her dancers emulate the dramatic flourishes of calligraphy to employing traditional legends as themes.

For Chen, 52, who lives in Englewood, that blending is just doing what comes naturally.

“My main goal has always been using dance as a way to communicate with people,” she says. “It’s one way that I know how to express myself and cross cultural boundaries to share something with people and hopefully transform people’s lives. I try not only to move forward in the programs that we do, but to go back to see what’s valuable and what made these traditions passed down for thousands of years so special.”

To be certain, the Chen Company focuses on contemporary works that reflect the choreographer’s richly varied culture and dance background.

In Taiwan, Chen studied ballet, folk dance, martial arts and Peking opera, as well as Western modern dance. Her career there included performing with the renowned Taiwanese modern dance company Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. Chen came to the United States in the 1980s, originally to study dance at New York University.

Today, Chen’s company is recognized as one of this country’s few Asian-American professional dance ensembles. Chen’s prominence is reflected by a long list of honors, including choreography fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and, in 2011, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Chen says she turns to nature for much of her inspiration. “Nature is the master, it’s the teacher. It teaches me how to use rhythm, how to vary dynamics, how to make things flow on stage,” she says. “I think you can learn so much in observing animals and nature. My movement style comes from a lot of observation of that.”

Not surprisingly, Chen’s hobbies include hiking through the woods and dabbling in painting as well as playing the piano. She also stays busy raising her 16-year-old daughter, Sylvia, with husband Andy Chiang, a computer programmer who serves as the Chen Company’s executive director.

Chen fans rave about the company’s technical abilities and the choreographer’s knack of seamlessly melding styles and cultural influences. They also enjoy the often arresting visual imagery that Chen creates.

“It’s a beautiful perspective. Her work is truly special and spectacular,” says Sanaz Hojreh, assistant vice president of arts education for NJPAC, where the Chen Company is a regular presence. “You can’t sit and watch her work and not be moved.”

On The River of Dreams

Oberon's Grove blog post (by Philip Gardner)

"On the River of Dreams" was originally choreographed by Nai-Ni Chen in 1988. She has revived it, and Kokyat and I were very taken with it at the studio rehearsal on October 7, 2011 as danced by Riya Mito and Guanglei Hui. In this love duet, a fisherman and a water nymph depict their journey on the river of life. A bamboo pole will provide a link between the two dancers in performance.

Guanglei Hui and Riya Mito of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company: even in a studio setting and wearing practice clothes, they wove a poetic dance full of expressive detail. This is so characteristic of Nai-Ni's work, and of the generosity and artistry of her dancers.

Photos by Kokyat.

In the Studio with Nai-Ni Chen

Oberon's Grove blog entry (by Philip Gardner)

Friday September 7, 2011 - Nai-Ni Chen is one of my favorite choreographers. Her work is rooted deep in the ancient cultures of Asia but it also has a contemporary sweep and sheen that

make it extremely appealing. She seems to find the very essence of whetever musical forms she is working with, and to sense the undercurrents of energy in a rhythmic pattern.

Her dancers are finely attuned to her concepts and they move with a certain fluidity of style that has a ceremonial

elegance.

Today I went to watch Nai-Ni's rehearsal at DANY studios; she spent the first couple of hours having her dancers work with composer/percussionist Glen Velez. Glen was tapping out rhythmic patterns on a frame drum and the dancers were chanting in accented counter-rhythms. This actually has a genuine musical appeal. From there Nai-Ni asked the dancers to improvise movement, using the breathing mechanism of sustained chanted notes as a support while branching out on the ideas that Glen had shared with them. This led to some really lovely expressive improv.

I posted some of my snapshots from Glen's class on Facebook here. It was so enjoyable to watch Nai-Ni's dancers but I needed to be at another rehearsal at DANY so I left them chanting and improvising. Later, after Kokyat arrived, we decided to go back to Nai-Ni's studio and that's when Kokyat took the photos in this article.

