The Indian Panorama

Tag: Battery Dance

  • BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL REVISITS NYC

    • By Mabel Pais

    BATTERY DANCE celebrates its annual art of dance in its home community of New York City this August, in partnership with Battery Park City Authority (BPCA).

    Dance @ The New Wagner Park, Saturday, August 9 at 7pm

    On Saturday, August 9, Battery Dance Company celebrates the re-opening of Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park. A medley of dance companies will present a 1-hour program opened by Indigenous performer Marie Poncé, followed by tap-dancer John Manzari with a live band.  Battery Dance presents ‘Frontiers’ by Turkish-Dutch choreographer Rutkay Özpinar and Limón Dance Company caps off the evening with the classic work ‘A Choreographic Offering’ created by José Limón in 1964.

    BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL

    August 12-16 brings the 44th Annual Battery Dance Festival enlivening Rockefeller Park with a rain date on August 17. New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival brings together eight diverse dance companies from around the world coupled with a dynamic roster of eight New York-based companies. The free series of events celebrates the universal language of dance with a mix of performances, workshops, and immersive experiences for audiences of all ages.

    The five-night performance line-up features a plethora of premieres and several performances featuring live music.  Crowds of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers typically flock to the Festival each summer, with audiences glorying in the opportunity to experience dance against the spectacular water, sky and cityscape backdrop.

    “Battery Dance stands committed to providing the enlightenment and transcendence of dance free to the public despite the shattering of precedents we had taken for granted. We prevailed through Superstorm Sandy’s flooding of lower Manhattan, the financial crisis of the 2008/09 recession, and the attacks on the World Trade Center,” said Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of Battery Dance. “Thanks to our partners at Battery Park City Authority, our sponsors and donors, and the dancers and staff and Board of Battery Dance and all the participants who join us in the timeless pursuit of community gathering and beauty, we are prevailing again!”

    “For more than a decade our beautiful public spaces have played host to the beauty of the Battery Dance Festival, and we’re honored this year to host events both as part of Wagner Park’s reopening celebration, and in Rockefeller Park for five more fantastic evenings of dance,” said BPCA President & CEO Raju Mann. “A neighborhood favorite and staple of Battery Park City’s summer programming calendar, the Festival provides New Yorkers a front-row seat to world-class talent, and we thank our partners at Battery Dance for this enduring partnership.”

    PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

    Dance @ The New Wagner Park, Saturday, August 9 at 7pm

    Battery Dance performs in this celebratory night of dance alongside Marie Poncé, The Limón Dance Company, and tap dancer John Manzari & Band in celebrating Wagner Park’s reopening.

    Battery Dance Festival:  Tuesday, August 12 – Saturday, August 16 at 7pm

    Tuesday, August 12: John Manzari & Band, excerpts of Recenter (USA); Pace University Dancing to Connect conducted by Robin Cantrell (USA); Battery Dance, Sense of Belonging, a world premiere by Faizah Grootens (USA); Faizah Grootens, While You’re Here (Netherlands), Bulareyaung Dance Company, Colors (Taiwan)

    Wednesday, August 13: UNARTE, Verso Roto (Spain -World Premiere); Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble, Eden (South Korea/Germany); Bulareyaung Dance Company, Colors (Taiwan); Faizah Grootens While You’re Here (Netherlands), Platforma 13, Balkan Ballerinas (Romania – U.S. Premiere)

    Thursday, August 14: Kar-mel Small, La Manta de Reina (USA); Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble, Eden (South Korea/Germany); Platforma 13, Balkan Ballerinas (Romania – U.S. Premiere); UNARTE, Verso Roto (Spain -World Premiere); Buglisi Dance Theatre, Sospiri (USA), Battery Dance, Empty Hand by Damani Pompey (USA – World Premiere)

    Friday, August 15: India Day – SHAKTI, Divine Energy

    Dashamahavidya – Nandanik Dance Troupe, Pittsburgh (Credit: Arindam Sen)
    Sonali Skandan, Durga (Credit: Anushila Shaw)
    Subhajit Khush Das (Credit: Pratyush Roy Choudhury)

    India Independence Day – celebrates SHAKTI – Divine Energy

    Sutradhar – Rajika Puri

    Performers

    Bharatanatyam:  Nandanik Dance Troupe (Pittsburgh) ‘Dashamahavidya,’ choreography by Subhajit Khush Das,

    Odissi:  Bijayini Satpathy Dance Collective (Bangalore/New York), ‘Lāsya:  Lathika & Mahamaya’ performed by Ariaki Dandawate and Malavika Singh, choreographed by Bijayini Satpathy

    Uday Shankar Style:  Subhajit Khush Das (Kolkata), untitled – world premiere

    Kuchipudi & Kathakali:  Kalpavruksha Dance Ensemble (Hyderabad/New Jersey) Swathi Gundapuneedi-Atluri, Choreographer

    Bharatanatyam:  Sonali Skandan (New York), ‘Durga’ choreographed by Sonali Skandan and Maya Kulkarni

    Bharatanatyam:  Malini Srinivasan & Dancers (New York), ‘Being Becoming’

    Program subject to change.

    Battery Dance Festival

    New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival was established by Battery Dance as the Downtown Dance Festival in 1982. Originally envisioned and conducted as an “art in the workplace” series, the festival brought hundreds of free noontime dance performances to lower Manhattan public spaces including South Street Seaport, One Chase Plaza, City Hall and for many years, the World Trade Center Plaza.  When Superstorm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan in 2012, Battery Park City Authority offered Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park as an alternative site and the Festival refashioned itself into a nighttime event beginning in 2013.  With the need to conduct an extensive resiliency plan, Wagner Park was decommissioned in 2023 and the Festival relocated again, this time to the lawn at Rockefeller Park where it continues this year. Learn more at batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival.

