The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, the renowned international touring dance company founded by Chinese American choreographer Nai-Ni Chen, and now led by Artistic Director Greta Campo and Executive Director Andy Chiang, will launch its 37th anniversary season at CitiGroup Theatre in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center on Sunday, May 18th at 3PM. The production celebrates the 2025 Asian American  Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, which will showcase Chen’s distinctive cross-cultural style and the diverse influences that informed her work, as well as, new works created for the Company. The concert will include the launching of new collaborations with the renowned Ahn Trio. A new work titled UNANiLLUSION will be created for this celebration by the Company’s Associate Choreographer Evan Matthew Stewart, to a recently commissioned music by the renowned composer Laurie Spiegel titled A Fall Afternoon and will be performed by the Ahn Trio live in the celebration.

The celebration will feature one of Chen’s most powerful dances, Unfolding, which explores the flow of energy and the dynamics in Korean Chan-Go music. It was developed in collaboration with Hanulsori. In addition to Unfolding, the performance will feature Tiger and Water Lilies, a dance Nai-Ni Chen created for contemporary ballet company, BalletMet in Cleveland, OH. The dance brings together constantly changing contrasting movement ideas, some from the serene beauty of nature inspired by water lilies and some from the graceful quickness of the tiger. The program will also feature two excerpts of Shadow Force, beautiful and haunting dance, created during the pandemic to highlight the importance of human relationship and our longing for connection and love for each other.

The show will end with Way of Fire, Nai-Ni Chen’s first exploration of the ancient Chinese theory that the cycles of creation and destruction correspond to the ever-changing phenomena of nature. The “Five” refers to the five elements: wood, water, fire, metal, and earth. Each element, as part of the forces of nature, creates another in harmony and destroys another in conflict.  This exploration is focus on the element of “Fire”. The dance was premiered in 2007 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

​One of Nai-Ni Chen’s most important collaborators is the renowned Ahn Trio who will be the Featured Guest Artist in this celebration of the Asian American Heritage Month.  In a period spanning more than 15 years, Nai-Ni Chen has created more than 10 dances using the most well-known musical recordings of the Ahn Trio.  The two groups toured together from 2012-2020 where the Company danced to the Ahn Trio’s live accompaniments.  In this  concert, the  Company will showcase Nai-Ni Chen’s Shape of Water, made with commissioned music by Pat Matheney and will be performed by the Ahn Trio live.  The dance and the music communicates the sense of calmness and  dynamism that Pat Matheney felt while visiting Korea.  The music was originally called Yurung, which meant Spirits in Korean.