<strong>Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Celebrates the Lunar New Year</strong>

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Celebrates the Lunar New Year

Presented as part of the M&T Bank Dance Series, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will celebrate the Lunar New Year: Year of the Black Water Rabbit at NJPAC on Saturday, January 21 and Sunday, January 22, 2023 at 2pm at the Victoria Theater on the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Stage.

A Newark tradition for over two decades, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company returns to NJPAC to welcome the coming of the Spring of 2023, the Year of the Black Water Rabbit. It’s a spectacular experience for all ages, combining traditional Chinese celebration with modern flair. The Red Lions dance to a hip hop beat. The Golden Dragon brings good luck and fortune for the coming year. The Company will also showcase a contemporary dance work, Ashes of A Dead Frog, choreographed by legendary Polish Choreographer Jacek Luminski that was commissioned by Nai-Ni Chen almost a decade ago.

Guest artists from the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York will provide traditional and contemporary music on classical and folk Chinese instruments. The Company Dancers, acrobats and musicians perform in festive costumes in red, gold, blue and purple colors symbolizing their prayer for a peaceful and harmonious New Year with plenty of prosperity and good fortune for everyone to enjoy and share.

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. 

TheNai-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.

Tickets to Nai-Ni Chen’s Lunar New Year celebration are $27-$35, and are available for purchase at njpac.org/event/nai-ni-chen-year-of-the-black-water-rabbit/.