AAPI Dance Festival: Day 2

Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company are pleased to present the AAPI Dance Festival, featuring three compelling sets of performances by AAPI choreographers and dancers staged across two days. Day 2 will feature dynamic performances from KAŌS (directed by 2026 Jadin Wong Fellow Nikaio Bulan Sahar Thomashow), Parul Shah Dance Company, YY Dance Company, and Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company.

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 Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) showcase.

The AAPI Dance Festival is made possible with support from the CJ Huang Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey Cultural Trust, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and individual donors like you.

This event is ticketed and open to the public. Admission to one performance is $25. Receive a discount when you attend all three performances with a full-festival pass for $50.

Schedule:
Opening remarks by Lisa Gold and Andy Chiang

“PSYWAR” by KAŌS
“PSYWAR” brings audiences into the world of the Aswang, shedding light onto forgotten histories while emphasizing how propaganda has the power to rewrite realities. The immersive thriller explores weaponization of culture and surviving as Filipino genderfluid entities in a time where transness/brownness are openly villainized.

“all that lies” by Parul Shah Dance Company
“all that lies” disrupts inherited narratives surrounding South Asian diasporic female identity. Moving across myth, migration, and contemporary life, the work confronts exotic fantasies that shaped Indian dance in America alongside ongoing expectations of “purity” placed on women within South Asian tradition. Through choreography and spoken word, Shah offers personal counter-narratives.

“ELSEWHERE” by YY Dance Company
ELSEWHERE is a 70-minute, full-length dance work that received its world premiere as part of 92NY’s 2025 Women Move the World season. Featuring an original score, and 8 dancers, ELSEWHERE was the third piece in a trilogy series exploring humanity, connection, and the search for meaning. ELSEWHERE is considered by the choreographer to be the fullest and most developed expression of FoCo Technique combining complex physical movement and musicality with diverse Asian folk traditions—including influences from China, Indonesia, Thailand, India, and South Korea—centered within a contemporary dance framework.

“Song of the Phoenix” by Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company
Experience a dynamic journey across diverse cultural landscapes, from the bustling modern metropolis to the ancient tribal lands. This showcase program celebrates tradition, innovation, and the enduring human spirit through four signature works from the Nai-Ni Chen Dance:
“Whirlwind,” “Reflection of a Ripple,” “Shadow Force,” and “Dance of the Golden Snake.”

Refund Policy:
All sales are final. No shows will not be issued a refund.

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.

Recordings:
This event will not be recorded.

KAŌS
KAŌS is an interdisciplinary arts collective creating immersive, mixed-media performances that redefine how audiences interact with art. As a collective comprising mostly of queer/Filipino artists, KAŌS facilitates the excavating and celebration of our multiplicities by producing art reflective of our diverse cultural backgrounds in collaboration with one another, the land, and a global conscience. Led by Asian American Arts Alliance’s 2026 Jadin Wong Fellow, Nikaio Thomashow, KAŌS cultivates a process where artists feel nurtured and empowered to unearth and heal communally. KAŌS has been presented by organizations including Bryant Park, Judson Memorial Church, Historic Saranac Lake, and NYS DanceForce.

Parul Shah Dance Company
Kathak dancer and choreographer Parul Shah, a 2026 United States Artists Fellow, creates work that examines how cultural narratives are embodied, contested, and transformed. Drawing on Kathak’s mythological storytelling roots, Shah explores narratives shaped by her lived experiences while developing a distinct movement vocabulary grounded in rigorous Kathak training and her South Asian diasporic identity. Shah expands the form to disrupt patriarchal hierarchies and reimagine it through her own gaze. She amplifies marginalized voices through artistry and empathy, through embodied practice and reciprocity. Her work often centers around South Asian women pushing against boundaries, women who have been forgotten, and whose labor and voices have too often been erased.

YY Dance Company
YYDC is a New York-based nonprofit contemporary dance company established in 2018 and dedicated to the performance, producing and sharing of original choreographic works, as well as teaching of original contemporary dance technique created by founder, artistic director, 2025 NYSCA/NAFA Artist Fellow, 2021 Harkness Promise Award recipient Yue Yin. Yin has refined and expanded an original movement vocabulary called FOCO Technique™, a unique contemporary form of dance movement rooted in Chinese classical and folk dance melded with the complex and diverse influences of the immigrant experience. Yin has been commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company as well as companies around the world. The company has an upcoming tour to TITAS/UNBOUND in Dallas in 2027.

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. Each performance highlights 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.