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A Celebration of 2025 Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Featuring Guest Artist: The Ahn Trio

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2025 

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM 

Ailey CitiGroup Theatre

405 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019

Tickets are $40 at the door, $30 if purchased before April 15, 2025. Audiences can get closer to the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company by purchasing VIP tickets to attend a cocktail reception after the show at AIley Studio 1A, hosted by our distinguished Board of Directors the Ahn Trio, and the Company's choreographers and dancers.  Early bird VIP reception tickets, purchased before April 1, 2025 at $50 ($60 after April 1).

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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.  

The Ahn Trio—pianist Lucia Ahn, cellist Maria Ahn, and their new Grammy-winning violinist Zach Brock—are making waves again. Formed while at Juilliard, the Ahn Trio is renowned for their genre-bending approach to chamber music. Dubbed "classical revolutionaries" by New York Newsday, they have collaborated with iconic composers such as Pat Metheny, Michael Nyman, and Laurie Spiegel, and are also known for their eclectic collaborations, ranging from B-boy dance groups to artists like DJ Spooky.

 

The Trio's performance cred includes appearances at the White House, Lincoln Center, and features in TIME, VOGUE, and People’s “50 Most Beautiful” issue. Their album Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac hit No. 8 on the Billboard charts, staying there for 26 weeks.

 

Now performing with Grammy-winning violinist Zach Brock, the Ahn Trio continues their unique Ahn-classical musical adventures with three special new albums coming out this year.

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