Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company at Centenary Stage Company

Hot off the trail of sold-out performances of their Year of the Rooster Celebration at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, the critically acclaimed Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company will take residence at Centenary Stage Company on the campus of Centenary University in Hackettstown in April with two public programs that celebrate the company’s artistic vision and heritage.

To introduce families with children in western New Jersey to the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, the Centenary Stage Company will bring Nai-Ni Chen’s new, story–based production Red Firecrackers to the Lackland Center for the Performing Arts on campus. Red Firecrackers is the legend of the origin of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration where a group of villagers defeated the monster of the ages and started the custom of decorating and wearing red, giving gifts, lighting up the sky with fireworks and playing with firecrackers.