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originally published: 04/17/2019

(JERSEY CITY, NJ) -- The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has announced its 4th season in residence at the New Jersey City University. The showcase on Thursday, May 2nd at 10:00am features students from their A Harry Moore School Residency, as well as, students from the ballet and modern classes at NJCU. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance company will also demonstrate professional work. This is a rare opportunity to see the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in a free concert for the public. It takes place at the Margaret Williams Theatre of NJCU.

The Company has pioneered one of the most innovative dance programs for young people with multiple disabilities in the region. In 2018, the Company's program at the A Harry Moore School for children with disabilities won the New Jersey Access Network's Innovator Award. Funding for the 2019 program has been made possible by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Turrell Fund.

Nai-Ni Chen and her dancers have created a series of progressively challenging projects that lead the students in A Harry Moore School to explore their unique abilities.  The Company works with resident professional therapists to improve the students' social, cognitive and physical abilities through music and dance.  The results have "shattered every benchmark we could set for them" says adaptive physical education teacher Lori Berig.

This year, Nai-Ni Chen and her dancers have designed a series of lessons around the theme of Superheroes. The theme was inspired by the amazing students and their special abilities.  The Company's world-renowned professional dancers have partnered with each student to create choreography especially for them. 

Mr. Steven Goldberg, the Principal of the A. Harry Moore School said: "Whenever we ask our students how they would like to be treated they inevitably say just like everyone else. To watch our students be able to take the stage and dance just like everyone else is truly heartwarming and uplifting."

 

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The Margaret Williams Theatre of NJCU is located at 2039 Kennedy Blvd in Jersey City, New Jersey.

NAI-NI CHEN established her company in 1988 and has since grown to be one of the most widely toured and presented Asian American dance companies in the United States, with 18 awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, 8 tours abroad and over 30 national tours, reaching 40 states in America. Her works have been commissioned by the Joyce Theatre Foundation, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New Jersey Ballet, Ballet Met and Dancing Wheels. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is currently in residence at the New Jersey City University in Jersey City, NJ. Well known for her collaboration with renowned composers for original music such as Tan Dun, Jason Kao Hwang, Joan La Barbara, Kenji Bunch and Glen Velez, Nai-Ni Chen started the CrossCurrent series at Flushing Town Hall in 2013 focusing on collaborative works with artists from around the world.

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 celebrate the cross-cultural experience. Its productions naturally bring forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality. In performance, the company's graceful and athletic dancers carries the audience across time and cultural boundaries to a new place where tradition meets innovation and form unite with spirit. Each dance reflects Nai-Ni Chen's personal vision as an American artist with deep roots in the Asian culture, developing extraordinary choreography influenced by cultures around the world,  The company's powerful and elegant productions have been presented at some of the most prestigious concert halls in America, eight international tours spanning the globe as well as appearing on a number of television specials on PBS , ABC, CBS, and WNYC. 

Programs of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company are made possible by 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 New Jersey Cultural Trust, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Turrell Fund, E.J. Grassman Trust, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, the Cultural Ministry of the People's Republic of China,  the Live Music for Dance Program of New Music USA, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, 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. 

The A. Harry Moore Laboratory School was opened in 1931 and offers comprehensive academic, therapeutic, pre-vocational and social programs for approximately 140 students between the ages of three and twenty-one. The students are classified as Preschool Disabled, Learning and Language Disabled, and Multiply Disabled. The A. Harry Moore Laboratory School is operated under the direction of the College of Education of New Jersey City University. Our Laboratory School status within the NJCU community facilitates student participation in many cultural and educational activities. The school's unique history as a demonstration school has allowed us to develop expertise in serving students with multiple physical, medical and cognitive disabilities. 

The Child Study Team of the local school district refers students to A. Harry Moore. An intake interview is held to assure that each student's needs and the Individualized Education Program (IEP) can be addressed.