Nai-Ni Chen to Perform at Winter Center, 1/29

In celebration of the Chinese New Year, the highly popular contemporary dance company Nai-Ni Chen will perform at the Winter Center on Friday, January 29 at 7:30 p.m. Known as the 'go-to' resource of Asian American dance, and reaching more than 50,000 audience members a year, the dances of Nai-Ni Chen fuse the dynamic freedom of American modern dance with the grace and splendor of Asian art, helping to bridge the gap between cultures. The New York Times calls their performances "endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy." The Winter Center is located at 60 W. Cottage Avenue, Millersville.

As a tradition, the Company will begin with the amazing Lion Dance, where a dancer, dressed as a child, plays with a golden lion in stylized, coordinated acrobatic maneuvers. The dance symbolizes a prayer for peace, as a small child plays in harmony with a ferocious lion. To celebrate the diverse Chinese folk cultures, the Company will offer several dances based on different cultures from different regions of China. First is Mongolian Chopstick Dance, a joyful dance from the great Erdos plain where women dance like eagles in flight and horses run in the wilderness. The Mongolian Chopstick Dance is a dance of welcome, encouraging the guests - staying in Mongolian felt tents - to enjoy the good food being offered and to dance with joy. The Mongolian Chopstick Dance was originally choreographed by Sarna Pereborow of Brick, New Jersey, where she lives in one of the few Mongolian communities in the United States.

The Company will also perform the Coinstick Dance from Hubei, a dance of the Han majority in China. The dance has its origin in street performers who begged for spare change during the Ming Dynasty nearly 500 years ago. The Coinstick is a bamboo stick filled with small coins that produce unique rhythmic sounds as the dancers strike it against their bodies and the bodies of other dancers while swiftly changing steps, a dance-form unique to the Hubei province. The dance was a collaboration of Min Zhou, former principal dancer of the Hubei Song and Dance Company, and Nai-Ni Chen.

Two of Nai-Ni Chen's original creations based on her signature cross-cultural style will be performed. Festival, a dance originally created for Lincoln Center, celebrates the color, joy and festivities in the choreographer's memory of her homeland. Mirage, a work that she created channeling her first experience on the Silk Road, is a dance of fantasy and mystery, a modern tapestry that incorporates the amazing cultural dance of the Uyghur people and rhythm from Persia and Central Asia.

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is one of the country's most widely toured professional dance companies. In residence at New Jersey City University in Jersey City, the Company is one of the very few professional Asian American dance companies in the U.S. that has produced more than 20 national tours reaching 41 states in the United States; 9 international tours to Europe, Asia and the Americas; and regular New York and New Jersey seasons at home.

A Pre-Show Scholar Talk will begin at 6:45 p.m. (or when the room is at capacity, whichever occurs first), by Dr. Enyang Guo of Millersville University, on Chinese Holidays, the New Year Festival, and the culture related to these events. This talk is 20 minutes; seating is first come, first served.

Dr. Enyang Guo was born in China and completed her college education and graduate study there. She arrived at Millersville University in 1990 to teach Business Administration/Finance after receiving her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. At MU, the widely published Dr. Guo also serves as the director of the university's Chinese Executive Training Program. This program is designed to provide a high quality educational platform for Chinese executives, promoting interdisciplinary interaction among MU faculty and students, strengthening collaborative ties between the campus and regional communities, and serving as an effective information center about China. More than a hundred Chinese executive have enrolled in the program and returned to China where they have been instrumental in leading changes taking place in that country.

Tickets for the show are reserved seating: $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $5 for MU and Visiting Students with valid IDs at a ticket office or at the door. Tickets can be purchased online by visiting ArtsMU.com or by calling 717-871-7600. Tickets can also be purchased in person at the Ticket Office located in the Student Memorial Center on Millersville's campus, or the Ware Center, located at 42 N. Prince Street, Lancaster. Doors open one hour before each show for ticket sales, subject to availability.

The Millersville University Visual and Performing Arts Season is made possible by support from Season Platinum Partner Rodgers & Associates and Gold Season Sponsors Aussie and the Fox and Hagelgans & Veronis, and Silver Season Sponsors Clipper Magazine, The Hotel Lancaster, 12:34 MicroTechnologies, and Weber Advertising. First Friday Music Stage is sponsored by Fine Living Lancaster. This season's Luminary Donors include Ann Barshinger, John & Susan Garofola, Mary Burton & Laurent Horne, Linda Holman Marcks, William McIlwaine, Peggy Neff, Mary Kearns & Jon Walker, and Paul & Judy Ware.