AAPI Dance Festival
Please join Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company for the AAPI Dance Festival, an annual celebration of dance and choreography that highlights the artistry and innovation of choreographers of Asian descent, presented as part of the Dance Managers Collective’s APAP showcase at City Center and the Ailey Citigroup Theatre.
Tickets: $25 for each showcase, or $40 for a full festival pass.
The full festival pass includes access to both Saturday and Sunday showcases at Ailey Citigroup Theatre in addition to the Rising Stars showcase at City Center on Saturday, Jan 11 from 7–9 pm.
Program for Sat, Jan 10 from 1:45-3:45pm:
Opening Remarks
Andy Chiang (Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company) and Lisa Gold (Asian American Arts Alliance)
“10/18/2022” by Take Dance
In memory of our beloved James Kraft, most extraordinary Board President.
Dancers: Kristen Bell, Corinna Lee Nicholson
“Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia” by Sugar Vendil
“Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia” is a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood that interweaves chamber music, dance, and nonlinear theater in an interdisciplinary performance. Excavating seemingly insignificant but deeply ingrained memories, Antonym envisions the future as an escape from pain and ponders how we can possess painful memories without being beholden to them. Using field recordings of New York City to create a rich sonic landscape, the four seasons serve as a cyclical frame and context for memory. Antonym invites audience members to reflect on their own relationships with memory, identity, and imagine their own futures.
Performers: sugar vendil/isogram: Cindy Lan (violin), Annie Nikunen (flute), Marie Lloyd Paspe, Sugar Vendil, Annie Wang
“icchā / desire” by Barkha Dance Company
icchā is a new interdisciplinary work that engages with the fierce and wild Goddess Kali to excavate female desire buried across generations. Inspired by Audre Lorde’s Uses of the Erotic, icchā draws from traditional kathak, contemporary choreography practice, and anthologies collected from several aunties and sisters in barkha’s community.
barkha becomes the vessel that represents these women who are finding their way back to their desires they had once betrayed and explores what happens to a woman’s unspoken desires, where do they live, and can they be danced back into the world?
Dancer: Barkha Patel
“Celestial Motion: Rhythms from the Silk Road and Beyond” by Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
Experience a dynamic journey across China’s diverse cultural landscape, from the bustling modern metropolis to the ancient tribal lands of the south and the vast northern grasslands. This showcase program celebrates tradition, innovation, and the enduring human spirit through four signature works.
Dancers: Madeliene Lee, Esteban Santamaria, Caleb Baker, Lorenzo Guerrini, Yuchin Kiki Tseng, Rio Kikuchi, Kathryn Taylor, Madelyn Sarver, Sarah Botero, Candace Jarvis
Featured Dances:
“Lion in the city”: This exhilarating, highly popular work brings a modern edge to the traditional Chinese New Year celebration. Commissioned by the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), this unique version develops a dialogue between contemporary/Chinese movement and Hip-Hop, celebrating the pioneering spirit of the collaboration. The Lion Dance itself is a prayer for peace and harmony on earth, symbolized by a child playing freely with a ferocious beast.
“Peacocks under the Moonlight”: A truly elegant piece that showcases the grace and beauty of Dai ethnic dance. Hailing from the Yunnan province, the peacock is revered as a sacred bird among the Dai people. The choreography draws inspiration from the natural movements of the peacock, such as drinking water, running, and grooming its feathers, to create a supremely graceful display.
“Pipa Dance”: A spiritual and historical journey brought to life from the Dunhuang Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a treasure trove of Buddhist art. This new work is inspired by the iconic Flying Apsaras and celestial musicians depicted in the ancient murals. The choreography recreates the classical, flowing movements of these divine figures, with the Pipa (Chinese lute) taking center stage as a symbol of heavenly music and grace, bridging the gap between ancient devotion and contemporary performance.
“Mongolian Harvest (or Mongolian Festival)”: Commissioned by NJPAC, this dynamic work captures the essence of the nomadic Mongolian way of life. The dance is renowned for its powerful steps and expressive upper body movements, focusing on the generous spirit of the Mongolian people and their respect for the great prairie. Inspired by the joyful Naadam Festival, the piece portrays aspects of herders’ daily activities including cooking, hunting, and traditions.
