The AAPI Dance Festival at APAP in Ailey Citigroup Theater

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) are pleased to present an evening of beautiful, diverse, and vibrant AAPI Dance with performances from the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Marie Lloyd Paspe and Almasphere, and Rohan Bhargava/Rovaco Dance Company.

Marie Lloyd Paspe is the 2022 Asian American Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Fellow and her performance, “bumalik”, will be the culmination of her fellowship project. Rohan Bhargava was the 2020 Asian American Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Fellow and Rovaco Dance Company, of which he is artistic director, will be performing two works that he choreographed, “Sex Robot” and “The Devil’s Advocate.” See below for more details.

Please note this is Day 2 of a two-day festival. Day 1 is on Saturday, Jan 14 at City Center Studio 4 (more info here). If you would like to attend BOTH DAYS, we encourage you to reserve a 2-Day Pass at the special price of $30. We hope you'll join us for both showcases!

PROGRAM:

7:00 pm – "bumalik" (Tagalog for "return"), a collaboration between Marie Lloyd Paspe (Director/Choreographer) and Almasphere (Installation Art).

"bumalik" is a dance installation-in-process re-rooting the Filipinx body amongst the emotional, psychological, and socioeconomic challenges the diaspora faces as displaced children of mother service laborers and migrants. Set within a bamboo forest that, in moments, becomes a nipa hut, a seashell, a cage – the performers activate the memory between the body, the sexualized, the natural, the built. Their stories replace their erasure. Their environment becomes their home.

7:30 pm – Rovaco Dance Company presents two works by Artistic Director Rohan Bhargava: "Sex Robot (Excerpt from KAMA)" and "The Devil's Advocate."

"Sex Robot," a stand-alone excerpt from Rovaco's evening length work KAMA, physicalizes libido through charged, precise, powerful, and mechanical movement. Alluding to both the physical nature of sex as well as an addiction to it, it presents a no-strings attached notion of sexuality, culminating in an abstract representation of BDSM, coercion, and abuse.

Originally commissioned by Mare Nostrum Elements' Emerging Choreographer Series #3 and premiered at CUNY's LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, "The Devil's Advocate" presents a businessman battling his inner demons and addictions. Consumed by society's relentless rat-race, he gradually transforms from man to beast fueled by greed, power, and ambition.

8:00 pm – Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

“This is THE dance company to which to take your non-dance friends, the one you’ve been trying to turn on to all the potential power and beauty of dance” - Dance Insider. Showcasing the iconic works of Nai-Ni Chen, danced by some of the most powerful dancers in NYC, this dynamic showcase at Ailey Citigroup Theatre will include Nai-Ni Chen’s seminal work Way of Fire with music by Tan Dun; Movable Figures, originally commissioned by the Morningside Dance Festival; CrossCurrent, a luscious duet, and ends with Mirage inspired by Nai-Ni Chen's journey to the Silk Road. Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is represented by Red Shell Management in booth 209, Rhinelander Gallery in the APAP Conference at the Hilton.

About Marie Lloyd Paspe

Marie Lloyd Paspe (she/her) is a Filipina-American dance and vocal performer, installation choreographer, movement director, dance educator, femme bruha culture bearer, fascial pilates instructor, and writer based in lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY. Marie is a performer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company since 2018, Bessie-awarded for Outstanding Choreography for contributions to BTJ/AZ production of “Deep Blue Sea”, and is the 2022 Asian American Arts Alliance Jadin Wong Fellow.

Of Filipina descent of Batangas and Iloilo, Philippines, she was born in Singapore, grew up in Mississauga, Canada, migrated to Bellingham, MA in 2000, and received U.S. Citizenship in June 2019. She excavates Filipinx-American diasporic identity work within bakla queerist spaces of memory, fascia, and time, igniting kapwa (shared one-ness) in communities, collaborative processes, and productions. Her work to re-root the small, brown body through performance exists within–yet juxtaposes–the eurocentric, the patrionormative, and the white-dominated space.

Marie’s choreography and performance has been presented internationally in Germany, Israel, the Philippines, and China; and nationally in NYC, North Adams, MA, LA, Jersey City, and Minneapolis, among others. She has been artist-in-residence at TOPAZ Arts, a co-conspirator of treya lam’s residency at MASS MoCA as movement director, a Queens Council of the Arts grantee, and a recipient of the Creatives Rebuild New York grant as a performing artist and culture bearer. Learn more at marielloydpaspe.com.

About Almasphere

A collaboration between architects Sabrina Herbosa Reyes (she/her) and Antonio Giovanni Rivera (he/him), Almasphere creates atmospheres through large-scale sculptures and installations, where individuals are inspired to commune with their inner worlds, collectively with their community, and spiritually with the cosmos. Sabrina pulls from her memories of the Philippines as a Filipina-American to create relationships between environments and bodies. Giovanni, the son of a Puerto Rican, ignites architectural experiences as modes of universal language. This cross-cultural collaboration encourages the constant exploration of how to build spaces that evoke intuition, curiosity, and process. Their work has been shown in Feria Material (Mexico City), General Expenses (Mexico City), Little Manila Queens and Prospect Park (Brooklyn), among others.

About Rohan Bhargava

Born and raised in New Delhi, India, Rohan Bhargava began dancing at The Danceworx Academy for the Performing Arts, where he went on to serve as a performer, choreographer, and educator. In 2012 he relocated to New York to study dance at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.

Bhargava founded Rovaco Dance Company in 2015 and has received commissions from The Dance Gallery Festival, Sam Houston State University, Mare Nostrum Elements, Dancewave, Making Moves Dance Festival, and Rhythmically Speaking Dance. In 2019, he completed a two-year residency through the CUNY Dance Initiative at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, and he was awarded the 2020 Jadin Wong Fellowship in Dance, through the Asian American Arts Alliance. In 2021, Rovaco Dance Company received city funding from Brooklyn Arts Council, was presented by Little Island and Battery Dance Festival, and named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch.”

Rovaco is a recipient of the Dance Advancement Fund 2022-23 awarded by Dance/NYC, and Bhargava currently works for Kizuna Dance, Periapsis Music and Dance, Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theater, and Mare Nostrum Elements. Learn more at rovacodance.com.

About Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a rare Asian American woman led professional touring company with programs for educational settings, community organizations and main stage venues. The Company's mission is to be a premier provider of innovative cultural experiences that reflect the inspiring hope and energy of the immigrant’s journey. It was founded with the vision that the immigrant’s journey of crossing cultures and adapting to a new home provides endless inspirations and opportunities for creative expressions that can enrich the human experience. Each one of the company’s work is aimed to increase the visibility of the struggle, triumph, despair, and joy of this experience. The Company's productions provide cross-cultural experiences and bring forth issues of identity, authenticity, and equality. The Company’s worldwide touring is represented by Red Shell Management led by Edward Schoelwer. Learn more at nainichen.org.

About Asian American Arts Alliance

Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring greater representation, equity, and opportunities for Asian American artists and cultural organizations through resource sharing, promotion, and community building. Since 1983, A4 has sought to unify, promote, and represent the artistic and cultural producers of one of New York City’s fastest-growing populations. A4 is a diverse alliance of artists, organizations, and arts supporters who believe that working together as a pan-ethnic, multidisciplinary community is essential to nurturing the development of artists and arts groups. A4 serves as a thoughtful convener of the Asian American cultural workforce around issues of race, identity, and artmaking and provides a critical voice for this community. They are the only service organization in the country dedicated to the professional development of Asian American artists in all disciplines. Learn more at aaartsalliance.org.