Chen Dance Center Company & School on Tour and at Home in Chinatown

The Chen Dance Center, located in the heart of New York City's Chinatown, continues its mission of offering arts education, artistic creation, and presentations to educate and engage people in Asian American culture, history and social issues. The Center has a year-round schedule of daily dance classes in creative movement, modern dance, ballet, and hip-hop, serving more than 400 students weekly. Directors H.T. Chen and Dian Dong provide a Center that is an essential and highly valued facility, primarly serving the children in Chinatown and the surrounding area. In addition to classes at the Center, the faculty teaches After-School and Early Childhood dance classes at PS42M, the Benjamin Altman School on Hester Street. Many of the dance students come from immigrant families living in poverty and are awarded free scholarships.

The resident Chen Dance Center Theater is a friendly black-box theater for rental companies, as well as student performances, presentations for visiting NYC school groups, and the twice-yearly "newsteps," where several young choreographers are given a chance to show their works. Chosen by a panel that includes Lance Westergard, Walter Rutledge and H.T. Chen, the emerging choreographers are awarded a stiped, free rehearsal space in which to create, and three public performances to show their work. The next edition of "newsteps" will take place January 12-14. H.T. Chen and Dancers perform in the theater as well, most recently showing excerpts from H.T. works going back to the 1980's.

The new year also finds H.T. Chen and Dancers on tour with their "South of Gold Mountain." Created by H.T. and Dian Dong, this major work is drawn from their extensive research into the lives of the Chinese immigrants who came to the U.S. before World War II and settled in the southern U.S. states, looking for a better life for themselves and their families. Many helped to build the country by working on the railroads, levees, and on plantations. The company has presented "South of Gold Mountain" in venues around the country, including at Asia Society in Houston, Williams College in Massachusetts, and Hamilton College in NY. Upcoming appearances include The Yard in Massachusetts, and the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville.

www.chendancecenter.org

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