Upstate New York Dance Teacher Brings Classical Beauty to Local Stages

Having performed with Shen Yun Performing Arts at the world’s top venues for almost a decade, Alison Chen has extended her trained classical artistry into a new passion.

One of the first classical Chinese dance professors at Fei Tian College in Middletown, Ms. Chen helped build up the dance department, created a minor degree, and launched an outreach program.

In the past two years, she has taken a small student ensemble to perform at local stages of all stripes, including at Legoland, Woodbury Commons, community festivals, school gyms, and senior centers.

“Everywhere we go, people just keep telling us how peaceful our dancing is,” Ms. Chen, who often joins her students on stage, told The Epoch Times. “Every time we perform, it is like a gentle reminder for everyone that there are a lot of beautiful things to look forward to in their lives.”

Behind the growing performance list is her personal growth and that of students.

“When things are hard, I always think back to what we did in Shen Yun, like how we faced challenges head-on and how we treated each other like a family,” she said.

“I feel like my entire existence now is for boosting others up and helping others grow.”

Shen Yun Years

A California native, Ms. Chen joined the New York-based Fei Tian Academy when she was 12. She was trained in classical Chinese dance and standard academics on a serene campus in Western Orange County.

The training was rigorous, and the standard was high. Day by day, she tempered her will and enlarged her capacity, often by drawing strength from caring students and teachers, she said.

Alison Chen in a dance studio at the Fei Tian College campus in Middletown, N.Y., on Sept. 19, 2023. (Samira Bouaou/ The Epoch Times)

Before long, Ms. Chen made it into Shen Yun, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, whose mission is to revive the genuine traditional Chinese culture that prevailed before the communists took over China.

“Those were the happiest years of my life,” she recalled of her time with the company, including several years as a principal dancer. “It didn’t matter how big or small my role was—I cherished every moment.

“Sometimes, I was pushed past my comfort zone and played characters completely unlike myself, but I never said no to a role, because I knew it would help me improve as an artist.”

Shen Yun’s rehearsal facility sits on the same 400-acre Dragon Springs campus as Fei Tian Academy and Fei Tian College, where Ms. Chen later graduated from.

“Growing up at Dragon Springs, we learned that heart and art are tied together, and you have to search much more internally rather than just externally to make your dance better,” she said.

“When you are in that kind of environment, you learn to reflect on yourself as a person even from a young age.”

Most Shen Yun dancers and musicians practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice rooted in Buddhist traditions that involves meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

For the past 24 years, practitioners of this discipline have been consistently targeted by brutal persecution initiated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This, along with the fact that Shen Yun seeks to revive the traditional Chinese culture that’s been systematically suppressed by the regime since the beginning of its rule in 1949, is why the New York-based arts company cannot perform in China today.

Building Up a Dance Department

In 2016, Ms. Chen left Shen Yun and became a teacher at Northern Academy in Middletown, and two years later, she moved on to join Fei Tian College’s new campus, also in Middletown.

There, Ms. Chen and fellow classical Chinese dance and ballet teachers built up a new dance department under the guidance of college chair Tsuai Yung Yung, a prominent dancer from Taiwan.

Alison Chen teaches students in a dance studio at the Fei Tian College campus in Middletown, N.Y., on Sept. 19, 2023. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Upon discovering an administrative talent in Ms. Chen, Ms. Tsuai tapped her to take on more responsibilities before promoting her to department vice chair.

“A lot of times, I don’t think it is because I have a lot of knowledge that I was able to get things done,” Ms. Chen said. “It is rather that I learned from Shen Yun, ‘don’t say no to things you’ve never done before,’ as they were opportunities for you to expand your experience and grow as a person.”

In 2021, Ms. Chen helped establish a dance minor in the department so that students from other disciplines could get the chance to nourish their artistic and emotional sides through the classical art form.

Ian Liu, a college student majoring in data science, told The Epoch Times that taking dance classes and learning to portray different characters helped him become more positive and well-rounded.

Ms. Tsuai, who’s also a faculty member at the famed Martha Graham School in Manhattan, said the minor program has brought more students into the studio. “That means more group energy and more physical communication among students themselves in class—I am very happy to see that,” she said.

At about the same time, Ms. Chen jump-started a new outreach program at the department and took a student ensemble to perform classical, folk, and ethnic Chinese dance in the local community.

On a few occasions, they traveled a little farther downstate, upstate, or even beyond the state border, to Pennsylvania and Virginia.

College Student Ensemble

At a local festival, one dance choreographed by Ms. Chen, based on the Daoist philosophy of human harmony with nature, moved a female audience member so much that she called it “a prayer to God.”

“Many traditional values are universal, like honoring the gods and being kind to others; that is not something that is just Chinese,” Ms. Chen said.

“When you share that sort of beauty, it rings true with people, and they can connect with it because it is somehow part of their cultures, too.”

Alison Chen (L), Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus (2nd L), and students at a Chinese New Year event in Port Jervis, N.Y., on Jan. 22, 2023. (Larry Dye/The Epoch Times)

Ms. Chen also collaborated with local studios and companies as part of the outreach program, such as when she worked with Elizabeth Flores from the New American Youth Ballet on a piece called “Life of a Dancer,” which was shown at the Warwick Center for the Performing Arts.

“Alison is such a creative and artistic person,” Ms. Flores told The Epoch Times. “There is this good energy in the room, and it is great when artists can take ego out of the picture and simply focus on creating the best work they can—with that, a lot is possible.”

The stage experiences also help Ms. Chen’s students grow into future artists.

Carol Du, who used to struggle with stage fright, became a more confident dancer and aspired to follow in Ms. Chen’s footsteps to become a teacher.

For Vicky Zhao, experiences such as performing on the sun-scorched stage at Legoland, amid rainy and cold weather at local festivals, and on a long and narrow T-stage in Manhattan cultivated a mentality in her to give her best to the audience regardless of venues and conditions.

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Patrick Feng, who was invited to be part of the college student ensemble as a talented high schooler, said he came to appreciate the profound emotional impact of performing arts even more and decided to pursue dance in college.

“It has been quite a journey,“ Ms. Chen said, ”and I have never been happier to see others grow.”

This article was originally published here.