AUG 12 | In-Person & Livestreamed
Young Voices in Dance, Battery Dance Festival’s newest addition, celebrates the next generation of choreographers. Now in its third year, the program highlights the intellectual curiosity, innovation, and artistic excellence of youth (ages 15-22) across the Americas. The program features live performances with original works choreographed and danced by youth in a variety of styles. Catch these talents on the rise on the Battery Dance Festival stage.
This year’s program features two youth groups, Bowery Mission and Queensborough Community College, that created new works through Battery Dance’s educational exchange program, Dancing to Connect.
In-person: 7pm EDT at Rockefeller Park. Click here for directions.
Livestream: https://vimeo.com/854039765?share=copy
The video will be available to watch for 10 days after the premiere and will expire on Aug 22.
Register for free to receive the livestream link and bonus content
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Program
THE BOWERY MISSION
This summer, Battery Dance is partnering with the youth program of The Bowery Mission, which empowers children from low-income neighborhoods to thrive and succeed. A special Dancing to Connect will serve 15 middle-school girls from East Harlem and The Bronx. Working in our studios with teaching artist and former company dancer Robin Cantrell, they will collaborate to create their own dance work — then perform it onstage in the park during the Festival’s Aug. 12 “Young Voices in Dance” program.
MARLEY POKU-KANKAM
All Four
“This piece was originally created for a composition concert in my last year of college with the Fordham/ Ailey BFA Program. It is significant because it tells the story of my 3 brothers and me. Our bond is unbreakable. This piece reflects how I see each of them and my unique relationship with each. My dancers are current students in the program. My goal with each person that experiences this piece is for them to think back on their own family (related by blood or not) and savor every moment with them.”
ALIYAH BANERJEE & SHASHANK ISWARA
Taraana | NYC Premiere
“Taraana,” a Kathak-Bharatanatyam collaboration, explores acceptance and coexistence. The duet presents two ancient Indian classical styles with rigid frameworks, conveying how open-mindedly embracing the other form leads to harmony onstage, without compromise of technical purity. Using the style of “jugalbandi” (interaction between the two dancers), the work portrays its broader theme – how welcoming different identities, while preserving tradition, can create a culturally-rich, conflict-free society.
www.instagram.com/aliyah_banerjee
www.instagram.com/shashank_iswara
DAREON BLOWE
How Do Five Parts Construct a Whole?
The original impetus to create the work stemmed from a sense of futility within oneself. We began questioning what it takes to confront our history and facilitate growth. We discussed as a group the meaning of existence, our place in society, and accepting that we have no control. We go through a journey of self-security that battles facades of ego and bravado. The dancers take us through a wave of emotional development. It speaks to the process of self-realization, and understanding the complexities of our emotions.
MATEO VIDALS
There is Always Something Happening
This piece encapsulates the experience of chaos in our everyday lives. Something is always happening; how do we deal with it? We can either stand alone and give into the inevitable weight of life or stand together and smile in the face of demands. At pivotal moments in life we are left with these two options. Through this work we discover a lighthearted yet profound series of connections, perseverance and humor as we navigate our existence.
LUKE BIDDINGER
La Vie En Rose | World Premiere
“This is my liberation. With music by my idol, Grace Jones, I was able to make something that can show the feelings that represent my life up until this moment. It’s a sort of autobiography. The story of my life in love. So I truthfully only made this for me, to find an understanding of my broken heart. It has no specific visual intention, just my juvenile instinct. So while it may be an ignorant and selfish display of my joys and sorrows, try and see your life in mine, as I am simply wearing my heart on my sleeve.”
CAMERON KAY
Interface | NYC Premiere
Cameron Kay’s most recent work “Interface” explores the dynamics of different energies—corporeal and conceptual—and how they interact in space. Featuring an original score composed in collaboration with Farai Malianga, “Interface” emphasizes how individual voices can shift space. The work visually embodies how the dancers’ bodies serve as vessels for potential and kinetic energy, how entities magnetize and repel and react to one another. The dancers play with the extremes of time, mass, and space, manipulating the bounds of forces and energy.
SAMANVITA KASTHURI
Krtaghna
“Krtaghna” is an Indian-classical fusion piece that reflects on environmentalism. “Krtaghna” follows the story of Mother Earth caring for man and growing him with love, only for man to grow and exploit the five elements of the Earth. Mother Earth is left broken and battered, in shock from the dismissive attitude of man, feeling heartbroken that she was used for selfish intentions and was left weakened. Although disappointed, Mother Earth was left with no choice but to destroy the Earth, pushed to her maximum limits. This dance is a cautious warning to humans, urging people to be grateful to the Earth. “Krtaghna” utilizes traditional Indian classical elements of dance with a Western sound in its music, as well as the usage of the languages English and Kannada.
MICAH SELL
Outline | World Premiere
This piece delves into relationships and how they grow and change over time. It features two individuals who want to build together but are not certain how. Moments of moving in unison represent the moments of connection found within the difficulty of building a relationship. As their relationship evolves, they learn how to co-exist, finding a balance of reliance and freedom; discovering the freedom that comes from having someone to rely on and the boundaries that expectations create.
QUEENSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Discovering
Developed as part of Battery Dance’s Teacher training program in collaboration with Queensborough Community College under the mentorship of Aviva Geismar of QCC and Clement Mensah of Battery Dance.
WILLEM SADLER
Soullessly Flying | World Premiere
What happens when we leave a zone of comfort? Do we break, or do we grow? What happens when we stay within comfort? Do we refine knowledge, or become dull from repeating information? An artist’s job is to always find comfort in new spaces, to enhance their mind and their artistry. However, becoming too comfortable can poison your appetite to grow. Patterns help us learn yet we must abandon them. The best way to move forward is to break the pattern. Otherwise the pattern begins to rot.
TULIA MARSHALL
A Fraction of a True Self
“A fraction of a true self” poses the question of what would happen if all versions of yourself; past, present, future, good, bad, selfish, compliant, greedy, jealous, etc. were to coexist? Would there be chaos? Would there be acceptance? This work is a physical manifestation of an exaggerated identity crisis and what it is to deal with imposter syndrome.
JOANNE HWANG
Static State of Perfection
“Utopias will never happen, as humans are inevitably flawed by nature. This piece is influenced by the inherent contradictory nature of utopia. With the conquest of this idealized perfect reality, a paradox emerges, that utopia cannot exist without dystopia. Throughout this process of creation, it has given me the opportunity to invite some new thoughts about my own ideation of the perfect world I envision, what that would look like and what that entails.”