Ekaterina Chernikhova, Riyo Mito, Sarah Pon, Jamison Goodnight

Ekaterina Chernikhova, Jung Hm Jo, Noibis Licea, Sarah Pon, Jamison Goodnight, Riyo Mito

Jamison Goodnight, Jung Hm Jo, Guanglei Hui, Noibis Licea, Ekaterina Chernikhova

Riyo Mito

Sarah Pon, Riyo Mito, Jamison Goodnight

Guanglei Hui, Ekaterina Chernikhova

Jamison Goodnight

Riyo Mito

Sarah Pon, Jung Hm Jo

Riyo Mito, Jamison Goodnight, Ekaterina Chernikhova

Photos by Kokyat

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company's 'Dragons on the Wall' celebrates freedom, growth and change

Published: Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 10:40 AM

By Robert Johnson/The Star-Ledger

NEW YORK — The dancers lie folded upon themselves and rounded like stones at the start of "Dragons on the Wall (Tianji)," a dance of rare intensity that the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, from Fort Lee, revived on Friday at Dance Theater Workshop.

Strewn across the floor and mostly isolated, they seem immovable and beyond reach.

Yet the great force that compressed these figures resides latent within them. In the background, the amplified sound of breathing suggests this scene is not a barren field, but an incubator. Each human knot is tense, awaiting the moment when a hidden spring will release it. When the dancers unlock their limbs and assemble in a circle on the floor, arms stretching toward a common center, the slow revolutions of this design suggest the inevitability of growth and change.

Despite the darkness of its scenes — almost the whole dance is cast in gloomy shadows — "Dragons" is an optimistic piece. The struggle that it portrays, as bodies attempt to escape confinement with sharp exhalations of breath, is a struggle that must be won. Pushed to the back of the stage and arrayed in a line, individuals make their way forward cautiously yet determinedly, ignoring whatever it is that makes them cringe and dodge. Notably they do not need to work together to achieve their goal. The desire to cross this space works inside each one like a hidden motor, an inborn yearning for freedom.

Inspired by the poetry of Chinese dissident writer Bei Dao, by ancient legends and by the challenges that beset the world today, "Dragons" is an ambitious piece. It comes elaborately dressed with props, projections and hanging fabric, all of which looked more elegant in 2001, when this dance made its debut on a proscenium stage at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.

At DTW, viewers peer down into a pit, and Chen Shen’s scenery, which should dominate the space, is not as lofty or as magical in effect.

The dance remains filled with images of mysterious potency, however, reinforced by the aura of whispering, clanging sounds composed by Joan La Barbara, and by the dancers’ own strangled cries. At one point, sheets of paper rain down from the sky. Fragile things, they are easily disposed of. Yet not before a woman rescues some. Her eyes widen, as she contemplates the significance of the precious sheaf of papers in her hands.

Duets seem wary and mistrustful, conducted just out of reach of watchmen who pass by carrying lanterns. Yet in the small space that remains to them, the partners seem to find a haven where they can rest undisturbed.

Long sheets of fabric unfurl, and dancers slide along them on their backs working their way upstream. Others gather on the shore, as if waiting to embark. Although much of the choreography has a stolid, sculptural quality, the impulse to move builds gradually gathering momentum until it finally explodes as calligraphic action-painting.

In the finale, all restrictions seem lifted. Dragging heavy tubs to the border of a canvas, the dancers fling water into the air, and smear the stage with gleaming jets of ink. Never has the act of writing seemed so all-consuming or so liberating. Significantly, only when Chen’s characters can taste freedom do they form a genuine community.

Robert Johnson: rjohnson@starledger.com

Read the review on NJ.com
The Star-Ledger

Dance Review

Dance Review Commentary (as seen on 2/12/2011)
Temecula Old Town Community Theater, Temecula, CA

By Rob Appel

From their resident home at the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City (for more than 10 years), the 9-dancer Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company brought to us, one of the finest contemporary and modern dance companies to have appeared at the Temecula Old Town Community Theatre annual Dance Series. Representing the ‘grace and splendor of Asian Art’, it is indeed a pleasure to see a group of dancers, whose quality of dancer’s technique is equaled by the superb choreography of Nai-Ni Chen! What a satisfying marriage!

Opening with a welcome greeting by Temecula Artists Advocate Lauri Torok, the Nai-Ni Chen dancers presented a varied program of seven (7_ dance creations of choreographer nai-Ni Chen, to the excellent lighting designs of AC Hichcox (Rain Drops, Incense and Bamboo Prayer), Barry Steele (Peacock Dance), Susan Summers (Way of Five-Fire) and Carolyn Wong (Love Song of Xishuanbanna and Mirage). Lighting plays such a key role in the visual success of any dance – all the more so, with Nai-Ni Chen’s casting of dancers representing a round-the-world cross-section of excellent dancers – Ekaterina Chernikhova (Russia), Jamison Goodnight (US), Jung Hm Jo (Korea), Saki Masuda (Japan), Riyo Mito (Japan), Francisco Silvino (Brazil), Wei Yao (China), Min Zhou (China) and Nai-Ni Chen (China), it was a banquet of super bodies and technique!

