Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Announces Inaugural New Dance Choreographer Residency and Commissions

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is pleased to announce a new resident choreographer program that will become part of the artistic anchor of the Company. In the upcoming year, the Company has invited two prominent Asian American choreographers to create new works as well as providing public and private workshops as part of the residency.

Zhongmei Li, one of the most prominent Chinese American dancer/choreographers in the US will be developing a new work, ULTIMATE JOURNEY, which will premiere in New York in the Spring of 2026. Zhongmei Li is basing this work on a journey on the Silk Road with her late husband, the renowned writer/journalist Richard Bernstein and their exploration of one of China’s most prominent cultural treasures, Duanhuang Caves. She is starting this new work in the Fall of 2025, and the Company is planning several work-in-progress showcases and public workshops before the premiere. Zhongmei will be working with Grammy Nominated Composer Angel Lam and Costume/stage designer Han ChunXi. Visit Nai-Ni Chen Dance’s website for announcements. 

Besides working with Zhongmei Li in the Fall/Winter, the Company will also be working with world-renowned choreographer Peter Chu in the Spring/Summer season of 2026. Peter is commissioned by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center for a dance to the music from The Miraculous Mandarin, a ballet by Bela Bartok, tentatively titled the same. Beginning in March of 2026 as a Resident Choreographer for Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Peter Chu will utilize an abbreviated four-minute percussion section – based on the original ballet music by Bartok – as the starting point of his choreography. He will eventually expand and adapt the piece to the 33-minute length of the original ballet. The first phase of the commission will premiere in May 2026 and the entire dance will be completed by 2027.

Peter Chu is a versatile movement artist, serving as a director, choreographer, performer, educator, and mentor. Fueled by curiosity and a passion for the arts, he shares his vivid imagination and creative insights generously. Born in the Bronx and raised in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Chu’s exploration of Traditional Chinese Medicine deepened his connection to his Chinese identity, shaping his artistic process and movement philosophy.

A former competitive gymnast, Chu refined his artistry at Dussich Dance Studio and The Juilliard School, where he earned a BFA and the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography. With over 20 years in concert and commercial dance, he has performed with renowned companies like Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot, and Celine Dion’s A New Day. His choreography has graced stages for Ballet Augsburg, Charlotte Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Cirque du Soleil, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and the Paul Taylor Dance Company, among others. In 2008, he founded chuthis., a project-based company exploring innovative lighting, sound, and contemporary movement to reflect his identity and artistry.

Chu’s accolades include the 2010 A.C.E. Capezio Award, recognition as the 2008 Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival choreographer, and the 2018 Harvard Blogett Award for Distinguished Artist. He has served as Rehearsal Director for Nederlands Dans Theater 2, Guest Rehearsal Director for NDT1, and guest faculty at Harvard University. Currently based in Cocoa Beach, Chu travels for freelance commissions and teaching, mentoring at the Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship and Upsurge Dance Festival. This past summer, chuthis. premiered a new work at Orsolina 28 and toured Germany and the Netherlands with a duet evening, SHIFT, concluding with a residency at Perry-Mansfield.

Zhongmei Li is a distinguished dancer and choreographer whose career bridges classical and contemporary dance across continents. At age 11, she was selected for the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy, China’s top dance school, where she trained rigorously in ballet and traditional Chinese classical dance. As a principal dancer in China, she later brought her artistry to the U.S., earning scholarships to study at the Martha Graham Dance School and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, expanding her technical and stylistic versatility.

In 1995, Li founded the Zhongmei Dance Company to share Chinese dance with American audiences. The company has performed at premier venues like New York City’s Joyce Theater, where The New York Times praised their “commanding and majestic” performance. Li’s unique blend of artistry and determination, as noted by critic Jennifer Dunning, introduced American audiences to a fresh cultural perspective. Beyond her company, Li has performed on Broadway in The King and I at the Neil Simon Theater and as a guest artist with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. She also holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, reflecting her engagement with contemporary dance.

Li’s innovative choreography includes the dance portion of the opera Dream of the Red Chamber for the Minneapolis Opera Theatre, premiered in November 2024, supported by the Chinese Heritage Foundation. Her work continues to blend traditional and modern forms, enriching the cultural landscape through dance.

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a rare Asian American woman led professional touring company with programs for educational settings, community organizations and mainstage venues. It was founded with the vision that the journey of crossing cultures and adapting to a new home provides endless inspirations and opportunities for creative expressions that can enrich the human experience. Each one of the company’s works is aimed to increase the visibility of the struggle, triumph, despair and joy of this experience.

Image credit Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company