Program for Sun, Jan 11 from 4:15-6:15pm:
Opening Remarks
Andy Chiang (Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company) and Lisa Gold (Asian American Arts Alliance)
“Ikigai” by Naomi Funaki
Recognized as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2024 and Asian American Arts Alliance’s 2025 Jadin Wong Fellow, experience an in-process showing of award-winning tap dance artist Naomi Funaki’s new work. Funaki will continue creative work on Ikigai, an evening-length piece exploring the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster. Through tap dance, live music, and storytelling, the project draws inspiration from her personal experience of the event, and that of her family and friends, to highlight a story of resilience, loss, and connection. The work will offer a rhythm-driven exploration of the emotional and cultural impact of one of Japan’s most devastating tragedies. The in-process showing will bring together a diverse cast of tap dancers, movement artists, and vocalists. This project underscores tap as a powerful medium for storytelling and cross-cultural connection, sparking dialogue around cultural resilience in the face of catastrophic events.
Dancers: Naomi Funaki, Liberty Styles, Lucas Santana, Zakhele Grabowski
Musicians: Ajani NaNaBuluku, Zachary Berns
“Alien of Extraordinary” by Sun Kim Dance Theatre
Alien of Extraordinary is a dance theatre piece born from the labyrinthine U.S. artist visa system – a process that flattens human stories into forms and reduces lives to paperwork. Choreographed by Sun Kim, a South Korean immigrant who specializes in the street dance style of popping, the piece takes its name from the “alien of extraordinary ability” (O-1) visa and her own experiences with it. The piece is an invitation to witness the immigrant artist’s journey in all its fragility and resilience, creating a meeting ground for empathy, imagination, and shared belonging.
Dancers: Sun Kim, Alice Castro, Julia Charkales, Natasha Huang, Anjali Kanter, Choung Woo Hyun, Adniel Velez, Jordan Kaya
“Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies” by Nava Dance Theatre
Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies is a bharatanatyam, experimental movement, and live music production that explores the history, labor and lived experiences of women and immigrants in the US, and how these fractured experiences inform our identities now. The work shows that together we are stronger, inclusive of the nuances and contradictions that we all hold in our bodies. Initially inspired by the oral histories of Indian nurses who arrived as a result of the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, choreographer Nadhi Thekkek, and her collaborators find universality in the heavy and enduring work of immigrant women and the worlds they traverse between. Rogue Gestures is an ensemble work of 6 dancers with a live original score by Roopa Mahadevan, Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, and others. Rogue Gestures is created and produced by Nava Dance Theatre.
Dancers: Nadhi Thekkek, Shruti Abhishek, Lalli Venkat, Janani Muthaiya, Aarthi Ramesh
“Mirage of the Spirit: Mystic Vision of the Forces in the Shadow” by Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
This profound and evocative cross-cultural contemporary dance showcase navigates the intricate landscapes of human experience—from the allure of fantasy to the depths of spiritual history and our primal need for connection. Through four signature works, the program explores cycles of illusion, inner transformation, and the powerful forces that shape our vision of self and world.
Dancers: Dancers: Madeliene Lee, Esteban Santamaria, Caleb Baker, Lornezo Guerrini, Yuchin Kiki Tseng, Rio Kikuchi ,Kathryn Taylor, Madelyn Sarver, Sarah Botero, Candace Jarvis
Featured Dances:
“Carousel”: Inspired by the dual imagery of playful, dreamlike carousels and the majestic elegance of real horses, this buoyant piece is one of Nai-Ni Chen’s most celebrated abstract works. It explores the flow of energy and the dynamics reminiscent of the brush strokes used in Chinese ink painting, melding childlike wonder with the nobility and pride of equestrian movement.
“Mirage”: A serene yet passionate work inspired by the Silk Road and the journey to the edge of the Dunhuang Caves. Influenced by the unique rhythms and movements of the Uyghur people of Xinjiang, the dance transports the audience to a desert oasis, evoking both tranquility and passion through movement that utilizes trance, rhythmic breathing, and spiral motions, reflecting the compelling, yet fleeting, image of a mirage in the shifting sands.