In Rain Drops, choreographer Nai-Ni Chen has her four female dancers, bare-footed, in the very flattering-to-the-figure, paneled Chinese dresses – moving effortlessly to the music of Henry Wolff (and others), while introducing the audience to the symmetric-design of Chinese umbrellas opening-closing-twirling…what peaceful patterns of serenity. The second work, titled just Incense shared two couples in “recalling the ritual of the incense offerings at a temple”. An American female dancer (Jamison Goodnight), a Korean male dancer (Jung Hm Jo), a Japanese female dancer (Riyo Mito), and a Chinese male dancer (Wei Yao…together, in a quartet of blissful harmony of movement…very precise and restrained.

Even though each dance work presented, stood very much on its own elegance, there were a couple of stop-your-breath moments of such incredible beauty. One came with the solo piece The Peacock Dance, danced by the rather sensational Min Zhou (from China)…as she created a bird peacock…drinking water, walking, working, running and combing its feathers. (As noted) with over 55 ethnic groups in China, each with its unique traditions of dance and music, the Peacock is considered a sacred bird among the Dai people of the Yunnan Province. Min Zhou’s captivating hands and head movements left no doubt to the story she told – fabulous!

This viewer’s favorite though, was The Way of Five – Fire – in which, powerful and strong, Brazilian male dancer (Francisco Silvino) led the exploration focus into the element of fire. Both choreographed and costumed (in all red Kung-fu wardrobe) by Nai-Ni Chen, the five dancers related to the elements of wood, fire, water, metal and earth, with the extremely effective use of Chinese fans – opening and snapping-closed to the dramatic moments in the music of Tan Dun. This dance piece is very physical when needed, lyrical when called-upon, and virtually explosive in a dynamic finale to Act I.

In the second act, three works were featured – the opening Bamboo Prayer with Nai-Ni Chen herself, dancing (with four female dancers)…making most effective use of long 10-foot, very flexible bamboo poles – reflecting mankind’s nobility and virtue – symbolizing justice, strength and humiliy. Nai-Ni Chen loves to use ‘props’ as extensions of her messages. In the succeeding duet by the tall and lanky Chinese male dancer Wei Yao, and the absolutely brilliant Min Zhou…Love Song of Xishuanbanna – is inspired by a tropical zone on the Yunnan Province of Southwest China, endowed with sufficient sunshine and rainfall, which is the cradle and paradise for wildlife, as well as the habitat for more than 5,000 tropical plants…this was the resource for this very stylized dance – a young couple admiring each other in this beautiful paradise. So performed these two fine dancers in another ‘hightlight’ of the evening’s program.

The full ensemble of 9-dancers came together in the concert’s finale, simply titled Mirage to the music of Glen Velez…and, though a bit too long (could have been edited down for easier focus and consumption)…nevertheless, the Nai-Ni Chen dancers worked hard and delivered a sterling evening of quality dance. Seems much a shame that more of the SD [San Diego] dance community do not take these unique opportunities to see this quality of contemporary and modern dance.

www.theatrereviews.com

'Year of the Rabbit' review: Dancing to bring luck, fortune to the New Year

Published: Wednesday, February 09, 2011, 8:00 AM

By Robert Johnson/The Star-Ledger

Putting your left fist into your right hand, and then wishing your neighbor a Happy Chinese New Year, will bring good luck and happiness.

That’s according to Andy Chiang, the executive director of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, which welcomed the Year of the Rabbit with a boisterous Chinese New Year celebration at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on Saturday.

It worked! The happiness started immediately, as soon as Chiang concluded his introduction and the curtain rose on the “Lion Dance,” an annual tradition featuring two men in a lion suit with a spectacular, wooden mask and the lion’s acrobatic handler.

In a shower of good fortune, the program also offered a striking Kunque Opera solo; a song recital by guest artists; folk dance favorites; and samples from Chen’s modern repertory displaying the sinuous and appealing physicality that is one of her trademarks.

