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.
44th Battery Dance Festival 2025
The 44th Battery Dance Festival 2025 of international contemporary dance opens at Robert F. Wagner Park on Saturday, August 9, 2025 at 7pm, and continues at Rockefeller Park’s North Esplanade in Battery Park City, Manhattan; from Sunday-Saturday, August 12-16, 2025, at 7pm. FREE.
Many participating companies offer $1 dance workshops.
This season brings a focus on Netherlands culture. The Dutch built a global empire in the 1600s, which included the colony of New Amsterdam which grew into New York City. Today, the Dutch people still have a very broad and welcoming world view. The Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten are still part of the Netherlands, so Dutch is one of the languages of the Americas.
Saturday, August 9 ~ Opening Night
- Marie Poncé, an Arawak-Lokono-Taino/Cherokee-Tuscarora, opens the Festival with “Lifting,” Native American song and hoop dancing. 🇺🇸
- John Manzari & Band dances excerpts from “Recenter,” a one-man tap dance extravaganza. 🇺🇸
- Battery Dance performs “Frontiers,” a contemporary dance about 400 years of Dutch-American history and the many migrations that make New York City what it is today. 🇳🇱
- Limón Dance Company, the legacy of Mexican American modern dancer pioneer José Limón, dances “Suite from a Choreographic Offering” (1964), a memorial to Doris Humphrey, the American modern dancer who trained Limón and then became the Company’s Artistic Director. Bet you didn’t know that one of the Modern Dance pioneers was Mexican American. 🇲🇽
Tuesday, August 12
- John Manzari & Band dances excerpts from “Recenter,” a one-man tap dance extravaganza. 🇺🇸
- Battery Dance performs the World Premiere of “On-Still,” a piece about the fluidity of identity, reality, and our human need to belong. 🇳🇱
- Faizah Grootens, from the Netherlands, performs the NYC Premiere of “Tanten bo t’aki – While you’re here” about the connection between two dancers, and their audience. The title is in the Portuguese-based Creole language Papiamentu, which is spoken in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. 🇳🇱
- Bulareyaung Dance Company from Taiwan, dances the NYC Premiere of “Colors” which is about the Company’s response to a typhoon that destroyed their studio. 🇹🇼
Wednesday, August 13
- UNARTE Cía, from Spain, dances the World Premiere of “Verso Roto” (Broken Verse) a dialogue between the heritage of Spanish dance and the present. 🇪🇸
- Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble from Germany, and Lucas Crew from South Korea, dance “Eden,” a work about the edge of reality. 🇩🇪
- Bulareyaung Dance Company from Taiwan, dances the NYC Premiere of “Colors” which is about the Company’s response to a typhoon that destroyed their studio. 🇹🇼
- Faizah Grootens, from the Netherlands, performs the NYC Premiere of “Tanten bo t’aki – While you’re here” about the connection between two dancers, and their audience. The title is in the Portuguese-based Creole language Papiamentu, which is spoken in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. 🇳🇱
- Platforma 13, from Romania, dances the U.S. Premiere of “Balkan Ballerinas,” a piece about the contrast between Balkan identity and Western stereotypes of it. 🇷🇴
Thursday, August 14
- Kar’mel Small, from the South Bronx, dances the NYC Premiere of “La Manta de Reina” (The Queen’s Blanket), about Indigenous Caribs in Grenada who jumped off a cliff to their deaths, to avoid being enslaved by the French in 1651. 🇬🇩
- Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble from Germany, and Lucas Crew from South Korea, dance “Eden,” a work about the edge of reality. 🇩🇪
- Platforma 13, from Romania, dances the U.S. Premiere of “Balkan Ballerinas,” a piece about the contrast between Balkan identity and Western stereotypes of it. 🇷🇴
- UNARTE Cía, from Spain, dances the World Premiere of “Verso Roto” (Broken Verse) a dialogue between the heritage of Spanish dance and the present. 🇪🇸
- Buglisi Dance Theatre dances Martha Graham’s “Sospiri” (1898), about an Argentine woman and her Jesuit priest lover who were executed for their love in 1848. 🇦🇷
- Battery Dance performs the World Premiere of “Empty Hand” (2025) about breaking boundaries to create a collective reality. Our divided America could really use this kind of thinking. 🇺🇸
Friday, August 15 ~ Indian Independence Day
This day’s performances are about Shakti, the Hindu divine feminine energy. By the way, Indians are Latin in the Caribbean, especially in Trinidad.
- Rajika Puri, dances “Sutradhar” a piece in her form of dance storytelling in English. 🇮🇳
- Nandanik Dance Troupe from Pennsylvania, dances “Dashamahavidya” a bharatanatyam (Tamil classical dance) about the 10 incarnations of Shakti, the mother goddess.
- Bijayini Satpathy Dance Collective from India, dances “Lāsya: Lathika & Mahamaya,” two duets about the feminine power and sensuality.
- Subhajit Khush Das from India, dances an untitled World Premiere. His dance company is popular on television in India.
- Kalpavruksha Dance Ensemble from India and New Jersey, dances “The Flame of Destiny” a story of Draupathi the heroine in the ancient Indian epic story The Mahabharata.
- Sonali Skandan from NYC dances the World Premiere of “Durga” about the feminine divine who is both calm and fierce.
- Malini Srinivasan & Dancers from NYC perform “Being Becoming” about the power and creativity of the feminine divine.
- Sampradaya Dance Creations from Canada performs “Dwitiya” about the balance of masculine and feminine represented by the divine union of Shiva and Shakti. Feminine energy is not only in women. The creative part of a man is his anima, or feminine aspect. The creative side of a woman is her animus, or male aspect.
Indian classical dance is a world unto itself. Its influence dance far beyond India including: Thai classical dance, flamenco, and modern dance which was originally inspired by American and European imaginations of oriental dance. Editor Kíko Keith ~ as a boy in Bangkok, Thailand, I saw Thai classical dance in Buddhist temples. When I started working with Spanish flamenco, I recognized the same handwork. Its origin is Northern India’s Kathak dance.
Various Christian, Yoruba, Palo, and Indigenous saints remain a part of Caribbean life today. Indian gods are very much a part of Indian life today. We are so similar.
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 is NYC’s Longest-Running Free Public Dance Festival
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.