“Mystic Echos”: This spiritually charged work delves into the iconography of the Tibetan period murals found within the ancient Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. Drawing inspiration from the powerful images of Tantric Buddhist deities and the spiritual portraits of Tibetan monarchs and pilgrims, the choreography translates the intricate visual language of the paintings into contemporary movement, exploring themes of transformation, divine protection, and the sublime echoes of devotion.
“Shadowforce”: Solo Created by Nai-Ni Chen during the challenging period of the global pandemic, this beautiful and haunting solo serves as a poignant reflection on the human need for intimacy. The choreography highlights the importance of human relationship and our longing for connection and love for each other, offering a deeply personal and resonant conclusion to the program.
BIOS
About TAKE Dance/Take Ueyama
A native of Tokyo, Take Ueyama moved to the United States in 1991 to study dance at The Juilliard School in New York City. Upon graduation, he was invited to join the Paul Taylor Dance Company, touring internationally for eight years. He also performed extensively with Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre. In 2003, Take made his choreographic debut with Tsubasa, presented at SUNY New Paltz with fellow Taylor dancers. Two years later, he founded TAKE Dance, a company known for its powerful athleticism and evocative blend of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Drawing on his Japanese heritage and a deep reverence for nature and humanity, Take’s work explores themes of beauty, resilience, compassion, and the duality of light and darkness in the human experience.
His choreography has been presented by major institutions and festivals including The Kennedy Center, The Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Central Park SummerStage, PS/21 Chatham, The Judson Memorial Church, Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Harris Theater Chicago, Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis, and Washington DC’s National Cherry Blossom Festival, among others.
His work has been commissioned and performed by companies and schools such as Newport Contemporary Ballet, BalletX, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, ArcDanz, The Juilliard School, The Ailey School, and SMU Meadows School of the Arts.
Take has received international recognition for his choreography. Sakura Sakura was a prizewinner at the International Modern Dance Choreographic Competition in Burgos, Spain. He was one of four choreographers selected for the 2006 “Free to Rep” program at Florida State University’s MANCC and became the first choreographer to receive the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award in 2010. Other honors include the 2015 Jadin Wong Award for Emerging Asian American Choreographer (Asian American Arts Alliance), a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, the 2023 Danse Mirage Foundation Choreography Grant for Bamboo Dreams, and the 2025 Gross Family Prize from the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation. http://www.takedance.org | info@takedance.org
About Sugar Vendil
Sugar Vendil (she/they) is a composer, pianist, choreographer, and interdisciplinary artist who is forging new creative pathways as a second generation Filipinx American and future ancestor. She started her artistic life as a classical pianist, and after spending nearly a decade searching for her own voice, her practice evolved into making music and performances that integrate sound, movement, and unconventional approaches to the piano. She has a keyboard/synth duo, Vanity Project, with composer Trevor Gureckis. Vendil is based in Lenapehoking, known as Brooklyn.
Vendil’s work contains a potent sense of physicality and is obliquely autobiographical. Detaching from linearity and narrative, she conjures the immediate and raw emotions that are still perceivable from imperfect memories. She was awarded a 2026 Macdowell fellowship and 2024-25 CUNY Dance Initiative Residency at York College/Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. Commissions include music for 3.1 Phillip Lim’s F/W 2024 show, Simple Tasks 2 on Jennifer Koh’s Grammy-award winning album Alone Together; a Chamber Music America commission to write for The Nouveau Classical Project; ETHEL’s Homebaked 2019, and ACF | Create. She scored Jih-E Peng’s May We Know Our Own Strength (2021) and GATHER (2023), short films centered on works by visual artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya, and The Rite of Spring (2024), written and directed by Nick Nocera. In early 2024, her visual scores were part of the National Arts Club’s 2020 Fellows group exhibition, Light, Line, and Sound. She showed two ink-on-paper scores, and trapunto etude (2024), a beaded and embroidered canvas score inspired by the art of Pacita Abad.
About sugar vendil/isogram
sugar vendil/isogram makes interdisciplinary performances that interweave sound and movement, forming connective threads that encourage closer inspection. isogram blurs boundaries between genres and embraces nonlinearity. Led by Filipinx American composer, choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Sugar Vendil, isogram members and collaborative artists are violist Cindy Lan, flutist Annie Nikunen, vocalist/dancer Marie Lloyd Paspe, pianist/vocalist/performer Sugar Vendil, and vocalist/dancer Annie Wang.