The first duet of the evening showcased an odd couple. While the acrobat, Yao-Zhong Zhang, remained cheerfully deadpan, channeling his energy into foot-slapping leaps, his furry companion, the lion, was more relaxed and expressive. Though tempted by the toy that the acrobat held out to him, this jovial beast was too tame to charge after it, flopping on the ground to bite at imaginary fleas and needing to be roused from a nap.

lyrical partner

In “Duet on the River of Dreams,” Saki Masuda made a lyrical partner for Francisco Silvino, the boatman poling along an eternal stream. While he remained weighted, offering her support and framing her with the pole, Masuda embarked on playful adventures, always returning, however, to her place beside him.

Min Zhou and Wei Yao were the young couple flirting in “The Love Song of Xishuangbanna,” based on the traditional dances of the Dai people of Yunnan Province. Their oblique, twisting moves and finicky gestures, with the index finger bent, suggested the influence of neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.

Zhang returned in “The Double Spear Warrior,” an episode from Kunque Opera, an ancient Chinese performing art. Preening and striking poses in a costume that extended the lines of his body, with an extravagant, feathered headdress and platform shoes, Zhang was still able to twirl two batons and perform gymnastic feats.

Chen’s contemporary ensemble pieces were the most ambitious works on the program, however, from the wary and intensely contained “Way of Five — Fire,” in which the dancers sparred and brandished large fans as if they were weapons, to “Bamboo Prayer,” a dance in which bamboo poles created an environment trembling with life and energy.

Varying the mood and style, guest musicians David M. Liao and Linda Xia offered a trio of classical songs, his baritone warm and caressing to her piano accompaniment.

The matinee concluded with the “Dragon Dance,” actually a suite in which the title character, a serpentine puppet with gleaming, golden scales, made his appearance surrounded by dances in which the performers manipulated colorful ribbons, flags and kerchiefs. This kaleidoscopic ending placed the final, seal of good luck on the event, expressing everyone’s hopes for a New Year just as bright.

Photo by Joseph Wagner

CALIFORNIAN: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company celebrates nature

By HOLLY HERNDON - For The Californian North County Times - The Californian | Posted: Thursday, February 10, 2011 1:35 pm

When Nai-Ni Chen watches the changing of the seasons from her home on the East Coast she sees not only one of Mother Nature's greatest visual spectacles but also gets inspiration she can use in her day job.

"Ever since I was a little child I was very observant of nature," Chen said during a recent phone interview. "I would watch the clouds in the sky and the seasons change and it was like, somehow, I was born with a lot of interest in these things and I use them in my choreography. I see the colors. I feel the rhythm and I see the imagery change so I use nature as a subject."

Born in Taiwan, Chen began her training at the young age of four, specializing in Chinese dance. As a teenager, she branched out into various other styles of the dance genre as well as martial arts and music study. She began her professional dance career just out of college and has been on stage ever since.

Artistic Director and Choreographer Chen started Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in 1988 and, together with nine additional touring dancers, she has since won dozens of awards and critical acclaim for the unique style and vision she calls "cross cultural contemporary."

"I have a lot of training in traditional Chinese dance and the culture and philosophy but I've also been in this country for a long time so I'm trained as a modern dancer and choreographer so my work combines both cultures," she said. "My dancers also have very strong backgrounds and come from very different places like China, Korea, Brazil and the United States. It's a very international company and once they join the company they all bring their own specialties and their diverse unity which the others will learn. We are basically immersed into this unique style of unity."

Inland Empire residents can experience Chen's work this weekend as the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company comes to Old Town Temecula. The performance will include seven pieces from the company's vast repertoire.

"We will be doing a unique program that will include some of my jewels; my signature pieces that I have done over the past 20 years," Chen said. "Some are original choreography and there are a few folk dances as well. It should be a good mix."

The Temecula performance begins with an original work by Chen entitled "Raindrops."

"'Raindrops' is modern choreography and it is inspired by my childhood memories," she said. "I was born and brought up in a city North in Taiwan. It was a city by a seaport and it rained a lot. This dance is very joyful because it's a mixing of my childhood memories and how playful you can be during a rainy day as a child. It's just very lyrical and very sweet and very sentimental for me. It's a place that's very far away from me now but it's always in you."

A second piece, entitled "Incense," draws upon Chen's religious upbringing for inspiration.

