Nai-Ni Chen (1959-2021) comes from a rich dance tradition.  She has been trained in traditional Chinese Dance in Taiwan since she was four years old and became an outstanding performer at an early age.  She studied with a generation of artists who came to Taiwan with the government to escape from the turmoil of the civil war.   Beginning at age eighteen, she was selected by the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to serve on several ambassadorial culture missions to nineteen countries.  Aside from being a Chinese Traditional Dancer, her dance experience was broadened and enriched by joining the Cloud Gate Dance Theater as an early member and the youngest at the time.  Under the direction of Lin Huai-Ming, Ms. Chen was brought into the world of modern dance.  After graduating from the Chinese Cultural University by receiving the highest honor from the President in 1982, she came to America to seek her own voice in the world of contemporary dance.   At NYU, she studied with Doris Rudko, Ellen Tittler, Bertram Ross, and Mary Anthony.   In 1988, with encouragement from Mary Anthony, she established the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company with her husband, Andy Chiang.

As one of the very few professional Asian American Choreographers in the US, Ms. Chen worked in the studio everyday with her dances.  She has created over 90 new works in the past 33 years.  Her repertory includes both dances that originated thousands of years ago and highly abstract, modern creations.  In the early days, her works are often inspired by the poetic motion of the Chinese painting brush, by folk rituals and ceremonies, vision of nature and encounters as an immigrant in America.  In many of her later works, she spoke against the division and injustice in America.

Winning critical acclaim worldwide, Ms. Chen has received a Choreographer’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her work has been commissioned by the Joyce Theater Foundation, the Lincoln Center Institute, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Dancing in the Streets, and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.   She has taught master classes at colleges and universities throughout the United States which included a four-week residency at Towson University in Maryland.  She also has taught  in dance festivals in Russia, Poland, Taiwan, and China.  She co-founded the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in 1988 and has been the choreographer and  Artistic Director since its inception.  Her company was invited to performed in over thirty states in the US and many countries in Europe, Central America and Asia.  Besides creating dances for her own Company, she has choreographed for Opera—Turandot for both the Westfield Symphony’s production at PNG Center and the Boheme Opera Company’s production at the War Memorial Hall in Trenton, New Jersey.  As a guest choreographer, she has recently created a piece for the “Dancing Wheels”, of Cleveland, Ohio.  She is also invited as one of the choreographers for Ballet Met’s 30X30 project.   In New York, Ms. Chen has taught at the Mary Anthony Dance Studio, Peridance, and New York University, where she received her MA in Dance and Dance Education. Ms. Chen received an Arts Achievement Award from the International Institute of New Jersey in 2001.  She also has earned numerous awards from the Chinese American community, including one from the Organization of Chinese Americans for her achievement in arts and education and for her substantial contribution to the community.   She has been a principal affiliate artist of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center since its inception. Ms. Chen also appeared many times as a featured artist on “State of the Arts”-a PBS/NJN TV production.