About barkha dance company
barkha dance company (bdc) honors the rich lineage of kathak from the Jaipur and Lucknow traditions while creating contemporary works that expand the form’s expressive and narrative possibilities. The company envisions itself as a vital bridge between tradition and experimentation, creating pathways for dialogue, discovery, and artistic growth.
Artistic director barkha patel creates choreographies that reimagine kathak’s place in contemporary culture. The company’s repertoire includes both ensemble and solo works, which balance rhythmic precision, grace, and power, while also inviting audiences into a reflective space. Often the works explore lived experiences of South Asian women in the diaspora, exploring themes of cultural reverence, suppression, reclamation, bodily memory, and female desire.
bdc is committed to engaging diverse diaspora communities by sharing the beauty, complexity, and joy of kathak through masterclasses at universities, workshops in schools, and ongoing weekly classes. www.barkhadance.com
About barkha patel
barkha patel is a touring kathak artist, choreographer, educator and artistic director of barkha dance company. She has trained in kathak with Guru Rachna Sarang and continues her training with Swati Sinha and Dheerendra Tiwari.
barkha’s work has been presented at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Little Island, 92Y, and Chelsea Factory among others. barkha has been recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award through which she received support from the New York State Dance Force in 2024, to tour a full-evening work ahaM | Maha to the Reg Lenna Center, 171 Cedar Arts, and Rochester University.
Barkha currently is a recipient of the Special Projects Grant from the Princess Grace Foundation through, which she is developing a new evening-length work set to premiere in 2026.
About Naomi Funaki
Naomi Funaki is an award-winning tap dance artist from Tokyo, Japan, currently living in New York City. Since moving to New York in 2016 to pursue her career in tap dance, she has performed at New York City Center, Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, Radio City Music Hall, MET Gala, Guggenheim Museum (New York City and Spain), Vail Dance Festival, and All Arts TV. Naomi is a 2023 Princess Grace Award winner, a 2024–2025 Joyce Creative Residency artist, Asian American Arts Alliance’s 2025 Jadin Wong Fellow in Dance, and was recognized as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2024. She has worked with Ayodele Casel, Caleb Teicher & Company, Music From The Sole, and Dorrance Dance. Choreography credits include Ayodele Casel’s “Artists at the Center” at New York City Center, associate choreographer of “Diary of a Tap Dancer” at The American Repertory Theatre, assistant choreographer for “Bzzz” at The Joyce Theater, and assistant tap choreographer for New York City Center’s Encores! “Wonderful Town.”
About Sun Kim Dance Theatre
Sun Kim Dance Theatre (SKDT) is founded by its artistic director Sun Kim, with a mission to explore the possibilities of particular dance style “opping” in a theatrical manner along with different aspects of physical theatre, and use it as a medium for storytelling, amplifying diverse voices and sharing universal human experiences. SKDT is committed to creating platforms that elevate the work of underrepresented artists, particularly those from the street dance and immigrant artist communities. They believe that by featuring a broad range of perspectives, they can contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and equitable world.
SKDT has performed at LayeRhythm/Works & Process with New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New Victory Theater, San Francisco International Hip Hop Dance Festival, Battery Dance Festival, NYU Skirball, Bronx Museum, Symphony Space, and Ladies of Hip Hop Festival.
About Sun Kim
Sun Kim is a distinguished dancer, choreographer, artistic director, and dance educator. Hailing from South Korea, she specializes in “popping,” a style of street dance. She has received 2025 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, the 2022 Emerging Artist Award at Harlem Stage Gala, nominated at the 2022 Bessie Awards for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer, and she was also on the original cast in “Cabaret” at the Kit Kat Cub, Broadway as a prologue dancer.
Sun’s passion for dance began at the age of 12, she started learning breaking and popping. After training for 10 years in South Korea, she moved to NYC in 2011. Since then, she has achieved many accomplishments, such as winning Step Ya Game Up, a world final popping battle, making it to the top eight at the UK B-Boy championship world final as the USA popping representative, and performing for Cirque Du Soleil. Additionally, Sun Kim has taught at Princeton University, Broadway Dance Center, Peridance Center, and Kookmin University in South Korea.
