Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Announces Free Online Company Classes Weekdays At Noon

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company keeps its dancers in shape by conducting regular Company Classes online from Nai-Ni and Company dancers' living rooms using Zoom. After a few weeks, Company members and Nai-Ni invited former dancers of the Company and friends to join through Zoom. At the same time, company dancers translated their online dance teaching skills to serve K-12 students and students with disabilities in underserved communities. Dance has brought them rays of hope and joy in their confined environment.

As a Company rooted deeply in diversity and committed to the dancer's artistic journey, Nai-Ni Chen began inviting her friends who are world renowned as well as up and coming dancers and choreographer to come teach the Company class. The response has been extremely positive, especially in this time when Asian Americans community is experiencing racism and hate.

Beginning today, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company invited dancers around the world to join the Company each weekday at noon for a free one-hour Company Class. Interested dancers can join the class by registering on Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company's website: http://nainichen.org/company-class.

Week of 4/6/2020

Monday Greta Campo

Tuesday PeiJu Chien-Pott

Wednesday Akhila Chetan

Thursday Nai-Ni Chen

Friday Greta Campo

Hailed as a Spiritual Choreographer by Dance Magazine and recipient of multiple choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Nai-Ni Chen has been creating dances professionally for over thirty years in the United States. She has built a diverse repertory of over 80 original works and toured to major venues in the US and international contemporary dance festivals in 12 countries. She will be teaching her signature technique KINETIC SPIRAL which is a blend of dynamic, ever-evolving spirit of contemporary dance and the grace and splendor of the Chinese artistic traditions.

PeiJu Chien-Pott joined the Graham Company in 2011. She received the Positano Premia La Danza 2014 award for Best Contemporary Dancer, was named one of the year's "Best Performers" in 2014 and 2017 by Dance Magazine, was an honoree of the "Women's History Month" by Hudson County and received a 2017 Bessie award for Outstanding Performer. Ms. Chien-Pott has created lead roles by many of the world's most celebrated choreographers including Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, and Andonis Foniadakis. She graduated with a BFA. from Taipei National University of the Arts, and has since been honored with their Outstanding Alumni Award. She recently received an Outstanding Dance Artist Award from the government of Taiwan.

Guru. Smt. Akhilaneshwari Akhila Chetan is a skilled artist in Nritta - Pure Dance Form, and rasabhinaya - aesthetic communication with creative interpretation of the lyrics and the music. She had decades of practice under great gurus and legends in Bharathanatya. The vast amount of skills received by legendary tutors has made Akhila one of the most sought after talented and creative artists. She is the recipient of prestigious "Purandara Anugraha" Award - 2014 for her services in the dance field by TTD, Trust, Tirupati, Government of AP, India and has received various titles and awards from reputed organizations in recognition of her work in India & the USA.

Greta Campo is the Associate Artistic Director of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, She began her dance training in her native Milan at the Carcano Theater, where she was first introduced to Martha Graham's work. She performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company in their 2012 New York Season and later on their international tour. Greta is a recipient of the 2016 Rising Star Award from the Fini Dance Festival.

Additional Guest Artists Line-Up

Miki Orihara is known for her Bessie Award winning career with the Martha Graham Dance Company. She has performed on Broadway, and with Elisa Monte, Siti Company, PierGroupDance, Lotuslotus and in productions by Rioult Dance, Twyla Tharp, Anne Bogart and Robert Wilson. She is a sought after teacher and coach working with the Kirov Ballet, Japan's New National Theater Ballet School, the Ailey School, New York University, The Hartt School, L'ete de la Danse (Paris) and is Dance Director for Mishmash*Miki Orihara and Martha Graham Dance technique DVD(2018). Orihara is currently the curator /director of NuVu Festival.

Barkha Patel is an Indian classical Kathak dancer, choreographer, and educator. As a preservationist of Kathak dance, Barkha believes in sharing stories through abhinaya, deep facial expressions, and nritta, traditional and innovative movement. Recently, Barkha completed her choreographic fellowship with Jersey Moves and received the prestigious Choreographer Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. As an educator, Barkha conducts dance classes and master workshops in New York and New Jersey.

Yuki Ishiguro is an up-and-coming choreographer who has had diverse training from ballet to breakdance in Japan. He moved to NY in 2009 to study contemporary dance. From his experiences, he created his own dance style and signature movements, which has been praised by several dance reviews. Yuki has worked and toured with Roxey Ballet, Catapult entertainment, Emery LeCrone dance, etc. From 2018 Yuki started his own company Yu.S.Artistry. His energetic and athletic work has been presented at several contemporary dance festivals around the US and abroad.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

A blossom of color, energy and motion, "like endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy," said the New York Times.

Bringing the dynamic freedom of American modern dance together with the elegant splendor of Asian art, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is one of the most visible Asian American dance companies in America. Ms. Chen's unique choreography transports audiences beyond cultural boundaries to the common ground between tradition and innovation, discipline and freedom, and form and spirit.

Since its inception in 1988, the company has earned a broad base of public support and has toured extensively to major performing arts centers throughout more than thirty states. 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 more than twenty national tours and nine 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 Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival. The Company was also 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. Also, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company 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 addition to its extensive season of touring and performing, the company has developed Arts in Education residency programs in school districts to bring culture and arts into educational settings. Its colorful and engaging in-school assembly program "The Art of Chinese Dance" has been presented in hundreds of schools in NJ, NY, CT and PA, reaching hundreds of thousands of youth. The Company is currently in-residence at New Jersey City University and assisting

NJCU in the development of a new BFA in Dance.

For additional Company information, visit our website, www.nainichen.org; write to Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, P.O. Box 1121, Fort Lee, NJ 07024; or call (800) 650-0246.