Graphic by Dance/NYC. Top left: Phil Chan by Eli Schmidt. Top right: Nai-Ni Chen by Carol Rosegg. Middle left: Annie Heath by Cameron Kelley McLeod. Middle right: Keerati Jinakunwiphat by Carrie Schneider. Bottom Left: Zhongjing Fang by Rod Brayman. Images courtesy the artists.
When: Wednesday, October 6, 2021 from 6 – 7:30 p.m. ET Where: YouTube Live Registration: This event has already occurred. Continue on for event details, post-event survey, and session resources.
If you require additional reasonable accommodation, please contact Izzy Dow at least two weeks prior to the event via email at idow@dance.nyc or call 212.966.4452 (voice only).
About the Event Redefining Practice | Asian American Choreography Tea House
Join Dance/NYC for the first event in the Redefining Practice series curated and moderated by Final Bow for Yellowface co-founder Phil Chan. This discussion, held with Asian and Asian American choreographers Annie Heath, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Nai-Ni Chen, and Zhong-Jing Fang, unpacks the complex relationship between identity and how these artists choose to express their Asian cultural heritage. The event offers ‘redefined practices’ to respond to the barriers Asian American dance creatives face, both internally within their communities as well as externally through avenues for presentation.
About the Series
As the landscape for dance as professional practice, living ritual and technical production continues to evolve,Redefining Practice explores how artists and institutions are adapting, unlearning and innovating new ways of being in creation––and the many phases that creation takes––to prioritise new learnings in racial justice, physical/emotional safety, and community care.
Annie Heath is a choreographer and dancer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been presented at New York Live Arts, ISSUE Project Room, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Chen Dance Center, Access Theater, Center for Performance Research, Dixon Place, TADA! Youth Theater, Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, West End Theater, and Alchemical Laboratory. She has performed original works by RoseAnne Spradlin, Doug LeCours, Gabriella Carmichael, and Pavel Machuca-Zavarzin. Heath was a 2019-2021 Fresh Tracks resident artist at New York Live Arts and is currently the recipient of the Jadin Wong Fellowship through Asian American Arts Alliance (2021).
As a dance-maker, Heath wonders about capacity—a cavity in her archived mind that needs filling. She fumbles with identity as a portal to generate fabricated memories and dreamlike, meditative atmospheres. Maybe roots can flourish in detachment.
Keerati Jinakunwiphat, originally from Chicago, IL., received her BFA from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase and was a recipient of the Adopt-A- Dancer Scholarship. She has additionally studied at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Springboard Danse Montreal. She has worked with and performed works of artists such as Kyle Abraham, Nicole von Arx, Trisha Brown, Jasmine Ellis, Hannah Garner, Shannon Gillen, Andrea Miller, Kevin Wynn, and Doug Varone. Keerati began working with A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham in 2016. She has additionally assisted Kyle Abraham in new commissioned work for New York City Ballet and Paul Taylor Dance Company. As a freelance choreographer, Keerati has presented her own choreographic works at the American Dance Guild Festival, Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place, Battery Dance Festival, Dance Gallery Festival, the Joyce Theater and New Victory Dance. She has been commissioned to set and create works on the Evanston Dance Ensemble, the Martha Graham School, SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, New England Ballet Theatre, and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. Keerati has graced the cover of Dance Magazine featured as part of ‘25 to Watch’ for 2021.
Nai-Ni Chen, Nai-Ni Chen, Choreographer and Artistic Director
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
Nai-Ni Chen is the Artistic Director and Choreographer of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. Hailed as a Spiritual Choreographer by Dance Magazine, Ms. Chen is a recipient of multiple choreographic fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She has been creating dances professionally for over thirty years in the United States and has built a diverse repertory of over 90 original works that toured to major venues across the US and at international contemporary dance festivals in 12 countries. Born and raised in Taiwan, Nai-Ni Chen is a unique choreographer whose work crosses cultural boundaries. Each of her dances is based on her personal vision as an immigrant American female artist with deep roots in the Asian culture, creating new works that reflect the current issues with global influences.
Commissioned dances include Peach Flower Landscape for the Lincoln Center Institute, Qian Kun for the Joyce Theater Foundation, Unfolding for Dancing in the Streets, The Three Riddles of Turandot for New Jersey Ballet, Unconquered Warriors for Dancing Wheels, and Water and Tiger Lily for BalletMet, The Way of Five for Towson University; Dragons on the Wall, a collaboration with Nobel Literature nominee Bei Dao and internationally acclaimed composer Joan La Barbara for the Alternate Roots Festival curated by Baraka Sele of New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
For her contribution to the Chinese American culture, she has received awards from the New Jersey International Institute, the Organization of Chinese Americans, and Chinese American Chamber of Commerce. As a life time dance educator she is the recipient of The Distinguished Service to the Field Award from the Association of Teaching Artists in 2020.
