The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) are pleased to present an evening of thrilling AAPI dance with performances from the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Jadin Wong Artist of Exceptional Merit Luna Beller-Tadiar, Jadin Wong Artist of Exceptional Merit Nikaio Bulan Sahar Thomashow (they/he) and KAŌS Dance Collective, Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, and J CHEN PROJECT.

Please note this is Day 2 of a two-day festival. Day 1 is on Sunday, Jan 11 from 1:45–2:45 pm also at The Ailey Citigroup Theatre (link here).

The AAPI Dance Festival at APAP is a part of the Dance Managers Collective Showcase.

Tickets:
General Admission Tickets are $25. If you would like to attend both days, we encourage you to reserve a Two-Day Pass at the special price of $30. We hope you’ll join us for both showcases!
Program:

4:15 pm – TBD by Nikaio Bulan Sahar Thomashow (they/he) and KAŌS Dance Collective
In “All the Pretty Visitors,” we, the Aswang, dance in celebration and defiance – dance the dances of those we’ve devoured.

4:30 pm – “Mercury” by Luna Beller-Tadiar
In “Mercury”, a mercurial body becomes a substrate, a platform for shifting codes of use, uncannily animated by unseen forces. Undeniably live, yet, to a modern/colonial viewer, not quite human, this figure plies the continuities between brown colonized bodies, robots, NPCs, and AI. Inspired in part by invisibilized Filipino service labor, in this piece social worlds erupt into the nowhere, non-space of the virtual, making sensible the ghost in the machine.

4:45 pm – “Leaving Pusan” by Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company

“Leaving Pusan” tells the story of Dana Tai Soon Burgess’s great grandmother’s emotional and physical departure from Korea in 1903 – she voyaged to Oahu, Hawai’i on the first steamship, the Gaelic, that delivered Koreans to work on the sugar cane and pineapple plantations. She worked on the Del Monte plantation her entire life.

5:15 pm – “AAPI HEROES” (Excerpt) by J CHEN PROJECT
“AAPI HEROES” is an evening that entertains and pays homage to the vibrant legacy of Asian American history! We follow our young explorer, Kai, on a captivating journey across time to discover iconic Asian American figures such as Anna May Wong, Hollywood’s first Chinese American star, and Bruce Lee, a legend in martial arts and philosophy. It also brings to life the mythic NuWa, Goddess of Creation, and the global K-POP phenomenon.

Dancers: Chieh Hsiung, Sumire Ishige, Maya Lam, and Carl Ponce Cubero

5:45 pm – Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

Experience the artistry of Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, celebrated for its authentic and diverse programs that spotlight AAPI dance and foster cross-cultural collaboration. This dynamic performance highlights the Company’s innovative approach to blending tradition with modernity: