Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company to Present 5th Annual Lunar New Year Celebration at Brooklyn Center

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts continues is 2017-18 Kumble Theater season with the acclaimed Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company for its fifth annual Lunar New Year Celebration on Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 3pm.

Celebrating the oncoming arrival of spring, the performance will include both traditional dances and new contemporary works created by Artistic Director Nai-Ni Chen, as well as live music performed by the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York and a special performance by internationally-acclaimed acrobat Lina Liu.

Tickets for this family-friendly holiday event are $25 (with ½ price tickets available for children 12 and under) and can be purchased in advance at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the Brooklyn Center box office at 718-951-4500. Day-of-show tickets should be purchased at Kumble Theater on the downtown Brooklyn campus of LIU, located at 1 University Plaza, or by calling the Kumble Theater box office at 718-488-1624.

The performance will open with the a new and fantastic Double Lion Dance, where a dancer, dressed as a young child, plays with two ferocious golden lions in stylized, coordinated acrobatic maneuvers. The dance offers a prayer for peace and harmony, and welcomes the coming of spring. As a tribute to the diverse folk cultures of China, the Company will offer a Coin Stick Dancebased on the cultural traditions of the Han people of the Hubei province.

Nai-Ni Chen's contemporary dance work will be represented by two sections from her Five Elements cycle, fusing the dynamism of American modern dance and the diverse, elegant splendor of her own Chinese culture. The final dance in the series, "Metal," features six dancers performing with swords and fans, which reflects both the destructive and constructive power of metal as one of the five traditional Chinese elements. "Metal" will be paired with "Wood," a dance for five women using 10-foot-long bamboo poles. "Wood" is based on one of Nai-Ni Chen's signature works, "Bamboo Prayer," a tribute to the inner strength of women. Ms. Chen created Five Elements not only to commemorate the New Year, but also to celebrate the cycles of nature that are the core of Chinese artistic tradition.

Bringing the dynamic freedom of American modern dance together with the elegant splendor of Asian art, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is one of the most visible Asian American dance companies in America. Ms. Chen's unique choreography transports audiences beyond cultural boundaries to the common ground between tradition and innovation, rising beyond form into the spirit.

In addition to its extensive season of touring and performing, the company has also developed Arts in Education residency programs in school districts to bring culture and arts into educational settings. These colorful and engaging programs and workshops have reached over one million young audience members in the NY/NJ area. The Company is currently in-residence at New Jersey City University and has been a Principle Affiliate of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center since its inception. Go to www.nainichen.org for more.

A not-for-profit organization founded in 1961, the Chinese Music Ensemble is the oldest, largest, and only full-scale Chinese Orchestra in the United States. Its present membership of more than forty musicians plays almost all kinds of Chinese instruments and music. Its repertory ranges from ancient classical to modern compositions, spanning some fifteen hundred years of history. With the goal of promoting Chinese music, the Ensemble has performed at major concert halls in New York and at schools, libraries, and museums across the eastern part of the United States. Learn more at www.chinesemusic.org.

Born in Harbin, China, Lina Liu began her training in classical umbrella acrobatics at the age of nine, entering the international performing circuit at 16. Her professional career has taken her across the globe with performances in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and the United States, and she has performed in many of the world's most prestigious venues including the British Royal Opera House, the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, and New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She also holds the distinction of being a two-time record holder for umbrella balancing in the Guinness Book of World Records, setting the original record in 2009 and then beating her own record in 2011, balancing nine umbrellas.

IF YOU GO:

NAI-NI CHEN DANCE COMPANY'S LUNAR NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Sunday, February 11, 2018 at 3pm
At Kumble Theater at LIU-Brooklyn, 1 University Plaza, Brooklyn

Tickets: $25 adults, $12.50 children 12 and under
Online orders: BrooklynCenter.org
Box Office: 718-951-4500
Groups of 10 or more: 718-951-4600 x3331

Multibuy discounts (three or more shows) save 15% off individual ticket prices. Multibuyers enjoy flexible ticket exchanges and discounted parking for purchased performances at Brooklyn College. A 50% discount for children ages 12 and under is offered for select performances. Discounts are also available for seniors, students, Brooklyn College faculty/staff/alumni, active/retired military personnel, and groups. $10 student rush tickets available day-of-show.

Founded in 1954, Brooklyn Center for the PerformingArts at Brooklyn College presents outstanding performing arts and arts education programs, reflective of Brooklyn's diverse communities, at affordable prices. Each season, Brooklyn Center welcomes over 65,000 people to the 2,400 seat Whitman Theatre, including up to 45,000 schoolchildren from over 300 schools who attend their SchoolTime series, one of the largest arts-in-education programs in the borough. For the 2017-18 season, the company will present at the Kumble Theater on the downtown Brooklyn campus of LIU, while Whitman Theatre undergoes a 12-month closure for structural repairs.

As part of its 2017-18 season at Kumble Theater, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts will also present Daniel Beaty's solo theatrical tour-de-force Emergency (February 17-18, 2018), an evening of solo piano with NEA Jazz Master Kenny Barron (February 24, 2018), Brooklyn-based jazz vocalist Alicia Olatuja (March 10, 2018), and Step Afrika! (April 28, 2018).

The company plans to announce additional performances in the spring in conjunction with the opening of the new Leonard and Claire Tow Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College. Visit BrooklynCenter.org for a complete season lineup.