Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will be featured as part of the Marietta College Ebenshade Series on April 2, 2023 at 7pm at The Peoples Bank Theatre, 222 Putnam St, Marietta, OH. Admission is free, and seats can be reserved at peoplesbanktheatre.com/event/esbenshade-series-nai-ni-chen-dance-company.

 

Choreographer and dancer Nai-Ni Chen was a unique artist whose work crosses many cultural boundaries. Each of her dances reflect her personal vision as an immigrant and an American female artist with deep roots in Asian culture. From this very personal perspective, she created new works that reflect current issues with global influences. Some of her works were developed in collaboration with renowned artists such as the Ahn Trio, Glen Velez, Joan La Barbara, Jason Kao Hwang, Tao Chen, Tan Dun, Huang Ruo and the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York.

 

The program will feature some of the Company's most celebrated creative dances, including Chen's favorite, Raindrops which brings the audience to the choreographer's homeland, Taiwan; an audience favorite: Way of Fire, highlighting the inner fire in the warrior's spirit; Mirage, which takes the audience on a journey to the Silk Road; as well as the most spectacular traditional dance in the Company's repertoire, Dragon Festival, featuring a 15 feel long Golden Dragon, symbolizing the dynamic spirit of the Asian American immigrant community and bringing good fortune and prosperity to all our audience members.

 

 

About the Peoples Bank Theatre

The historic Peoples Bank Theatre has been making memories in Marietta, Ohio, for generations. Opened May 9, 1919, as the new Hippodrome Theatre and later renovated and renamed as The Colony Theatre in 1949, Peoples Bank Theatre today hosts the widest variety of live entertainment in the region in a beautifully renovated 940-seat facility, located at Putnam and Third streets in the heart of historic downtown Marietta.

 

Peoples Bank Theatre is a member of the League of Historic American Theaters and is a significant part of our community's history. Now a vibrant and versatile venue for performing arts and community events, Peoples Bank Theatre is a vital contributor to the Mid-Ohio Valley's present and future quality of life and is an economic driver for the region. As a nonprofit theater with a commitment to accessibility and excellence, Peoples Bank Theatre must rely on the support of donors, foundations and corporations to further its mission and bring the highest quality arts and educational programs to our citizens, while maintaining reasonable ticket prices for our community's many nonprofit arts organizations.

 

The management of the theatre and its preservation is led by the Hippodrome/Colony Historical Theatre Association, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. For more than a decade, the HCHTA worked to restore the theatre to its early 20th century splendor. With the $7.5 million restoration project complete, Peoples Bank Theatre reopened its doors on January 8, 2016 with a full schedule of concerts, theatrical performances and film events.

 

About Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company:

 

"Chen's phrases, part exoskeletal rigidity, part boneless grace, embodied an epic dignity." - Village Voice

 

Choreographer/Dancer Nai-Ni Chen (1958-2021) was a unique artist whose work crosses many cultural boundaries. Each of her dances reflect her personal vision as an immigrant and an American female artist with deep roots in the Asian culture. From this very personal perspective, she created new works that reflect current issues with global influences. Some of her works were developed in collaboration with renowned artists such as the Ahn Trio, Glen Velez, Joan La Barbara, Jason Kao Hwang, Tao Chen, Tan Dun and the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York.

 

Bridging the grace of Asian elegance and American dynamism, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a premier provider of innovative cultural experiences that reflect the inspiring hope and energy of the immigrant's journey. The company's ground-breaking works have focused on themes from ancient legends that reflect issues of the present time to purely abstract, contemporary dances influenced by a mix of cultures Nai-Ni Chen experienced in New York. An Asian American company that celebrates cross-cultural experience, the Company's productions naturally bring forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality. 

 

The Company has presented at some of the most prestigious concert halls such as the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center in New York, and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Florida. The Company appears annually at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Queens College, the College of Staten Island and on Ellis Island. Internationally, the Company has presented at international festivals including Open Look Festival in Russia, the Silesian International Contemporary Dance Festival, the Konfrontations International Festival in Poland, the Chang Mu International Dance Festival in Korea, the Meet in Beijing International Arts Festival in China, and the Tamaulipas International Arts Festival in Mexico. 

 

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has received more than 5 awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and numerous Citations of Excellence and grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Advancing Dance Education, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is currently in residence in New Jersey City University pioneering a program with the University's A Harry Moore Laboratory School teaching dance to urban children with disabilities. For additional Company information, visit their website, www.nainichen.org; write to Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, P.O. Box 1121, Fort Lee, NJ 07024; or call (800) 650- 0246.

 

Programs of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company are made possible by the generous support of our Board members, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF), the New Jersey Cultural Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, The New Jersey Arts and Culture Recovery Fund administered by the Princeton Area Community Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, E.J. Grassman Trust, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, New Music USA, the Blanche & Irving Laurie Foundation, Dance/NYC Dance Advancement Fund, the Rapid Response Program of American Dance Abroad, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters' Cultural Exchange Fund, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, PSEG, Proskauer, WAC Lighting, and the Glow Foundation and the Dragon and Phoenix Foundation.