On September 24, 2014, the Institute's fall Dance Symposium featured the renowned New Jersey ensemble, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. Nai-Ni Chen presented a full concert, choreographed by Ms. Chen, exploring both traditional Chinese dance and its influence on contemporary works.
Working with our community partner, the Boys & Girls Club of Newark, the Institute also facilitated a class with Nai Ni Chen on the Chinese tradition of “Ribbon Dancing” for the center’s After-School program, as part of the Dance Symposium.
The dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art. The Company's productions take the audience beyond cultural boundaries to where tradition meets innovation and freedom arises from discipline. 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 twenty national tours and seven tours abroad.
Cross-Currents: A Concert of Traditional and Contemporary Chinese Dance With Nai Ni Chen Dance Company was presented by the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers-Newark. The Symposium was supported in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs; by an ArtStart Project Grant from the Newark Arts Council; by the Rutgers Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes; and by the Cultural Arts Programming Fund at Rutgers-Newark.