Each year, Battery Dance presents new and revived choreography to New York audiences at its New York Season. Seasons have taken place at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and 3LD Art & Technology Center and have entertained tens of thousands of audience members since 1976. Through matinee performances, over 200,000 students have been provided access to professional dance performances at little to no cost.
40th Anniversary Season – May 11 – 12, 2016
The Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University
May 11 – 12, 2016
Performance Times
Matinee Performance – May 11th – 2:00pm
Evening Performances – May 11th and 12th – 7:00pm
Gala Party – May 12th – Post Performance
Purchase Tickets
| Matinee | Evening | |
| General Public | $20 | $25 |
| Students/Seniors/Dancers | $10 | $15 |
|
K-12 School Groups (per student) Please contact Battery Dance for tickets |
$5 | N/A |
| Groups (8 or more, per person) | $15 | $20 |
PRESENTING THE WORLD PREMIER OF THE DURGA PROJECT, SECOND PREMIERE OF INTER/AGO, AND THE CELEBRATED OBSERVATORY
The centerpiece of the New York Season will be the world premiere of The Durga Project, a work that weaves together many of the Company’s enduring artistic themes including international collaboration, original music and creative teamwork by its brilliant ensemble of dancers. Steeped in both traditions of Western and Indian dance and music, Battery’s artistic director Jonathan Hollander has chosen the theme and is shaping the production. He selected guest artist Unnath H.R., one of the leading classical dancers of his generation in India, to serve as the catalyst for the production. Unnath spent 4 weeks with the Company during the Fall of 2015, engaging in a symbiotic process with Battery’s Western-trained dancers. Techniques and vocabularies were shared in order to derive a new language of movement, filled with imagery and rhythms that will drive the work.
Durga is an Indian Goddess exemplifying the dualities of destruction and creation and the all-powerful force of creativity. Durga is also the name of a raaga that is characterized by a sequence of musical notes that is intriguing and soothing, rich and compelling in its cadence. Composer Frank Carlberg, who, like Hollander, has a deep affinity for the culture and music of India, will create a score, stylistically modern and innovative, but adhering to the same musical notes that define the Indian Raaga Durga. Costume designer Sole Salvo will apply her vision and skill to adorn the dancers in such a way that doesn’t imitate or ape Indian garments, but references their vibrancy and silhouette. Likewise, Calvin Anderson will employ a variegated palette in his lighting design while avoiding the slickness that often condemns ‘fusion’ works to cliché. The international program will be rounded out with works commissioned by European and African choreographers—“Inter/Ago,” created in 2015 in Battery Dance’s choreographic residency with Tadej Brdnik, recently retired Martha Graham principal dancer and choreographer; and “Observatory,” created in 2014 in Battery Dance’s Choreographic Residency by Theo Ndindwa, founder of South Africa’s iKapa Dance Theatre, and since performed in tours of South America, Asia and at the first Cape Town International Dance Festival in December, 2015. JINGO Media Jitin Hingorani O: 214.954.7023 M: 512.773.6679 Click here to access the online Press Kit
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Tickets are available at the Schimmel Center Box Office. Click here to purchase tickets. Gala tickets for the May 12th performance are available through the company. For more information on the Gala, please click here.
The Durga Project
Artistic Direction: Jonathan Hollander
Costumes: Sole Salvo
Lighting: Calvin Anderson
Run Time: 28 minutes
Inter/Ago
Choreography: Tadej Brdnik
Music: Margarita Zelenaia “Byzantine Chants” (feat. Andrey Tchekmazov)
Costumes: Barbara Delo
Lighting: Barry Steele
Set: Reynaldo Then
Run Time: 18 minutes
Observatory
Choreography: Theo Ndindwa
Music: Supertramp, Olafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm Adam F
Lighting: Barry Steele
Run Time: 18 minutes
Praise for The Durga Project
“With its beautiful images and soulful music, The Durga Project evokes the sentiment of Bhakti (devotional love of the Goddess). The choreography is excellent, drawing inspiration from Indian classical dances and classical music, which go hand in hand. The human chain performed in the beginning with Bharatanatyam dancer and guest artist Unnath Jain gradually gathers momentum, resolving into the pas de deux which offer imaginatively suggestive and iconic poses of Goddess Durga in motion. Hollander and his dancers from the U.S. and India have captured the essence of Shakti, the female principle of divine energy, in a meaningful manner.
Hollander’s earlier choreographic works for Battery Dance — Songs of Tagore, Layapriya, Seen by a River, Moonbeam — and the more recent Into the Centre which I have seen in Malaysia, performed by Ramli Ibrahim and Sutra Dance Theatre, have been steeped in Indian concepts. They leave indelible impressions, and I feel confident that the Durga Project will have even greater success.”
-Sunil Kothari
Dance historian and critic, India
Recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award, Dance Critics Association, New York