Battery Dance Festival is a free international festival of contemporary dance held outdoors in Battery Park City in August. New York City makes one of the world’s most stunning dance festival stages. The Hudson River provides an incredibly romantic backdrop.
43rd Battery Dance Festival 2024
The 43rd Battery Dance Festival of international contemporary dance; is on the North Esplanade at Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City, Manhattan; for one week from Sunday-Saturday, August 11-17, 2024, at 7pm. FREE. 🇺🇸 🇧🇷 🇨🇦 🇨🇴 🇩🇴 🇫🇮 🇩🇪 🇮🇳 🇲🇽 🇳🇱 🇳🇬 🇷🇴 🇰🇷 🇹🇼 🇻🇪
This season brings around 250 dancers, from 39 dance companies, from 11 countries to New York City. You can watch amazing dance while your kids play in the park. If you bring a ball, a bunch of kids will play together.
Special programs include “Young Voices in Dance” celebrating the next generation of choreographers, an India Day independence celebration with Indian classical dance, and “Future 400” a Netherlands Consulate celebration of 400 years of Dutch influence in New York City with an eye on the next 400 years. The Festival includes dance workshops by visiting companies which will be of interest to professional and amateur dancers.
There is a lot of work this year exploring identity. Now that we are beginning to decolonize our heads, and more than half the world lives in cities, there is a conflict between our heritage identities and the way we live today. Heritage cultures tend to be community-focused, whereas urban culture is more individualistic. Somewhere on the road to modernity, we tend to lose our common humanity. Dance originated in human rituals of the spirit and love. Dancing is still one of the best ways to find those things, and you will see lots of both at the Battery Dance Festival.
Sunday, August 11
- A’nó:wara Dance Theatre is an Indigenous dance company from Montréal, Canada. 🇨🇦
- Battery Dance Company, the Festival founder, is from Downtown, Manhattan. 🇺🇸
- Focus Dance Company is from Taipei, Taiwan. 🇹🇼
- Sun Kim Dance Theatre is a New York Korean dance company. 🇰🇷
- Alexandra F. Light is from Fort Worth, Texas. 🇺🇸
- McKoy Dance Project is from Brooklyn. 🇺🇸
- wee dance company is from Görlitz, Germany. 🇩🇪
Monday, August 12
This day is about 12 young voices who represent the future of dance choreography.
- Andrea Agostini is a Venezuelan American choreographer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 🇻🇪
- Marshall Kahente Diabo is from Montréal, Canada. 🇨🇦
- Carsyn Gekas is a New Yorker. @carsyngekas 🇺🇸
- Zev Haworth is a New Yorker. 🇺🇸
- Hannah Howell is a New Yorker. 🇺🇸
- Malachi Kingston is a New Yorker. @mali_finesse_ 🇺🇸
- Anna Lopez is a New Yorker. @annalochoreo 🇺🇸
- Kailei Sin is a New Yorker. 🇺🇸
- Priscilla Tom is a New Yorker. 🇺🇸
- Chen-Jung Yeh is from Taipei, Taiwan. 🇹🇼
Tuesday, August 13
- A’nó:wara Dance Theatre is an Indigenous dance company from Montréal, Canada. 🇨🇦
- Au.thenticity Dance Co is from Costa Mesa, California. 🇺🇸
- Julie Crothers is a disability dancer from Berkeley, California. 🇺🇸
- Sibiu Ballet Theater & Gigi Căciuleanu Romania Dance Company is from Sibiu/Bucharest, Romania. 🇷🇴
- SPAN Dance Company is from Lagos, Nigeria. 🇳🇬
- Focus Dance Company is from Taipei, Taiwan. 🇹🇼
- Lucas Crew is from Daegu, South Korea. 🇰🇷
- wee dance company is from Görlitz, Germany. 🇩🇪
Wednesday, August 14
- Battery Dance Company is from Downtown, Manhattan. 🇺🇸
- SPAN Dance Company is from Lagos, Nigeria. 🇳🇬
- Carolyn Dorfman Dance is from Union, New Jersey. 🇺🇸
- Lucas Crew is from Daegu, South Korea. 🇰🇷
- Rutkay Özpinar is from Den Haag, Netherlands. 🇳🇱
- Pori Dance Company is from Pori, Finland. 🇫🇮
Thursday, August 15
This is the Festival’s India Day celebration because today is Indian Independence Day.
- Radhika Jha is from New York City and Delhi, India. 🇮🇳
- Rajes Sai B abu Mayurbhanj Chhau Group is from Noida, India. 🇮🇳
Friday, August 16
- Marie Poncé is a Lucayan Taíno – Tuscarora Cherokee member of the Thunderbird American Dancers, based in New York City. 🇺🇸
- Ballet Nepantla is a New York Mexican contemporary ballet folklorico dance company. 🇲🇽
- Battery Dance Company is from New York City. 🇺🇸
- Capoeira Luanda NYC dances Brazilian capoeira, maculele, and samba. 🇧🇷
- Fanikei African Dance Troupe is from New York City. 🇺🇸
- Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company is a New York Chinese dance company. 🇺🇸 (There are several China’s, so just American).
- Rutkay Özpinar is from Den Haag, Netherlands. 🇳🇱
Saturday, August 17
- Buglisi Dance Theatre is from New York City. buglisidance.org 🇺🇸
- Sibiu Ballet Theater & Gigi Căciuleanu Romania Dance Company is from Sibiu/Bucharest, Romania. 🇷🇴
- Evelyn Tejeda is from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 🇩🇴
- Pony Box Dance Theatre is from New York City. 🇺🇸
- Pori Dance Company is from Pori, Finland. 🇫🇮
- T’Ana Selah is a Colombian contemporary dancer from Ames, Iowa. 🇨🇴
- Wyatt Sutter & Charles Pierson are from Chicago Illinois. 🇺🇸
Battery Dance Festival Connects the World Through Dance
Founded in 1982, this is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. It draws over 12,000 in-person viewers every year, and an online audience of several times that.
Though it has moved to the north end of Battery Park City, the Festival was long held at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park on the south end, with New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty providing one of the world’s most dynamic dance stage backdrops. The new location still has stunning Hudson River views, and the Park is filled with families.
Battery Dance Company
The Company was founded in Lower Manhattan in 1976 when New York City was falling apart, but bursting with creativity. It has since produced over 125 original dance works by founder and artistic director Jonathan Hollander. It is also a company of teaching artists who bring dance education to New York City public schools.
The Company is committed to Downtown, but has an international focus too. Its “Dancing to Connect” program uses dance to strengthen social ties and resolve conflict around the world. It has presented its programming in over 70 countries on six continents. Some of those international dancers find their way to the Battery Dance Festival.