In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is keeping its dancers in shape by conducting regular company Classes and rehearsals online from Nai-Ni and Company dancer's living rooms using Zoom.
At the same time, the New Jersey-based company’s dancers translated their newly acquired remote teaching skills to serve K-12 students in Elizabeth, New Jersey and students with disabilities in the A Harry Moore School of Jersey City, most of whom living in underserved communities and suffering from isolation and missing the usual support from the school.
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company invites dancers from around the world to join the Company at noon for a free one-hour Company Class every weekday. Interested dancers can join the class by registering on Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s website: http://nainichen.org/company-
Classes are as follows:
Week of 25/5/2020
Monday - Memorial Day - no class
Tuesday - Yuki Ishiguro (Contemporary/hip-hop)
Wednesday - Greta Campo (Ballet)
Thursday - Miki Orihara (Graham)
Friday - Greta Campo (Kinetic Spiral)
Greta Campo is the Associate Artistic Director of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, 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. Greta also teaches modern dance at Peridance.
Yuki Ishiguro, Japanese native, artistic director of the dance company "Yu.S.Artistry" had diverse training from ballet to Break Dance in Japan. He moved to NY in 2009 to study contemporary dance. Yuki has worked and toured with Roxey Ballet, Catapult Entertainment, Emery LeCrone dance among others. From 2018 Yuki started his own company Yu.S.Artistry fiscally sponsored by New York Live Arts. His work has been presented at Booking dance festival at Jazz at Lincoln Center, DUMBO dance festival, the MAD festival at Nazareth college, Come together dance festival at Suzanne Roberts Theater, International dance festival by Nickerson Rossi dance at performance garage in Philadelphia, and showcased his own evening-length show "Shifting Tides" at Actors Fund Arts Center in 2019.
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.
About Nai-Ni Chen
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 the dynamic, ever-evolving spirit of contemporary dance and the grace and splendour of the Chinese artistic traditions.
About the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
Bringing the dynamic freedom of American modern dance together with the elegant splendour 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 centres 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 honoured 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 honour 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. It's colourful 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 the NJCU in the development of a new BFA in Dance.
Visit their website, www.nainichen.org, for more information.