By Elizabeth Ladzinski
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN EAST — Students from New York and China performed an East-meets-West compilation of dance routines Monday in a display of cultural and artistic partnership at the New York City Center.
The young dancers, from the National Dance institute (NDI) in Soho and the Children's Palace of Shanghai, are collaborating on a new work, which will be staged at the City Center on July 28 and 29. Monday's performance included elements that will be part of the upcoming show.
The five Chinese students and their choreographers are visiting NDI on an exchange program in which they are studying jazz, tap and ballet. In return, the students are teaching their American partners traditional Chinese folk dances.
"Their movement to how they dance is very different from ours," said Nazarria Workman, 13, a dancer at NDI. "Ours is very on the beat and down into the ground; theirs is very loose and elegant, and very straight up and proper."
National Dance Institute is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1976. Since then, more than 2 million children have participated in NDI programs.
The Children's Palace of Shanghai, part of the China Welfare Institute, was established as the first after-school activity center in China in 1953.
The students' completed work will be based on a composition by Huang Ruo called The Red Thread.
"The legend is that everyone is born with a red thread tied to your ankle, and throughout your life the people that you encounter are all fated in this red thread, and that is your destiny," said Emily Meisner, artistic director of the summer institute at NDI.