    Battery Dance

    Founded by Jonathan Hollander in 1976 in lower Manhattan, Battery Dance now serves as one of America’s leading cultural ambassadors, connecting the world through dance. With its exceptional team of dancers who also serve as teaching artists and choreographers, the Company pursues artistic excellence and social relevance, creating vibrant new works, performing on the world’s stages, presenting dance in public spaces, serving the field of dance with low-cost studios in its home in Tribeca and teaching people of all ages with special attention to the disadvantaged and areas of conflict.

    Battery Dance is committed to enhancing the cultural vibrancy of its home community in New York City, extending programming throughout the U.S., and building bridges worldwide through international cultural exchange with programs in 75 countries to date. Learn more at  batterydance.org

    (Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Spirituality, Education, Business, Health and Wellness, and Cuisine)

  • Battery Dance presents the 41st Annual Battery Dance Festival

    Battery Dance presents the 41st Annual Battery Dance Festival

    NEW YORK CITY (TIP): The Battery Dance Festival is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. Each year, the Festival draws a combined audience of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers.

    Free Outdoor Performances

    August 13-19, 2022

    7:00 – 9:00pm

    Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park – Battery Park City

    Indoor Closing Event + VIP Reception

    August 20, 2022

    6:00 – 8:00pm

    The Schimmel Center

  • Dance Diplomacy on Battery Dance TV

    Dance Diplomacy on Battery Dance TV

                                             Dance Diplomacy

    Jonathan with Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty, Consul General of India NY, dancer Pallavi Krishnan of Kerala, India and Samiul Islam Poluck, elocutionist of Dhaka, Bangladesh

    On Battery Dance TV,  Sunday, April 19, 2020 at 9am and 12noon EST

    NEW YORK (TIP): Battery Dance launched Battery Dance TV on March 27, 2020 at https://batterydance.org/dancetv/ to provide free live dance classes and programming for the general public by Battery Dance and affiliated artists through a regularly scheduled program.  Faced with the cancellation of its New York City public school dance classes and the postponement of its State Department Nigeria tour, and with its popular dance studios closed, the company staff members went into high gear (from living rooms and kitchens), creating online content. In its first three weeks, Battery Dance TV has been seen by more than 30,000 viewers in 95 countries.

    A regular Sunday interview program hosted by Battery Dance’s Founder Jonathan Hollander brings together artists from the U.S., India, Mexico, Costa Rica and Kenya, as well as diplomats who have programmed the arts as a way of bringing people together and encouraging peaceful understanding and cultural exchange. 

    On Sunday, April 19, the conversation returns once again to South Asia. Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty, Indian Consul General in New York and two performers, dancer Pallavi Krishnan and elocutionist Samiul Islam Poluck, discuss the oeuvre of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.  “Tagore was a Renaissance man and finding solace in his words and music at a time of disruption and isolation is a theme that is woven through the conversation” according to Hollander. 

    Two videos choreographed to Tagore songs will be shown at the conclusion of the discussion:

    Rabindra Sangeet (Tagore song)

    Sung by Iman Chakraborty

    Danced and Choreographed by Pallavi Krishnan

     

    The Dreamer

    Song by Rabindranath Tagore based on the lines of Robert Burns

    Sung and performed by Shwapnil Shojib

    Dramaturgy by Samiul Islam Poluck

    Battery Dancers Robin Cantrell, Mira Cook, Bethany Mitchell, Unnath Hassan Rathnaraju, Sean Scantlebury

    Produced by Rtv Bangladesh and the U.S. Embassy Dhaka

     In addition to the Artists Talks each Sunday, classes in international dance styles and a short improvisational solo continue the focus on different countries around the world.  Bharatanatyam from India, Mestizo Fusion from Mexico and African Fusion from South Africa have been featured in previous weeks with solo performances by dancers from Cuba and Kenya.

    Among the 100+ offerings that Battery Dance has posted include:

    • morning warmup/stretching/conditioning exercises to start your day off right
    • mid-day classes in contemporary dance with afro, ballet and jazz fusion elements
    • evening classes in varied ballroom styles
    • a daily 4pm short video by dancers performing in their living rooms

    Morning Classes & Instructors

    Flow – Vivake Khamsingsavath

    Stretch & Strength – Mira Cook

    Conditioning – Sean Scantlebury

      Afternoon Contemporary Classes & Instructors

    Jazz Fusion – Jill Linkowski

    Ballet Fusion – Bethany Mitchell

    Storytelling & Repertoire – Hussein Smko

    Afro Fusion – Sean Scantlebury

     Evening Ballroom Classes & Instructor

    Cha Cha, Salsa, Waltz, Fox Trot, Tango, Rumba, Swing – Razvan Stoian

    Battery Dance also plans to expand its distance learning and programming by including online classes in lighting and production design, and classes in arts administration and cultural diplomacy. In the future, the Company plans to add short performances by youth around the world who will create short dances based on a specific weekly theme suggested by the Company.

     ABOUT BATTERY DANCE

    As one of America’s leading cultural ambassadors, Battery Dance connects the world through dance. The Company pursues artistic excellence and social relevance by creating vibrant new works, performing on the world’s stages, presenting dance in public spaces, serving the field of dance and teaching people of all ages with special attention to the disadvantaged and areas of conflict. Battery Dance is committed to enhancing the cultural vibrancy of its home community in New York City, extending programming throughout the U.S., and building bridges worldwide through international cultural exchange with programs in 70 countries to date. www.batterydance.org