Lunar New Year Celebration featuring Feng Gu

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College

presents

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company’s

Lunar New Year Celebration:

Year of the Monkey

Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 3pm

Featuring internationally acclaimed silver medalist Feng Gu

of the Beijing Kunqu Theater

as The Monkey King

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College announces that internationally acclaimed Peking Opera performer Feng Gu will join the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company for its annual Lunar New Year Celebration on Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 3pm. Mr. Gu, a principal member of the Beijing Kunqu Theater, will perform the role of the Monkey King in a special excerpt from Monkey King in the Heavenly Palace, one of the most celebrated Peking Opera productions in China. Mr. Gu’s U.S. appearance is sponsored by the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China. Tickets are $25 for adults and $12.50 for children (ages 12 and under) and can be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500 (Tue-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

Partnering with Brooklyn Center for the third year in a row, the prestigious Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company presents an all-new celebration of Chinese culture commemorating the Year of the Monkey, a year characterized by cleverness, curiosity, and playful mischief. The festive, family-friendly event will also showcase thrilling choreography inspired by shadow puppetry, live music performed by the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, and a traditional Chinese marketplace.

The performance will open with the traditional Double Lion Dance, an audience favorite that represents the coming of spring and a prayer for peace in its depiction of a small child in harmony with ferocious lions. Also included will be a Mongolian Chopstick Dance, the Coinstick Dance from Hubei, and a solo piece entitled Joy, performed by guest artist Jia Liu, a former teacher at the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy.

Two of Nai-Ni Chen’s original works will be featured in the program, showcasing her signature cross-cultural style that fuses the dynamism of American modern dance with the elegant splendor of her own Chinese culture. Moveable Figures, a dance for seven, is inspired by the art of shadow puppetry. Mirage, created by Ms. Chen in 2012, is inspired by her first experience on the Silk Road, incorporating the amazing cultural dance of the Uyghur people and rhythm from Persia and Central Asia.