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. It draws in-person audiences of approximately 2,000 people each night from the large downtown population of workers, residents, families, tourists, senior citizens and dance fans from the greater NYC metropolitan area and beyond. 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. Since 2023, the Festival has welcomed in-person and live-streamed audiences from its new home at Rockefeller Park.

“There's something about the sense of community, the sharing of cultures, the plethora of dance styles under the changing light from the late summer sky that invigorates the spirit every August. To our tried-and-true fans, we say ‘see you again soon!’ To newcomers, we look forward to surprising you with the beauty of Rockefeller Park and the delight of seeing phenomenal dance companies in the open-air setting,” said Jonathan Hollander, Founder and Artistic Director of Battery Dance.

Performance Schedule:

Monday, August 12/Young Voices in Dance: Andrea Agostini; Marshall Kahente Diabo; Carsyn Gekas; Zev Haworth, Hannah Howell; Malachi Kingston; Anna Lopez; Kailei Sin; Priscilla Tom; Chen-Jung Yeh.

2024 FESTIVAL ARTISTS (roster subject to change):

Monday August 12/Young Voices in Dance:

Andrea Agostini (Philadelphia, PA)

Los Lobos, World premiere

"My ideas are centered around the wolf pack and the roles it enforces. I am interested in building a world of playful survival, a survival that needs curiosity and community to thrive. Each dancer embodies multiple roles of the pack, relating and rationalizing with each other through different scenarios. The movement is inspired by a sense of leadership, playing, biting, and heightened awareness. How do these animalistic roles find themselves within a human body? Are their experiences more similar to us than we imagine?”

Marshall Kahente Diabo (Montréal, Canada)

tasseomancy, World premiere

A dance piece reflecting the inner workings of a mind, filled with mugs of tea. Sponsorship provided by the Consulate General of Canada in New York, the Québec Government Office in New York, and Canada Council for the Arts.

Carsyn Gekas (NYC)

MODEL 35737

MODEL 35737 explores what it means to appear in a successful operating system but internally function as a deconstructed broken circuit. Through extreme physicality and risk, the dancers created a world that challenges ideas of grandiosity. They researched themes of neglect, getting hurt by providing aid, being forcefully pulled into a system, and a desire to be understood. The carpet symbolizes the functionality seen from the outside, while shedding aspects of destruction within. Ultimately, what it defines is left for the audience to discover.

Zev Haworth (NYC)

To be Made Human, World premiere

This piece is an exploration of the human inclination to cycle between community and individuality - expressed with transitions in and out of unison, canon and counterpoint. It discusses the difference between group and individual identity, and is an experiment in “organized chaos,” and how the human condition is one of perpetually shifting ground.

Hannah Howell (Bloomfield, NJ)

beyond the misery of today (wake)

"This work was created following my dad’s passing in 2020 to commemorate my parents’ beautiful 30-year marriage. The work remains deeply personal, but in the process of creating it, I found that I wanted it to resonate with anyone who has experienced grief from losing someone - whether that be through death, incarceration, or simply just the end of a meaningful relationship. The title of the work is meant to convey that, beyond the grief, there is joy and love. The work is also a vigil for those we have lost.”

Malachi Kingston (NYC)

Feels like Home (working title), World premiere

A world premiere work by 18 year old Malachi Kingston.

Anna Lopez (NYC)

On Exhaust, NYC premiere

On Exhaust is a study on exhaustion. Specifically, when we are bottomed out, past the brink of exhaustion, what is it that picks us up and keeps us pushing forward? The piece is heavily inspired by the way dancers experience this, although the human experience of exhaustion is universal. When we are completely burnt out, and see no end in sight, what is it that shifts us into third gear? On Exhaust explores and gives that answer.

Kailei Sin (NYC)

who, what, when, where, and why?

who, what, when, where, and why? is an exploration of the multifaceted being of one person's mind and the many ways it can change at the drop of a hat: from an unexpected noise or distracting visual, to the various thoughts racing through the mind at any given moment. What happens when we get stuck in a pattern or form a habit? How do we break it, or is it even worth breaking? This work approaches these themes and ideas with a silly seriousness, playing with satire, humor, and breaking of the 4th wall.

Priscilla Tom (NYC)

Cue - Routine - Reward (I)

An exhibition of our habit loops. The neurological routes that govern us unconsciously. Driven through triggers and cultivating cravings. The willpower it takes to change what is ingrained.

The soundscape of Cue - Routine - Reward (I) was crafted alongside the movement, giving space to generate patterns in silence and true inspiration from the dancers. While a majority of Priscilla’s work is based on improvisational scores, when embarking on this piece, she began with sound creation.

Chen-Jung Yeh (Taipei, Taiwan)

Rugged Road, US premiere

Success comes through failure. As you attain higher accomplishments and status, the land on which you step becomes far more dirt trodden. Sometimes you cannot even breathe naturally. But remember, you came here of your own free will. Sponsorship provided by the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York.