"I remember I would go to temple and see the incense burning and people use it as a way to communicate with their god," Chen said. "I go to this country and see many artists and many other religions using it. We are so vulnerable and want to communicate with a higher being and somehow we use incense as a way to give our prayers. So, it's a piece that's very spiritual and very physical."

An additional piece being performed this weekend is "Bamboo Prayer," which pays tribute to one very symbolic plant.

"This piece describes how, in Chinese tradition, bamboo means a lot," Chen said. "It means justice and it means humility. It grows straight up into the sky but is flexible and I relate that to women's spirits. I feel that females have a lot of strength and willpower but we're very flexible. So, in this dance I use five female dancers with long bamboo poles. It's kind of like a ritual ceremony where we celebrate women's lives."

In a fourth dance, entitled "Mirage," Chen's choreography, combined with original music from Grammy winning composer Glen Velez, the audience is transported into the desert as the dancers depict the caravan of the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang province of western China.

"I really wanted to show the spirit of this group of people as well as bring the mystery of the desert scene," Chen said. "So, I open the scene with only one dancer in this desert back drop and he is essentially moving very slowly toward the audience to take them into a dream world; slowly moving toward the climatic celebration."

With seven unique works combined with the diverse cultural backgrounds of herself and her dancers, Chen promises the performance of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has something for everyone.

"My work is very accessible and the choice of pieces are very colorful and can be appreciated by anybody," Chen said. "Certainly a beginner who's never been to dance before will have a great experience. I think they would take home a very special feeling, a certain spirit, which is common throughout the whole program."

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

8 p.m. Feb. 11-12

Old Town Temecula Community Theater, 42051 Main Street, Temecula

$15-$25

866-653-8696

temeculatheater.org

Originally Published: 1/27/2011

Dance review: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company brings studies of movement to Kutztown University

John Fidler

Reading Eagle

Dancers' eyes, arms and spirits reached upward, ever upward, as the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company brought its unique set pieces, tableaux and celebrations of movement to Kutztown University on Tuesday night. The performance in Schaeffer Auditorium was part of the Kutztown University Presents series.

The eight dancers, including Nai-Ni Chen herself, who danced a transporting solo tribute to her Chinese heritage in "Passage to the Silk River," swirled, pirouetted, pranced and seemed to make their bodies move in two directions at once through seven works, all choreographed by Chen.

These were studies in movement of all kinds.

In "Incense," four members of the troupe - Jamison Goodnight, Jung Hm Jo, Riyo Mito and Wei Yao - danced separately and together, their bodies arching and ramrod straight, sometimes touching without quite touching, arms akimbo and fluidly waving. Their white costumes became incense itself.

Moto and Francisco Silvino seemed to be floating in "Duet on the River of Dreams." Silvino wielded a rattan pole to push them across the water as she writhed around the oar, all the while reaching upward.

He finally shared it with her, the oar becoming a pathway between two sensibilities. There were moments when their bodies paralleled the oar in peaceful symmetry.

The finale, "Mirage," evoked Matisse's "Dance," his seminal work from 1910. The entire company, Chen included, danced in this feral tribute to the Uyghur people of Xinjiang province in western China.

The piece opened with a triptych: two pairs of two dancers and a trio, each creating a different mood to the whistling, sighing electronic music by Glen Velez. The dancers stopped and started, seemingly simultaneously, creating the effect of a body moving in a strobe light - without the strobe - for a rhapsodic study in staccato and legato.

Chen's demanding choreography required movements that seemed to defy anatomy. Hips loosened, shoulders seemed to dislocate and waists defied the limits of torsion.

As stirring as the dancing were the music and the lighting, especially that of A.C. Hickox, whose lighting design added a poetically intimate atmosphere to the first three dances. Her dramatic ending to "Raindrops," using a fading blue light that cloaked the four dancers, lent a sense of formal control over the piece, even as the music died away and the blue disappeared into darkness. It was a chilling moment.

The music joined the lighting as an integral part of the performance. Electronica, whispers, percussive elements, birds chirping and the sounds of the jungle swirled about the dancers as their own swirling arms created contours beyond mere torsos and backs.

Braiding harmony and dissonance, joy and melancholy, fluidity and angularity, Nai-Ni Chen brings a singular voice to the world of dance. We are fortunate to have seen her here.

Contact John Fidler at 610-371-5054610-371-5054 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting or jfidler@readingeagle.com.

Article online: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=282043