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:

Saturday, August 17: Buglisi Dance Theatre; Pony Box Dance Theatre; Pori Dance Company; T'Ana Selah; Wyatt Sutter & Charles Pierson.

2024 FESTIVAL ARTISTS (roster subject to change):

Buglisi Dance Theatre (NYC)

Suns and Future Imaginings

Suns and Future Imaginings explores the theme that all human beings are connected regardless of race, gender, religion, or cultural heritage. Buglisi takes inspiration from Adrienne Maree Brown’s writings on interdependence and the healing, transformative power found in communal collaboration and ritual practice. Home is within you; in the future we will recognize this profound understanding, illuminating our place in the world, in finding true happiness in knowing ourselves through the mystery and miracle that is life.

Pony Box Dance Theatre (NYC)

masc4mask

Mask4masc explores issues around masculinity and identity, based on personal and collective experiences.

Pori Dance Company (Pori, Finland)

Songs, US premiere

Songs is a love letter to dancing together. The work, which talks about gentleness and the beauty of trying again, creates a meeting place for memories and dreams for dancers in different stages of life, some of whom have worked together for decades, some of whom have just met. Songs is an attempt to be brave without any aim of provocation. The courage of the piece is by nature quiet, revealing and listening to others. In the songs of Songs, life rings with all its longings, loves and losses. For them, we have been looking for a dance where emotion has room to live. A dance that doesn't really say anything, and yet it has everything. Sponsorship provided by the Consulate General of Finland in New York.

T'Ana Selah (Ames, IA)

Bruised Heel

Bruised Heel offers a poignant glimpse into choreographer T’Ana Selah’s deeply personal journey with suffering and hope. This multidisciplinary work brings to life a story of harmony, betrayal, and wisdom through the expressive mediums of music and words, anchored in the fusion of traditional Colombian and Contemporary dance.

Wyatt Sutter & Charles Pierson (Chicago, IL)

How are we boundless? Where are we free?, NYC premiere

This work explores ideas of body and identity-based freedom and connection, and the spaces and places that allow us to feel free through music and dance. As a trio (two Dancers and a DJ), the creators explore the relationship between House and Vogue aesthetics in both music and movement, discovering the ways they can be in relationship while diving into ideas of belonging, power dynamics, and modes of support. This piece is an ode to the Black and Brown Queer People who have created and sustained these House and Ball Cultures and Spaces.