Hundreds of people crowded New York City's iconic Lincoln Center's Josie Robertson Plaza on Saturday to join a Chinese New Year celebration.

The afternoon performance featured traditional Chinese dances and was part of the New York Philharmonic's Year of the Horse celebration. The celebration also included an evening concert featuring renowned musicians such as pianist Yuja Wang and folk singer Song Zuying.

Among the dancers, 75 American youths from the National Dance Institute (NDI) received the most applause. Aged eight to 14, they performed a variety of dances from Chinese ethnic minority groups from Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet.

"It's a good way to learn about different cultures. Through dancing, those American kids can learn more about Chinese culture," said Shirley Young, chairman of US-China Cultural Institute. "I saw some kids who performed Mongolian dances earlier were trying to learn from the professional Mongolian dancer."

Students from National Dance Institute perform Chinese traditional dances at New York's Lincoln Center to celebrate Chinese New Year of the Horse last Saturday. Zhang Yang / for China Daily

For the little dancers to better interpret the dances, Kay Gayner, director of NDI's China project, said that the institute had been teaching them about Chinese culture, including some of the finer details of Chinese dance movement.

"Starting last fall, we began to teach them some phrases in Mandarin. Sometimes I even instructed in Chinese using numbers," said Gayner. She said that NDI has been collaborating with China since 1986 and made 2014 their China Year to celebrate the partnership.

Brendan Murray, an 11-year old student who has been performing with NDI on scholarship, said that initially he joined the Lincoln Center performance team because he thought it would be a good publicity opportunity for NDI. But as he practiced more, he started to enjoy Chinese culture very much.

"We have learned about yin and yang, different regions of China, clothing and behavior," said Brendan, who also mentioned he would love to learn Chinese someday.

Greta Campo, an Italian dancer in her early 20s, also began to appreciate Chinese culture through dancing. Campo came to New York two years ago to study dance and has been performing with Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company ever since.

"At first I auditioned for modern dance at Nai-Ni Chen (Dance Company) but I happened to also perform the Chinese dances," said Campo. "And I start to like it very much."

For many dancers performed on Saturday afternoon, it was the first time for them to perform at Lincoln Center. Being able to perform there, even for free, is a dream-come-true for many, said Gayner.

The New York Philharmonic's Chinese New Year celebration evening concert was sold out, with an audience of 2,700. A collaboration between the New York Philharmonic and Chinese artists, the performance started with Tan Dun's The Triple Resurrection and ended with four folk songs by Song Zuying.

"I wasn't familiar with Chinese music before but this was absolutely wonderful," said Micherra Matras, a student at Fordham University. "While I was sitting there I was already planning to buy the CDs from these musicians."

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