Battery Dance Company's 27th Annual Downtown Dance Festival
AUGUST 16-24, 2008
Battery Dance Company announces its 27th annual Downtown Dance Festival. This free roving event is held each summer in Lower Manhattan parks, plazas and piers. This year, three diverse spaces will be enlivened: the Festival will return to Chase Plaza and The Lawn at Battery Park, its homes for the past five years, and will cross the harbor for the first time with performances on Governors Island.
Battery Dance Company has added another innovation this year by partnering with the Indo-American Arts Council to present two days of South Asian dance during the Downtown Dance Festival’s residency at Chase Plaza. In view of the response last year, Battery Dance Company will reprieve its Everybody Dance NOW! program, in which the audience is invited on stage to learn a segment from one of the pieces they’ve just watched.
This year, the Downtown Dance Festival will feature 30 dance companies: Amy Marshall Dance Company, Axis Danz, Ballet Noir, Battery Dance Company, Battleworks Dance Company, BODYART, Dance China NY, Dancewave’s Kids Company, Dances By Isadora, Eidolon Ballet, Figures in Flight, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Genesis Dance Company, I -danse, isadoraNOW, Kotchenga, Lane & Co., Lydia Johnson Dance, Naganuma Dance, Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances For A Variable Population, Rainy Welch, Riedel Dance Theater, Sachiyo Ito, Spinnin Ronin Martial Arts Theater, Stefanie Nelson Dance Group, Undertoe Dance Project, Valentina Kozlova's Dance Conservatory of New York, Vissi Dance Theater, Xodus Dance Collective, and Yaa Samar! Dance Theater.
Calendar of Events
Saturday, August 16th and Sunday, August 17th, 1pm – 5pm
Location: Governors Island
Directions: The Governors Island Ferry departs from the Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan and is free of charge. To reach the Ferry by Subway, take the 1 to South Ferry or the 4/5 to Bowling Green*
Saturday August 16th
Eidolon Ballet
Yaa Samar! Dance Theater
Battery Dance Company
Rainey Welch
Valentina Kozlova’s Dance Conservatory of New York
Lydia Johnson Dance
Stefanie Nelson Dance Group
Lane & Co.
Vissi Dance Theater
Sunday August 17th
Dances by Isadora
Genesis Dance Company
xodus dance collective
Dance China NY
Ballet Noir
Sachiyo Ito
I -danse
Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances For A Variable Population
Spinnin Ronin, Martial Arts Dance Theater
isadoraNOW
Amy Marshall Dance Company
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
Monday, August 18th – Friday, August 22th, 12pm - 2pm
Location: Chase Plaza, Nassau Street between Liberty and Pine
By Subway: 2/3, 4/5 to Wall Street*
Monday August 18
Curated by the Indo American Arts Council as part of their Erasing Boarders Festival of Indian Dance
Tuesday August 19
Curated by the Indo American Arts Council as part of their Erasing Boarders Festival of Indian Dance
Wednesday August 20
Lydia Johnson Dance
I -danse
Battleworks Dance Company
Riedel Dance Theater
Undertoe Dance Project
Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances For A Variable Population
Thursday August 21
Ballet Noir
Amy Marshall Dance Company
Battery Dance Company
Naganuma Dance
Friday August 22
BODYART
Eidolon Ballet
Stefanie Nelson Dance Group
Axis Danz
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana
Saturday, August 23rd and Sunday, August 24th, 1pm – 5pm
Location: The Lawn at Battery Park, adjacent to State Street at Pearl Street
By Subway: 1 to South Ferry; 4/5 to Bowling Green; R/W to Whitehall*
Saturday August 23
Lane & Co.
Genesis Dance Company
Riedel Dance Theater
BODYART
Naganuma Dance
Dances by Isadora
Vissi Dance Theater
Yaa Samar! Dance Theater
Dance China NY
Sunday August 24
Figures in Flight Dance Company
Battleworks
Axis Danz
Dancewave’s Kids Company
xodus dance collective
Spinnin Ronin, Martial Arts Dance Theater
Kotchegna
isadoraNOW
Undertoe Dance Project
Battery Dance Company
Background
Established by Battery Dance Company in 1982, the Downtown Dance Festival (DDF) is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. Audiences are traditionally drawn from the large downtown working population and residents, families, tourists, senior citizens and dance fans from the greater NYC metropolitan area. Last year, the Festival drew a combined audience of over 7,000 people.
Battery Dance Company has invited the Indo-American Arts Council to curate and co-sponsor two days of the Downtown Dance Festival. On August 18th and 19th at Chase Plaza, the First Annual Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance will be launched on the Downtown Dance Festival stage. The performances will feature classical Indian dances such as Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi, and Odissi, as well as contemporary choreographies, modern and post-modern works by South Asian dancers and choreographers. This continues Battery Dance Company’s commitment to introducing downtown audiences to exceptional Indian dance.
The Downtown Dance Festival provides a unique opportunity for both professional and emerging dancers and choreographers to present original works of high artistic merit in a free public forum. The DDF revels in the panoply of dance that our city offers, with strong emphasis on the inclusion of diverse dance styles and an international roster of performers. American choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Mary Anthony, Elizabeth Streb and Darrell Moultrie have all presented their works alongside pre-eminent companies from Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.
*Please note: Due to ongoing construction at South Ferry and Fulton Street, train service changes frequently on the weekends. Always visit http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/advisory.htm before traveling to any of the Festival locations.
Contact Sarah Dell’Orto, Festival Coordinator, at 212.219.3910 or sarah@batterydance.org for more info.
Battery Dance Company’s Downtown Dance Festival is sponsored by the City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation, JPMorgan Chase, Con Edison, the Alliance for Downtown New York, The Battery Conservancy, New York City Councilman Alan J. Gerson, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Public funding is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
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