AAPI Dance Festival: Rising Stars

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. Rising Stars will feature dynamic performances from Jiemin Yang, Chisato Fujii, DRWN, Samanvita Kasthuri, Chia-Ying Kao Dance, and Ah-Molla Dance Collective (AMDC).

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.

Thank you to production community partner Queensboro Dance Festival for their support at the Rising Stars showcase at City Center.

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

“Portraits of the Moon” (Excerpt) by Jiemin Yang in collaboration with dancers
“Portraits of the Moon” traces the ache of separation and hope of reunion through movement, live testimony, and original music. Drawing on Chang'e’s myth, classical poetry, and immigrant memory, this dance work follows the moon’s pull across distance—a luminous thread connecting memory, family, and homeland.

“hello !” Chisato Fujii
A newborn emerges from her mother’s womb and meets a world that is raw, vivid, and intensely fresh. Through the pains and sorrows of living, the vitality of youth, and the body that carries her, she discovers the joy of existence and celebrates the wonder of being alive.

“gunwale” by DRWN
gunwale: the top edge of the hull of a boat. The sound composition, “Untitled,” was created by Jasmine Hastings and Conor Elmes of Clitoris, based in Drogheda, Ireland.

“Ghungroo” by Samanvita Kasthuri
“Ghungroo” is a confrontation of the need for Samanvita to create her own path as an Indian Contemporary dancer. This piece takes inspiration from her experiences as an Indian classically trained dancer in the Contemporary dance community, which is predominantly made up of trained Western concert dancers. “Ghungroo” takes you on a journey of introspection, loss, confusion, joy, community, and finally, a discovery of love.

“Fugue for Shadow and Bone” by Chia-Ying Kao Dance
A startlingly intimate solo, “Fugue for Shadow and Bone” traces what the body remembers when language fails. Gestures inherited across generations surface and dissolve, carried by a live score from bassist/composer Giacomo Merega. The work will make its U.S. premiere following its November 2026 performances at The 4th Kyoto International Butoh Festival and JOGONIN International Art Festival.

“초희|Chohui” by Ah-Molla Dance Collective (AMDC)
“초희|Chohui” is an evocative dance work inspired by the life of Heo Nanseolheon, a pioneering Korean poet and artist whose brilliance was constrained by the expectations of her time. Blending contemporary movement, Korean traditional aesthetics, and visceral storytelling, “초희|Chohui” celebrates her legacy through themes of artistry, womanhood, resilience, and freedom.

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

Accessibility:
Learn more about accessibility at City Center on their website.

Recordings:
This event will not be recorded.

About Jiemin Yang
Jiemin is a New York-based dance artist and choreographer. His work has been supported by Culture Lab LIC’s Emergence Artist Residency (2026); the NYSCA Support for Artists grant (2026); the Simons Foundation & Gibney Open Interval Residency (2025–26); the CUNY Dance Initiative at Queens College (2020–22). His dance film Wo/我 received the Outstanding Dance Film Award at the Queens World Film Festival 2022. He was named an Artist of Exceptional Merit by the Asian American Arts Alliance (2022). He has presented works with Mare Nostrum Elements at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and at many other venues across the city.

About Chisato Fujii
Chisato Fujii (she/they) is a Japanese dancer and choreographer based in New York City. She graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Dance from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase College. Fujii has performed works by Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown, Norbert De La Cruz III, Kevin Wynn, Tsai Hsi Hung, and Symara Sarai, among others. She is currently working as a freelance dancer while performing with multiple dance companies. As a choreographer, she has presented her work at Green Space, Green Lung Studio, Creature Space, and Dance Lab Studios. She is currently developing a new work through the Motive MOtiVE 4 Artists! Residency Program 2026–27.

About Paul Liu (DRWN)
Paul Liu is a Taiwanese American movement artist with a focus in floorwork and partnering. Paul grew up in New Jersey breaking with several local b-boy crews and training in traditional Chinese dance and acrobatics with the Nai-Ni Chen Youth Dance Company. After attending Boston Conservatory, he performed with Pilobolus Dance Theatre’s repertory company from 2019 to 2023 and continues working with them as a teaching artist. He has worked with BRKFST Dance Company, Jacob Jonas the Company, Volta Collective, and 3AM Theatre. Paul is currently with Motlee Party and makes his own work under DRWN with Denim Park.

About Samanvita Kasthuri
Samanvita Kasthuri is an emerging choreographer whose work seeks to pull from her training in Bharatanatyam, Kathak, and Contemporary / Modern movement practices. She trains under Guru Prasanna Kasthuri at Soorya Performing Arts in St. Louis, MO, and has presented work at venues across the St. Louis region such as the Fabulous Fox Theater, Saint Louis University’s Literary Arts Award Ceremony, and the American Natya Festival. Samanvita is currently based in New York and is in school for a Master of Fine Arts in dance at Sarah Lawrence College. She has presented her work in venues such as Battery Dance Festival, WAXWorks, and Breaking Ground Festival. She was featured as an ensemble dancer in Jeevika Bhat’s “Clothesline”, an Indian-Contemporary dance production that premiered at the City College of New York in November 2025.

About Chia-Ying Kao Dance
Chia-Ying Kao is a Taiwanese-born, Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary dance artist whose work treats the body as an archive of cultural memory and a site of resistance. Working across choreography, film, and social somatic practice, she deconstructs and reassembles gesture, building liminal spaces where identity and belonging are renegotiated. Her research asks how diaspora collaborations generate new forms of embodied solidarity. Kao holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College; her work has been commissioned by Chen Dance Center, Triskelion Arts, and Topaz Arts. Her choreography and interdisciplinary projects have been presented and developed at Center for Performance Research (CPR), TanzART (Germany), Oishida (Japan), and other venues in the U.S. and internationally. Awards include support from NYSCA, Brooklyn Arts Fund, Creative Equations Fund, and Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

About Ah-Molla Dance Collective (AMDC)
Ah-Molla Dance Collective (AMDC) is an AAPI-led contemporary dance collective dedicated to uplifting Asian American and Pacific Islander artists, voices, and stories. Rooted in Korean diasporic experiences, AMDC creates work that bridges contemporary dance with Korean cultural identity. “Ah-Molla” (아, 몰라!), meaning “I don’t know” in Korean, embraces creating from a place of curiosity, experimentation, and collaborative spirit. Through performances, workshops, and community engagement, AMDC creates space for nuanced and evolving expressions of AAPI identities. Recent works include the full-length production ‘역마|Wanderlust’, alongside presentations at Future Dance Festival, Arts on Site Split Bill, Queensboro Dance Festival, and other nation-wide performance platforms.