Jersey City’s A Harry Moore School has a secret: superheroes are real. With the help of the the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, disabled students from A Harry Moore School, as well as students from Nai-Ni Chen’s ballet and modern classes at NJCU, have discovered their own unique abilities and are prepared to show them off, giving the public a rare opportunity to see the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in a free concert on Thursday, May 2, at the Margaret Williams Theatre of NJCU. The Nai-Ni Chen Dance company will also demonstrate professional work.
Nai-Ni Chen and her dancers have designed a series of lessons around the theme of Superheroes, inspired by the students and their special abilities. The Company’s professional dancers have partnered with each student to create choreography especially for them.
Since its inception in 1988, the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company has provided dance programs for young people with multiple disabilities. The Company works with professional therapists to improve students’ social, cognitive, and physical abilities through music and dance. In 2018, the Company’s program at the A Harry Moore School for children with disabilities won the New Jersey Access Network’s Innovator Award.
The A Harry Moore School has offered academic, therapeutic, pre-vocational and social programs for approximately 140 students between the ages of three and twenty-one since the 1930s. The students are classified as Preschool Disabled, Learning and Language Disabled, and Multiply Disabled. The school, operated under the College of Education of New Jersey City University, allows students to participate in cultural and educational activities.
“Whenever we ask our students how they would like to be treated, they inevitably say just like everyone else," said Steven Goldberg, the Principal of the A Harry Moore School. "To watch our students take to the stage and dance just like everyone else is truly heartwarming and uplifting.”
The live demonstration will take place at 10 a.m. The Margaret Williams Theatre of NJCU is located at 2039 Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City. Admission is free.