Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company to celebrate Moon Festival

Jersey City, NJ - The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will open this new 2019 season with a theme of collaboration and outreach, especially with other diverse, immigrant women choreographers from Asia. The first major event of the Company will be a celebration of the Moon, a collaboration with the Jersey City arts venue, the White Eagle Hall of the Jersey City Theatre Center that opened in 2013, and have been one of the most popular spots for dance in the diverse city. The Moon, in Asian traditions, represents the power of the feminine, the family and a source of healing and strength. The concert at the White Eagle Hall will emphasize on these qualities that women bring to the world. Ticket for the festival can be obtained online at:

http://www.ticketfly.com/event/1748984

For this concert, Nai-Ni Chen celebrates the power of sisterhood in collaboration with the acclaimed Bharatanatyam dance master Akhilandeshwari Vasudevamurthy (Akhila) to create a culturally rich Asian American festival that celebrates diversity and womanhood at this historic moment in history where the society is beginning to pay attention to women and girl’s stories. The two choreographers will each present dances that relate to the Moon and invite the audience to join them in the celebration. Akhila and her husband Chetan Hebbar will celebrate the Karva Chauth and Nai-Ni Chen will celebrate the Moon Festival.

For this occasion, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will be presenting some of its most celebrated dances:

Incense, a woman’s prayer; Raindrops is about the joyous girlhood; A new dance, Remembrance for Jiao Li by Nai-Ni Chen.

Akhilandeshwari Vasudevamurthy will be presenting some rarest compositions in Bharthanatyam style

Moist Mind - The Mysterious connection between the Moon and the Mind Lotus Eyes - Beauty and Compassion filled eyes of a Mother Elegance - Divinity and grace of Womanhood Bliss - The Liberated Girl

Aside from dances, the festival will also include tasting of the Moon cake, a special food for the Moon Festival as well as Indian Pudding

About Moon Festival and Karva Chauth

Moon Festival is celebrated in China, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. It is the second largest holiday for the Chinese people around the world, occurring on the 15th of the eighth month in the lunar calendar. In Chinese beliefs, the full moon is the symbol for a family reunion. Many famous ancient poets wrote poems about the moon and expressed their homesickness. When people look at the moon, it reminds them of their families and homeland. Today, people still like appreciating the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. Chinese family members have dinner together on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival. After dinner, they may talk about their work, children, and their future plans.

Moon-cakes are an essential part of the Moon Festival. This round pastry can contain various ingredients in a thin crust. Most of the flavors are sweet, with lotus seed paste or sweet bean paste in the center. It is meant to be shared with the whole family.

For more information, please go to our website or contact: info@nainichen.org