Battery Dance Announces Young Voices in Dance Lineup
Battery Dance announces the Young Voices in Dance lineup, kicking off the 42nd Anniversary of its free summer festival presented in partnership with Battery Park City Authority. The 2023 Battery Dance Festival will feature in-person and live-streamed performances staged each night from August 12-18, 2023 at 7pm ET at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, New York City, with a rain date on 8/19. Reaching both local and international audiences, the Festival promotes Battery Dance’s mission of connecting the world through dance. For more information, visit batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival/.
Now in its third year, The Young Voices in Dance program will open the festival on August 12, 2023 at 7pm. The program celebrates the next generation of choreographers, highlighting the intellectual curiosity, innovation, and artistic excellence of youth (ages 15-22) from around the world. Young Voices in Dance will feature live performances with original works made and danced by youth and young adults.
For the first time, Battery Dance is partnering with the youth program of The Bowery Mission, which empowers children from low-income neighborhoods to thrive and succeed. Through the creativity workshop “Dancing to Connect,” 15 middle-school girls from East Harlem and The Bronx will create their own dance work to be featured as a pre-show event for the Young Voices in Dance program on August 12.
Queensborough Community College dance students have also begun training to be “Dancing to Connect” leaders. These students are helping Battery Dance multiply the company’s reach and bring the arts into under-resourced classrooms. QCC dancers will also share their new work on August 12.
Highlights from this year’s Young Voices in Dance lineup are as follows:
Interface – NYC Premiere, Choreographed by Cameron Kay (NYC).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.
All Four, Choreographed by Marley Poku-Kankam (NYC). “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 brothers and me. I have three brothers and our bond is unbreakable. This piece reflects how I see each brother and my unique relationship with each of them. My goal with each person that experiences it is for them to think back on their own family (related by blood or not) and savor every moment with them.”
There is Always Something Happening, Choreographed by Mateo Vidals (NYC). “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 smile in the face of demands and stand together. 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.”
A fraction of a true self, Choreographed by Tulia Marshall (Purchase, NY). “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.
Soullessly Flying – World Premiere, Choreographed by Willem Sadler (Toronto, ON). “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.”
As one of America’s leading cultural ambassadors, Battery Dance connects the world through dance. Battery Dance is committed to enhancing the cultural vibrancy of its home community in New York City, extending programming throughout the U.S., and building bridges worldwide through international cultural exchange with programs in 70 countries to date. Battery Dance created the Downtown Dance Festival, an annual outdoor summer festival in 1982, to make exceptional dance available free-of-charge within its home community of lower Manhattan where it was founded in 1976. Now renamed Battery Dance Festival, it has been presented in partnership with the Battery Park City Authority since 2013.
Visit www.batterydance.org to learn more about this year’s 42nd Annual Battery Dance Festival.