Phil Chan is a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, and most recently served as the Director of Programming for IVY, connecting young professionals with leading American museums and performing arts institutions. He is a graduate of Carleton College and an alumnus of the Ailey School. As a writer, he served as the Executive Editor for FLATT Magazine and contributed to Dance Europe Magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance Business Weekly, and the Huffington Post. He was the founding General Manager of the Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival, and was the General Manager for Armitage Gone! Dance. He served multiple years on the National Endowment for the Arts dance panel and the Jadin Wong Award panel presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance. He serves on the International Council for the Parsons Dance Company, and the Advisory Board of Dance Magazine. He is the author of Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing between Intention and Impact, and was a 2020 New York Public Library Dance Research Fellow
Born in Shanghai, China, Zhong-Jing Fang began her ballet studies at the Shanghai Ballet School where she trained for seven years. She then attended the Performing Arts College of Shanghai Drama University, and graduated with a major in ballet. Mrs. Fang has won many prestigious ballet competitions including the Prix de Lausanne, Paris international ballet competition, and won gold medals in Fenland Helsinki and Shanghai International ballet competitions; she joined the ABT studio company after graduating her university, and soon became a member of the main company. In 2018 she was promoted to Soloist with ABT. Fang has choreographed many ballets in the past 10 years. Mrs. Fang has created ballets for American Ballet Theatre’s “Innovation Initiative” in 2011, as well as the ABT’s JKO School in 2014. In 2015, she had her first commissioned ballet “Song Before Spring” by New York Theatre Ballet (NYTB) co-choreographed with Steven Melendez. In 2017, she continued to work with NYTB and created “Painted Within”. In 2018, she was chosen to be one a participant in the Counter Point project in Brooklyn and collaborated with visual artist Audra Wolowiec. She also joined ABT’s Lauren Post’s Colab Dance project, to create a Pas de Duex “Seen by Two”. She was also invited to create a piece for the Columbia University Dance project Fall season “Where We Go” to empower female dancers. Early last year, she was chosen to be one of the new choreographers for Dig Dance project for the 92nd Street Y, where she created her piece “Prince Street Fantaisie”. Lastly, in November of 2019 she joined ABT’s Incubator project. Fang has extensive experience with teaching ballet where she taught at Shreveport Ballet school, Shanghai Ballet School, Charm Ballet Company, Maywood Fine Arts Studio, Cincinnati Ballet School, and countless other facilities and studios.
Session Resources
Annie Heath: This Mother/Land Fabric (NYLA) Runtime: 13:38 minutes
Video documentation of a collaboration between Annie Heath and Sokunthary Svay. The video features the two performers in sarongs moving around a warm, dimly lit stage with a long, thin piece of fabric spread on the ground between them. One performer speaks and remains still as the other moves, interacting with the floor and the wall, carrying smaller pieces of fabric onto the stage, and moving their sarong––taking it on and off, dancing with it. The performance concludes with the performers lying on the stage as the light dims. One is still, the other pushes the fabrics scattered on the stage into a pile as the light fades to black.
Keerati Jinakunwiphat: Choreography Reel Recommended excerpt: 00:00–00:57 (Runtime: 57 seconds)
Six dancers from A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham are wearing hooded, monochrome sweatsuits in the colors of navy, burgundy, and grey. The excerpt starts with the dancers huddled up center stage and we hear a tip off sound resembling a basketball game. The light come on and classical music plays as the dancers begin to slice and flow through space as they intertwine and connect with each other. A dancer runs through an aisle made of other dancers. Video transitions to a new section as the dancers are in a single file line on the right. A dancer weaves through the line from downstage to upstage until they jump. The group proceeds to do a big sequential, diagonal lift of one dancer. As she lands, the go through unison movement through the end of the excerpt.
Nai-Ni Chen: Awakening Demo Runtime: 1:26 minutes
A short demo video of Nai-Ni Chen's most recent program titled “Awakening." It opens with a female dancer with her arms reaching up to the sky while swirling with her big round skirt shined under the stage light. Then five dancers each dance in their spot as if they are restricted in their limited space. A woman walking on a path with a white lantern in her hand to guide the way as she pulls out a long red fabric behind her to lay on the path. A couple bundled up in layers of newspaper dancing like ancient warriors with strong gestures. They stomp the floor, wave their hands as if they are fighting against injustice. A group of dancers each one holding a flashlight. They jump and turn, push and pull as if they are interrogating one man sitting on a chair. The man who is sitting thrusts his body as they pull him off the chair. Then two female dancers in big round clear fabric skirts dance with the skirts to create a water splash effect. They slowly progress toward each other with grace as if they are swimming in the ocean. Then a male dancer jumps high in the air. He turns then jumps again with his chest pushed up to the sky as if he wants to fly and never comes down. Finally a group of dancers dance in unison movements. They dance with determination to go against all the odds. At the end, a woman is being lifted high up in the air, supported by a male dancer. She reaches her arms up for hope as the rest of the dancers jump and turn and run around the couple in the center.
Dance/NYC's justice, equity, and inclusion initiatives are made possible with leadership support from the Mellon Foundation. Dance/NYC convening is made possible, in part, by support from the Howard Gilman Foundation and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts and from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Dance/NYC seeks partners and speakers with a variety of viewpoints for its events with the goal of generating discussion. The inclusion of any partner or speaker does not constitute an endorsement by Dance/NYC of that partner's or speaker's views.
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ASL interpretation provided by SignNexus. 
Closed captioning provided the Viscardi Center.