About Nava Dance Theatre
Founded in 2012, Nava Dance Theatre is a dance company which uses bharatanatyam, experimental movement, and live music to navigate place, identity, and politics through the lens of lived experience. Their work delves into unheard refugee voices, the #MeToo movement, and other social issues. Through their programs, they make visible stories on the margins, connect contemporary histories to today, and create intersections of culturally specific art, diaspora, and storytelling that are as layered as collective experiences. Through new dance works, residency and commissioning programs, workshops, festivals, and cross-genre collaborations, Nava Dance Theatre examines the various ways that dance can support and reflect the communities you live in. Nava Dance Theatre is based in San Francisco, CA, unceded territories of the Ohlone people. www.navadance.org
About Nadhi Thekkek
Dr. Nadhi Thekkek is a dancer, choreographer, and the artistic director of Nava Dance Theatre. Nadhi uses the South Indian dance form of bharatanatyam to navigate place, identity, and politics through the lens of her lived experience as a child of immigrants and a South Asian, diasporic woman. She reimagines how bharatanatyam can serve marginalized narratives that need to occupy space in the US right now. Her nationally touring work “Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies” sources community interviews, historical texts, and poetry to explore the intersections of labor, agency, and belonging in our South Asian ancestry. Nadhi’s body of work has been supported through the NEFA National Dance Project (2023), The MAP Fund (2022), National Endowment for the Arts (2020, 2022, 2023), California Arts Council (2018-present), San Francisco Arts Commission (2019, 2022, 2025), Kenneth Rainin Foundation (2021), and others. She was recently awarded the Dance USA Fellowship (2025).
Through Nava, Nadhi also produces and co-facilitates the Unrehearsed Artist Residency Program, where South Asian dancemakers create art that challenges the status quo. She is one of the co-founders of Varnam Salon, a performance series supporting California-based culture bearers/dance makers and serves on the board of the Western Arts Alliance. Nadhi learned bharatanatyam from Guru Smt. Sundara Swaminathan (Kala Vandana Dance Company, San Jose) and Guru Smt. Padmini Chari (Nritya School of Dance, Houston). As of 2012, she has continued training under Guru Sri. A. Lakshmanaswamy (Chennai).
About Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
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. Bridging the grace of Asian elegance with the dynamism of American modern dance, the Company performs at the intersection of innovation and tradition, empowering communities through performances and interactive engagements. Through its productions, the Company fosters cross-cultural understanding while addressing important themes of identity, authenticity, and equality.
The Company’s success is evident in its extensive performance schedule, reaching more than 20,000 audience members each year through exuberant productions presented at prestigious venues such as The Joyce Theater and Lincoln Center in New York, Jacob’s Pillow, the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts in California, the Ordway Center in Minneapolis, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, as well as on fifteen international tours spanning ten countries. Special productions for families have been presented by the New Victory Theater on Broadway, Lincoln Center Institute, and KREA in Michigan, among others. The Company also regularly commissions new, cross-cultural works that reflect contemporary issues with global influences. These collaborations have included partnerships with renowned musicians such as the Ahn Trio, Glen Velez, Joan La Barbara, Angel Lam, Jason Huang, Liang-Xing Tang, the Chinese Music Ensemble of New York, and the New Asia Chamber Music Society.
About the AAPI Dance Festival
The AAPI Dance Festival is an annual celebration of dance and choreography that highlights the artistry and innovation of choreographers of Asian descent, presented as part of the Dance Managers Collective’s APAP showcase at City Center and the Ailey Citigroup Theatre.
Organized by the Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, the festival features two showcases at Ailey Studios with performances by Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, A4’s Jadin Wong Fellow, and other acclaimed companies, as well as the Rising Stars showcase at City Center, spotlighting emerging choreographic talent.
The AAPI Dance Festival is made possible with support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and individual donors like you.
Accessibility:
There is a ramp to access the front entrance of the building on 9th avenue. Wheelchair accessible restrooms are available on the ground floor and performance entry level (PE). Doors to those restrooms are wave-activated to open on both sides.