Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company announces 9/13-9/16 Schedule for The Bridge, Free One-Hour Company Classes on Zoom
Announces
The Bridge
Virtual Dance Institute
of boundary-breaking dance experiences
Free One-Hour Company Class on Zoom
Open to All Dancers at an Intermediate to
Advanced Level
September 13-16, 2021
In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has established a new dance institute through Zoom, The Bridge. The Institute’s aim is to bring together dancers, choreographers and directors around the world to experience the master teachers of color whose practices are embedded in the community and are focused on advancing the art of dance that transform the personal, environmental and metaphysical spaces.
Interested
dancers can join the class by registering on Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s
website: https://www.nainichen.org/thebridge.
As a virtual dance institute, The Bridge will invite world renowned as well as up and coming dancers and choreographer to come to guest teach the class. Advanced/Intermediate level professional or pre-professional dancers who are looking to explore beyond their own boundaries and looking for new dance experiences are encouraged to participate. The core program is based on Nai-Ni Chen’s Kinetic Spiral, which is a cross-cultural dance vocabulary that integrates the Chinese martial arts philosophy in TaiChi with contemporary dance practices she studied in America. Guest artists will cover a wide range of folk and classical dance styles.
The Bridge Class schedule is as follows:
Week of 9/13/2021, 11 AM
Monday Yuka Notsuka (Kinetic Spiral)
Tuesday Andrij Cybyk
(Ukrainian Dance)
Wednesday Greta Campo (Kinetic Spiral)
Thursday Edroma Undag (Yoga)
About Nai-Ni Chen's
Kinetic Spiral
Tap into the creative
energy of the universe through Kinetic Spiral. Nai-Ni Chen’s signature
technique is based on the principle of ever-changing universal forces of Yin
and Yang. Dance phrases from Nai-Ni Chen’s repertory will be taught.
About Andrij Cybyk’s Ukrainian Dance
Take a Ukrainian Dance
class with master teacher Andrij Cybyk. Andrij Cybyk has devoted his
professional career to the study and performance of traditional dance, largely
of the Eurasian Region. He holds the title of Artist of Folk Ballet from the
Virski School of Academic Ukrainian Folk Dance in Kyiv, Ukraine. Andrij has
toured the world performing the traditional dances of the Eurasian region with
companies such as Riverdance, the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, Nai Ni Chen
Dance Company, ALLNATIONS Dance Company, Barynya, and Michael Mao Dance, among
others. He is the former Artistic Director of the Syzokryli Ukrainian Dance
Ensemble of NYC and the current Artistic Director of the Iskra Ukrainian Dance
Ensemble and Academy of Whippany, NJ.
In this class, we will
practice various postures to work with natural body alignment, build strength,
and promote flexibility. Breathing and mindfulness exercises are also
integrated. Simplicity, repetition, ease of movement, and self-autonomy will be
emphasized to find integration of our mind, body, and energy.
In this trying time of change and uncertainty, the arts is a source of healing and unity, we would like to encourage everyone to support dance as dance is an essential medicine for the society to recover from the pandemic that has caused injury to our bodies and our hearts. Support for The Bridge can be sent through https://nainichen.org/donate.
About the Artists
Yuka Notsuka was born in Fukuoka, Japan, is a member of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company. She began her Ballet training in her hometown at age four. Later she broadened her training to include Jazz and Tap. Later Yuka moved to New York City to further pursue her career as a dancer. In 2015 she entered the Ailey School as a scholarship student. She performed in Ailey Spirit Gala Concert at Lincoln Center choreographed by Tracy Inman (Co-Director, The Ailey School) and Robert Battle (Artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater). Yuka joined the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in 2017. She also has been in training and served as Teaching Assistant at the Luigi Jazz Dance Center under Francis J. Roach.
Mar Undag, born in the islands of the Philippines, is a movement artist, choreographer, and educator who received his BFA in Modern Dance from University of Utah. As a freelance artist, Mar has had the opportunity to perform in works by various artists and dance companies in North America, including Salt Contemporary Dance, Polaris Dance Theater, Shaun Keylock Dance Company, and Repertory Dance Theater through their company dancer choreographed show, Emerge.
Mar’s current creative interests include searching for a way of integration with his identity as a gay Filipino American immigrant to the works he is making. His work in his creation, movement embodiment, and education follows deep interests in form, effort, intimacy, and sensuality.
About Nai-Ni Chen
Hailed as a Spiritual
Choreographer by Dance Magazine and recipient of multiple choreographic
fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New Jersey State
Council on the Arts, Nai-Ni Chen has been creating dances professionally
for over thirty years in the United States. She has built a diverse repertory
of over 80 original works and toured to major venues in the US and
international contemporary dance festivals in 12 countries. She will be
teaching her signature technique KINETIC SPIRAL which is a blend of the
dynamic, ever-evolving spirit of contemporary dance and the grace and splendor
of the Asian artistic traditions.
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
A blossom of color, energy and motion, “like
endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy,” said The New York
Times.
