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School News Qiu Yue Jin takes a bow in Millennium Park at the close Fall and Back to School fashions and
Seniors of QiXi. Jin, who resides in Bollingbrook, is an award- accessories from The Promenade
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With the artistic touch of a noted Chinese choreographer, a
centuries-old Chinese legend came to life against the Search Events:
backdrop of the Chicago skyline on July 19. Search

Fire Department
Police Department View more events
Public Schools In the world premiere performance of “A China Spectacle:
More Resources QiXi – the Story of Niulang and Zhinu, the Cowherder and
the Weaver Fairy,” the choreographer and artistic director of
Little Star Dance Troupe, Qiu Yue Jin, infused modern-day
Using the Site vitality into an ancient story through traditional Chinese
Triblocal FAQs dance and music.
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Sign-up for Home “This was a unique opportunity to introduce the people of
Delivery Chicago to many aspects of Chinese culture through
movement and spectacle. Hundreds of years of culture and
history are embedded in a single dance performance,” said
Ms. Jin, a resident of Bollingbrook. “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.

The July 19 performance of ”QiXi” served as the opening

extravaganza for the City of Chicago’s Chinese Cultural
Week, a series of more than 50 arts, musical and cultural Tollways
activities. During Chinese Cultural Week, Ms. Jin’s students
also performed traditional ethnic Chinese dance programs Would you pay higher tolls for better
at major Chicago landmarks including Daley Plaza and roads?
Millennium Park Family Fun Tent. Yes
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I take public transportation
Qiu Yue Jin Showcases Ethnic Chinese Minority
Traditions
Vote!
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 View results
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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