• By Mabel Pais

Performances by

Aliyah Banerjee & Shashank Iswara (TX), Taraana, NYC Premiere

Samanvita Kasthuri (MO), Krtaghna, NYC Premiere

August 15, 2023 at Rockefeller Park, India Independence Day

Rudrakshya Foundation (India)

Durgesh Gangani (India), The Legacy

                                                                  And more

Battery Dance celebrates the 42nd Anniversary of its free summer festival from August 12-18, 2023, in partnership with Battery Park City Authority. The 42nd Annual Battery Dance Festival will feature in-person and live-streamed performances staged each night at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, New York City at 7PM ET, with a rain date on August 19. Reaching both local and international audiences, the Festival promotes Battery Dance’s mission of connecting the world through dance. For more information, visit batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival. 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. Pre-pandemic, it drew audiences of approximately 2,000 people each night in its iconic setting at Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park. The Festival went virtual in 2020, attracting 30,000 viewers across 206 countries. In 2021, it ran as a hybrid model with over 10,000 in-person and over 21,000 virtual audience members. This year, the Festival welcomes in-person and live-streamed audiences from a new location at Rockefeller Park.

“When Super Storm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, Battery Park City Authority reached out a helping hand, providing a beautiful site for the Battery Dance Festival which we’ve all enjoyed every summer since 2013. With the prospect of rising seas in future, BPCA is enacting a pro-active resiliency plan, lifting Wagner Park up to 12 feet, making it inaccessible this summer. But fear not! BPCA has invited us to move to Rockefeller Park this summer where we’ll benefit from the large lawn and river-front views, as we bask in the glow of performances by local and international companies.” – Jonathan Hollander, Founder and Artistic Director of Battery Dance.

August 12, 2023 at Rockefeller Park

Young Voices in Dance

The Bowery Mission (NYC)

Marley Poku-Kankam (NYC), All Four

Aliyah Banerjee & Shashank Iswara (TX), Taraana, NYC Premiere

Taraana, a Kathak-Bharatanatyam collaboration, explores acceptance and coexistence. The duet presents two ancient Indian classical styles with rigid frameworks, conveying how open-mindedly embracing the other form leads to harmony onstage, without compromise of technical purity. Using the style of “jugalbandi” (interaction between the two dancers), the work portrays its broader theme: how welcoming different identities, while preserving tradition, can create a culturally rich, conflict-free society.

Dareon Blowe (VA), How Do Five Parts Construct a Whole?, NYC Premiere

Mateo Vidals (NYC), There is Always Something Happening

Luke Biddinger (PA), La Vie En Rose, World Premiere

Cameron Kay (NYC), Interface, NYC Premiere

Samanvita Kasthuri (MO), Krtaghna, NYC Premiere 

Krtaghna is an Indian-classical fusion piece that reflects on environmentalism. Krtaghna follows the story of Mother Earth caring for man and growing him with love, only for man to grow and exploit the five elements of the Earth. Mother Earth, battered and broken, has no choice but to destroy the Earth. This dance is a cautious warning to humans, urging people to be grateful to the Earth. Krtaghna utilizes traditional Indian classical elements of dance with a Western sound in its music, as well as the usage of English words and quotes.

Micah Sell (NYC), Outline, World Premiere

Queensborough Community College (NYC), Discovering, World Premiere

Willem Sadler (Canada), Soullessly Flying, World Premiere

Tulia Marshall (NY), A fraction of a true self

Joanne Hwang (NYC), Static State of Perfection

August 13, 2023 at Rockefeller Park 

Batara Gowa (Indonesia), Lebonna, U.S. debut

Battery Dance (NYC), A Certain Mood

Reuel Rogers (Curaçao), Power, World Premiere

Keturah Stephen (NYC), A Yearning Desire, NYC Premiere

Nu-World Contemporary Danse Theatre (NYC), The Called and The Chosen, NYC Premiere

Trainor Dance Inc. (NYC), Courante

IMGE Dance (NYC), (no) man

August 14, 2023 at Rockefeller Park

SOLE Defined (DC), SOLE Defined LIVE, NYC Premiere

Erv Works Dance (NYC), Veiled From the Womb

Jiemin Yang (NYC), Here We Root (Excerpt)

Teodora Velescu and Lari Giorgescu (Romania), Special People, U.S. debut

Batara Gowa (Indonesia), Lebonna, U.S. debut

Fanike! African Dance Troupe (NYC), UPLIFTED!

August 15, 2023 at Rockefeller Park 

India Independence Day

Rudrakshya Foundation (India), Kali Krishna, NYC debut Rudrakshya Foundation, an all-male professional troupe and school founded in 2000 by choreographer Guru Sri Bichitrananda Swain, hails from Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern coastal Indian State of Odisha. The ancient classical dance form of Odissi to which Rudrakshya is dedicated, is depicted in the carvings of ancient Hindu temple friezes in Puri, Bhubaneswar, Konark and Cuttack. Guru Bichitrananda received training from the pre-eminent guru of Odissi, Padma Vibhushan Kelucharan Mohapatra and his leading disciple Sujata Panigrahi and passes on his learnings and his choreographic creations to young men in the traditional form of teacher and students living and learning together.  Rudrakshya has been presented in festivals and theaters throughout India and on tour in Europe, Asia and North America. This is the troupe’s first appearance in New York City and celebrates Indian Independence Day, with sponsorship from the Consulate General of India in New York and State Bank of India – New York.

Durgesh Gangani (India), The Legacy

Durgesh will be performing works of his grandfather Pt. Sundarlal Gangani, who was a legendary Kathak Guru with a global impact and pioneering personality who brought Kathak to the Indian university education system in the year 1951.

Amarnath Ghosh (India), Maragatha Manimaya

This piece is what is known as a Tarangam in Kuchipudi which is where the dancer performs intricate rhythmic patterns while balancing on the edge of a brass plate. This piece describes the glory and splendour of Lord Krishna.

August 16, 2023 at Rockefeller Park

Julian Donahue Dance (NYC), Displacement

Citadel + Compagnie (Canada), Soudain l’hiver dernier

Tabanka Dance Ensemble (Norway), Progress, U.S. debut

Teodora Velescu and Lari Giorgescu (Romania), Special People, U.S. debut

Jerron Herman (NYC), Lax, World Premiere

Carolyn Dorfman Dance (NJ), NOW, NYC Premiere

Dancers Unlimited (Hawaii/NYC), Edible Tales (Excerpts) Soul Food & Kanaloa, NYC Premiere

August 17, 2023 at Rockefeller Park

In memoriam: Jennifer Muller (1944-2023)

Jennifer Muller/The Works (NYC), Miserere Nobis

Tribute to Turn of the 20th Century American Modern Dance Pioneers

Dances by Isadora (NYC), Isadora Duncan: Under a New Sky

Time Lapse Dance (NYC), American Elm and Piece for a Northern Sky

Denishawn (NYC), Denishawn (Excerpts)

Lori Belilove/The Isadora Duncan Dance Company (NYC), Tribute to Ukraine

August 18, 2023 at Rockefeller Park

Adriana Ogle & Toru Sakuragi (NYC), Softly as in a Morning Glow

Amanda Treiber (NYC), Wind-Up

Bruce Wood Dance (TX), In My Your Head, NYC Premiere

Citadel + Compagnie (Canada), Soudain l’hiver dernier

Boca Tuya (NYC), Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight

Tabanka Dance Ensemble (Norway), Progress, U.S. debut

Reuel Rogers (Curaçao), Power, World Premiere

Battery Dance (NYC), The Wind in the Olive Grove

Battery Dance

For updates and more information, visit batterydance.org.

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