We recently connected with Andrew Chiang and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrew, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a leading force in creating innovative cultural experiences that capture the hope, resilience, and energy of the immigrant. The mission of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is the creation and production of dance performances, training, and learning opportunities that advance the vision of its founder, whose innovative work as a choreographer and dancer is deeply rooted in the Chinese American immigrant experience, the struggle for social justice, environmental awareness, and race and gender equity.

Andrew, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a leading force in creating innovative cultural experiences that capture the hope, resilience, and energy of the immigrant journey. Each performance sheds light on the struggles, triumphs, challenges, and joys of this experience. Through its productions, the Company fosters cross-cultural understanding while addressing important themes of identity, authenticity, and equality.

In NY and NJ area, our programs: The Chinese New Year Celebration has been a culture staple in Newark, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and Staten Island since 1996; the Annual Imagine Ellis Island AAPI Heritage Festival presenting a diverse array of Asian American traditional dance artists in collaboration with the National Park Service since 2015; Asian American choreographers, dancers and musicians sharing the stage in the CrossCurrent Contemporary Dance Festival at Flushing Town Hall highlights the creativity of the Asian American community since 2013. Besides these activities, the Company has been in the school assemblies of millions of K-12 students in NY/NJ/PA area as well as in countless AAPI community festivals and celebrations. These lockdown during the pandemic have inspired The Bridge in 2021, a daily virtual dance class featuring a diverse array of 24 BIPOC collaborators. These ongoing programs showcases the immigrant’s journey and serve to advance the visibility of the Asian American art , artists and our relationship with the broader communities.

Most of the dancers in the Company are immigrants themselves. Choreography is developed with dancers from diverse backgrounds working collaboratively with Nai-Ni Chen, each rehearsal is an immersive, boundary-crossing journey that contributes to the creative process. Their experience places an indelible mark on the dance and naturally brings forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Nai-Ni Chen is my wife and life partner. We met when I was studying at MIT and I was the Cultural Activity Chair for the MIT Chinese Student Club. Nai-Ni was in a highly prestigious group of talented young students called Youth Goodwill Mission who were selected by the Taiwan (at that time The Chinese) government to visit American colleges and develop cultural exchange. I hosted the group in a performance. When I met Nai-Ni Chen, I instantly knew she would be my partner for life. It was still an unforgettable feeling that cannot be explained easily. I kept in touch with her ever since and we were married 4 years later in 1982 when she came to the US to study at NYU. A few years after graduation, she choreographed a dance that receive a rave review from the NY Times. A number of calls expressing interest to showcase her work in several communities and she founded her company, I was the de-facto business manager.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When the company began to tour the country in the 90s. There was no google map. But the cell phone technology was just started. I was in New York in my office and she called me from the road, telling me that she was driving on a highway with her dancers in the middle of the night with no one, it was snowing and she was not sure if she is on the right path and it was pitch dark. I encouraged her to keep going and stay focused on the road.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nainichen.org
• Facebook: @nainichendancecompany
• Youtube: #nainichen

Image Credits

First 3 are Pitor Jaruga, the Red Lion Dance is Jeff Wang