Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College presents Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company Lunar New Year Celebration

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College will once again partner with Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company for its fourth annualLunar New Year Celebration on Sunday, January 22, 2017 at 3pm. This all-new family-friendly celebration of Chinese culture commemorates the Year of the Rooster and will feature special guest artists from the Oriental Cultural Arts Performance Group of Hohot and Erosos, who will travel all the way from Inner Mongolia, China for the event. Tickets are $25 for adults and $12.50 for children and can be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500 (Tue-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

The performance will open with the traditional "Double Lions Welcoming Spring," a version of the Lion Dancethat represents the coming of spring and a prayer for peace in its depiction of a small child in harmony with ferocious lions. Also included will be the popular harvest folk-dance "Yung-Ge" from the Han people of North China, a ribbon dance inspired by murals discovered in the caves outside of Dunhuang City entitled "The Flying Princesses," and a solo piece performed on the traditional Mongolian horsehead fiddle by musician Ba Tu entitled "Stampede of Ten Thousand Horses."

The Company is thrilled to welcome the Oriental Cultural Arts Performance Group of Hohot and Erodos, Inner Mongolia as guest artists for the celebration. Singer MengKeJiYa will be featured in a performance of the beloved Mongolian folk song "Aobao Xianghui" or "Meet at the Aobao." This song, known by almost all Chinese people, describes a young man as he anxiously awaits his girlfriend at the Aobao, a stone landmark of the Mongolian grasslands that has become a sacred romantic meeting place for young lovers.

Original dance works choreographed by Nai-Ni Chen will be featured throughout the program, including "Way of Five-Earth," an exploration of the ancient Chinese theory that the cycles of creation and destruction correspond to the ever-changing phenomena of nature (in this case, Earth), and the elegant "Peacocks Under the Moonlight," which takes its inspiration from the Dai people of the Yunnan province.

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