Moon Goddess celebrates women in Chinese culture with 3 dance productions

Release Date: 9/1/2005. Expired: 9/24/2005

The Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville presents Moon Goddess, an evening of dance about women in China at The Renaissance Center in Dickson Saturday, Sept. 24.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. program in the Performance Hall are $8 per person.

Combining modern and traditional Chinese dance, the program includes three works: Autumn Longing, Nu Shu and Moon Goddess.

The Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville (CAAN) was founded in 2003 by Jen-Jen Lin to educate people, including younger Chinese-Americans, about the long, rich history of Chinese culture and tradition. Moon Goddess is the group’s second original dance theatre production and is now being presented throughout the Middle Tennessee area.

A native of Taiwan who has lived in Nashville for more than 10 years, Lin serves on the Metro-Nashville Human Relations Commission and says she works through CAAN to “close the gap” between cultures by using art to help reduce discrimination.

Lin says CAAN promotes diversity through example, as the group involves Laotians, Indians and African-Americans, as well as Chinese-Americans and other ethnic groups.

Lin is the choreographer for all three programs in Moon Goddess and featured dancers in the 25-member cast include Yang Geng, Mark McIntosh, Lisa Spradley, Debra Moore, Alpana Senapati, Yvonne Souktakith and Jessica Ch’ng.

Autumn Longing is based on an ancient Chinese poem written by Li Bai more than a thousand years ago, in the Tang Dynasty.

Nu Shu is inspired by the newly discovered women-only language in China. “Nu” means women and “Shu” means written scripts. The dance is choreographed to display the power and energy of women in Chinese culture.

Moon Goddess is a legend about the Chinese Mid Autumn Moon Festival, one of the most celebrated holidays for Chinese. Geng plays a woman imprisoned in the moon while McIntosh, a martial arts student, performs as the archer.

This year the Chinese Mid Autumn Moon Festival is celebrated on Sept. 18, according the lunar calendar.

For more information on the Chinese Arts Alliance of Nashville’s presentation of Moon Goddess at The Renaissance Center, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Dance page for more about dance at The Renaissance Center.

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