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Obituaries QiXi performance in Millennium Park.
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In the world premiere performance of “A China
Spectacle: QiXi – the Story of Niulang and Zhinu, the
Police Department View more events
Cowherder and the Weaver Fairy,” the
Village of Oak Park choreographer and artistic director of Little Star
Village of River Forest Dance Troupe, Qiu Yue Jin, infused modern-day
More Resources
vitality into an ancient story through traditional
Chinese dance and music.
Using the Site
Triblocal FAQs “This was a unique opportunity to introduce the
Contact Us people of Chicago to many aspects of Chinese
Advertise culture through movement and spectacle. Hundreds
Sign-up for Home of years of culture and history are embedded in a
Delivery single dance performance,” said Ms. Jin. “To tell a
story on this scale cannot be achieved in one day.
This production represents 10 years of collaboration
between my dancers, their families and me.”

This one-of-a-kind theatrical experience told the

age-old story of star-crossed love through traditional
music and ethnic Chinese dances, weaving its magic
as the production moved among the landmark
attractions of Millennium Park. A crowd estimated at
more than 3,000 attended the show.

The unique production, adapted and directed by

Nina Chen for the Chinese Fine Arts Society, united
175 performers from leading Chinese arts
organizations. More than 85 of Ms. Jin’s students
from throughout the Chicago area were featured in
the show, including dancers from Oak Park and River
Forest.
The July 19 performance of ”QiXi” served as the
opening extravaganza for the City of Chicago’s Tollways
Chinese Cultural Week, a series of more than 50 arts,
musical and cultural activities. During Chinese Would you pay higher tolls for better
Cultural Week, Ms. Jin’s students also performed roads?
traditional ethnic Chinese dance programs at major Yes
Chicago landmarks including Daley Plaza and No
Millennium Park Family Fun Tent. I take public transportation

Vote!
Qiu Yue Jin Showcases Ethnic Chinese Minority
Traditions View results
Through Chinese dance, Ms. Jin demonstrates a
profound awareness of the traditions of ethnic
minority populations from various regions of China.
With elaborate costumes and a focus on authentic
music and dance movement, her work embodies a
world few would see today as she brings the
traditions of China’s ethnic minority populations to
life.

Ms Jin’s career spans decades and countries. As a

young woman in 1959, Ms. Jin was identified as a
rising dance star in China. She received China’s
highest honors and a national reputation for
authentic ethnic minority dance. Her career
progressed from being a nationally-ranked performer
to a master instructor and choreographer. Her
students have gone on to become some of China’s
premier stage-program directors. One of her
students, Tang Wen Jian, now a famous
choreographer in China, was among the small team
who directed the opening/closing sessions of the
2008 Beijing Olympics.

Since arriving in the United States in 1994, Ms. Jin

has continued to teach and direct performances of
Chinese traditional folk dances with the highest
artistic standards of quality and professionalism. The
Illinois Arts Council has honored Ms. Jin and her
students with five separate grants for excellence in
traditional and folk arts. She is a National
Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Heritage Fellowship
nominee.

Her Chicago-area students have performed ethnic

dances of Chinese minorities at leading cultural
festivals and civic events, which include the City of
Chicago Peace Day, Chinatown’s Dragon Boat
Festival for Literacy and the Chicago Children’s
Museum Chinese New Year Celebration. In 2004, Jin
led Chicago students and their families in a cultural
exchange and dance tour in China, which created
headlines in several newspapers in Beijing.

At the age of 68, Ms. Jin still dances and maintains a

very active schedule “teaching more students than
grains of rice in a bowl,” she said. She teaches a
wide variety of programs in the Chicago area that
include: the Chinese American Service League,
World Language Program in the Chicago Public
Schools, Malcolm X College Continuing Education,
University of Illinois Chicago Summer Outreach, a
number of Chinese schools in the western and
northern suburbs, and for adoptive families of
children from China in Oak Park and Evergreen Park.
In 2006, Ms. Jin formed “Xiao Xing Xing,” or “Little
Star” Dance Troupe, composed of teens and adults
dedicated to learning and performing Chinese dance.

“It is gratifying to see our dancers develop their skills

and abilities,” Ms. Jin said. “I take great pleasure in
seeing them blossom into great dancers. I am their
gardener, nurturing each. Watching each flourish –
that is my happiness.”
For more information about Little Star Dance Troupe,
Chinese dance instruction and future performance
dates please contact Kathy McMahon at
xiao_xingxing@comcast.net

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