INTERVIEW: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company to celebrate Year of the Rooster
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company fuses together several choreographic styles to create a diverse array of programs that celebrate both modern dance and Asian art. Numerous Chinese cultural traditions are on display, and newer works speak to Chen’s constant evolution as a choreographer and her conscientiousness when it comes to important issues in the world.
The company is gearing up for a series of performances in the Northeast that will celebrate the Year of the Rooster and Chinese New Year. They will make stops at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Victoria Theater Jan. 26-29 and various other performing arts venues in the tri-state area (Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College on Feb. 1-2, Center for the Arts at College of Staten Island on Feb. 6-7 and Lehman Center for the Performing Arts at Lehman College on Feb. 28).
The company keeps Andrew Chiang, executive director, a busy man with a lot of responsibility, but the result of his work and Chen’s leadership is a series of programs that showcase and celebrate the possibilities of artistic innovation. “We’ve been doing this for almost 20 years,” Chiang said recently in a phone interview. “This I guess will be the second time that we do the Year of the Rooster, so we know what to expect. And the audience will be in for a great celebration.”
The program at NJPAC and other institutions will include dances focused on the wonderful world of birds. The rooster is actually the only bird represented in the Chinese zodiac of 12 animals.
“So the rooster would, in some ways, represent the family of the birds,” he said. “Of course, it’s one of the most colorful animals because of its beautiful feathers, and also it is the animal that wakes up everybody in the agricultural society in China. So in that sense, there’s a sense of awakening in this symbolic meaning, and it’s almost a call to action, if you will, for the Year of the Rooster. So that’s the backdrop of what you can expect, and that’s what we’re hoping to communicate through this whole program.”
The NJPAC performances (school visits Jan. 26-27 and public shows Jan. 28-29) will open with a piece called Double Lions Welcoming Spring, choreographed by Chen. Chiang said the piece features two dancers who make joyous, playful acrobatic moves. The fact that these two lions can play with each other symbolizes the possibility of peace in the world. Their golden color represents prosperity and wealth.
“We have a peacock dance, which again is one of the most beautiful birds,” Chiang said. “So it obviously is a tranquil and peaceful bird, and its beautiful tail symbolizes the rise of Buddhism.”
Other selections include The Flying Goddesses, Yung Ge — Harvest Dance, Sword Dance and Camel Bells on the Silk Road. The dances promises to delight audiences both young and old, but it’s not only the movements that are unique at a performance of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. It’s as much an audio festival as it is a dance performance.
“The sound that you hear, for most of the audience, they never heard of such sound, such music before because they’re played with Chinese instruments,” Chiang said. “Every year we introduce different kinds of Chinese instruments to the audience. This year we’re showing two musical instruments. One is called the moon guitar, which is a round-shaped guitar. … And the other instrument we’re introducing is the sheng, which is one of the most ancient instruments in China.”
Chiang said that the sound of the sheng is believed to be the sound of the phoenix, the leader of the birds, which is appropriate during the Year of the Rooster celebration.
There will also be original pieces created in the United States that showcase Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s interest in modern interpretation. “Nai-Ni Chen, who is an immigrant artist, also is a creative artist,” he said. “Not only does she present and preserve the tradition, [but] one of the most important parts of our vision is to create new work that is created here in America and with ideas and concepts that we learned and we incorporated from American society. She will be showcasing two works. One is called Fire, which is one of the elemental forces of the universe.”
Fire is an appropriate addition to the program this year because besides being the Year of the Rooster it’s also the Year of Fire. Sometimes one will hear the year coined as the Year of the Red Rooster or Fire Rooster. “She’s also presenting another piece called Earth, which is another elemental force, of course,” he said. “The element of Earth … she obviously created because of her concern of climate change, the change to our environment and so forth.”
The choreographic spectacle with end with the much beloved Dragon Dance, which features a Chinese dragon displayed on the stage of NJPAC’s Victoria Theater. “It’s a beautiful golden dragon, and it will bring hopefully peace and prosperity that we all pray for in the new year,” Chiang said. “The thing with our dances and what we try to strive for, at least during New Year’s, is we focus on having a colorful, joyous experience for the audience, so no matter what age, they will always have that. … When Nai-Ni creates the piece, first she has in mind a deeper message, and hopefully not only do they enjoy it, they also look at the dance and it gives them a message of being concerned about where we live, where we are, and this day and age and what we can do about it. Again we’re very conscious about the fact that the rooster does represent a call to action, and that’s something that we hope that by dancing, by moving, by showing the audience that we are active or doing things, that the audience will also go home and feel good about moving forward.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will play the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Victoria Theater for schools Jan. 26-27 and for the public Jan. 28-29. Click here for more information and tickets. Click here for more information on the dance company.
