Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, one of the nation's leading contemporary dance ensembles, founded by Chinese-American choreographer Nai-Ni Chen and now led by Artistic Director Greta Campo and Executive Director Andy Chiang, announces their upcoming 2026-27 season.
The 2026/27 Season opens with a performance at Lake Superior State University Performing Arts Center on Friday, August 28, as well as a showcase at the Midwest Arts Expo (MAX) at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, WI on Wednesday, September 23. The tour will then continue across the Northeast and Midwest through June 2027.
Season Highlights
September 23, 2026 – Midwest Arts Expo (MAX) Showcase, Milwaukee, WI. Back for their second year at MAX, showcasing Nai-Ni Chen’s blend of Chinese tradition and modern innovation at the Baird Center.
January 16-17, 2027 – AAPI Dance Festival, Associate of Performing Arts Professionals Conference, New York, NY. The company returns to the AAPI Dance Festival at Ailey CitiGroup Theatre, produced in collaboration with the Asian American Arts Alliance and a part of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference.
January 31, February 6-7, 9-10, 2027 – Lunar New Year Performances
January 31 – Kupferberg Center for the Arts, Queens, NY
February 6-7 – New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), Newark, NJ
February 9-10 – Hostos Center for Arts and Culture, Bronx, NY
May 7, 2027 – Alden Theater, McLean Community Center, McLean, VA
For more than three decades, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has captivated audiences across the United States and around the world, performing at renowned venues including Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, Jacob's Pillow, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Their work bridges cultures and generations, inviting audiences to engage with stories that are both deeply personal and universally relevant.
In addition to its acclaimed performances, the company is nationally recognized for its commitment to arts education and community engagement. Through school residencies, workshops, and collaborative projects, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company inspires creativity, fosters cross-cultural understanding, and demonstrates the power of the arts to connect people across backgrounds and experiences. This special engagement promises an unforgettable celebration of movement, music, and storytelling.
Key pieces include Lion in the City, a collaboration bridging traditional Chinese movement and Hip-Hop; the graceful Peacock Dance from the Dai ethnic group; and Movable Figures, an exploration of body shape inspired by shadow puppetry. Other featured works like Way of Fire, Raindrop, and the Flowing River Under the Moonlight duet explore elemental themes and natural beauty. The program culminates in Festival, a high-energy finale celebrating community and heritage. Through these pieces, the company continues its mission to enrich the human experience by increasing the visibility of the immigrant journey, bringing forth powerful dialogues on identity, resilience, and cross-cultural unity.
The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a rare Asian American woman-led professional touring company with programs for educational settings, community organizations and mainstage venues. The Company's mission is to be a premier provider of innovative cultural experiences that reflect the inspiring hope and energy of the immigrant’s journey. It was founded with the vision that the journey of crossing cultures and adapting to a new home provides endless inspirations and opportunities for creative expressions that can enrich the human experience. Each one of the company’s works is aimed at increasing the visibility of the struggle, triumph, despair, and joy of this experience. The Company's productions provide authentic experiences and bring forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality. The Company’s worldwide touring is represented by General Arts Touring, www.generalartstouring.com.
Choreography is developed with dancers from diverse backgrounds, and each rehearsal is an immersive, boundary-crossing journey that contributes to the creative process under the direction of the choreographers. Our repertory of Nai-Ni Chen's original works bridges the grace and power of Asian arts and American dynamism, incorporating her broad influences. The company also preserves a variety of festive dances from different regions of China choreographed by guest immigrant artists bearing their traditions.
The Company began to tour in the early 1990s, originally on the East Coast, and later internationally. The dance company is multi-racial and multi-national and has collaborated with a wide range of artists from different disciplines and cultures. Musical collaborators range from New Music and jazz to classical; they include Joan La Barbara, The Chinese Music Ensemble of NY, Jason Kao Hwang, Huang Ruo, Kenji Bunch, Tan Dun, Glen Velez, and most recently, the Ahn Trio. Award-winning designers and visual artists such as Myung Hee Cho, Jay Moorthy, AC Hickox, and costume designer Karen Young. These collaborations provided us the opportunity to develop innovative productions that carry the timeless essence of the tradition.
In addition to domestic touring, the company has also performed at international festivals in Mexico, Canada, the British Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, South Korea, and China with support from Fund for Mutual Understanding, The President’s Committee for the Arts, Arts International, and the State Department of the United States. Ms. Chen has received multiple Choreographer’s Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and from New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her work has also been commissioned by the Joyce Theater Foundation, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Dancing in the Streets, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Prominent Institutions, including the Lincoln Center Institute, the Joyce Theater, Dancing in the Streets, NJ Ballet, Ballet Met, Dancing Wheels, and Baraka Sele at NJPAC, have all commissioned notable works. The most recent tour, “A Quest for Freedom”, developed with the Ahn Trio, premiered at the Philadelphia NextMove Festival. The Company is currently in residence at New Jersey City University’s A. Harry Moore for students with disabilities and in Elizabeth School #26, a school of mostly immigrant children.
Programs of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company have been 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 Jersey Division of Tourism, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, DanceNYC Dance Advancement Fund, the Hyde and Watson Foundation, E.J. Grassman Trust, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, New Music USA, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, 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. WQXR is a media partner of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company.
