Battery Dance presents The 42nd Annual Battery Dance Festival
Battery Dance celebrates the 42nd Anniversary of its free summer festival from August 12-18, 2023, in partnership with Battery Park City Authority. The 42nd Annual Battery Dance Festival will feature in-person and live-streamed performances staged each night at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, New York City at 7PM ET, 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, click here.
Battery Dance Festival, New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival, was established by Battery Dance as the Downtown Dance Festival in 1982. Pre-pandemic, it drew audiences of approximately 2,000 people each night in its iconic setting at Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park. The Festival went virtual in 2020, attracting 30,000 viewers across 206 countries. In 2021, it ran as a hybrid model with over 10,000 in-person and over 21,000 virtual audience members. This year, the Festival welcomes in-person and live-streamed audiences from a new location at Rockefeller Park.
“When Super Storm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, Battery Park City Authority reached out a helping hand, providing a beautiful site for the Battery Dance Festival which we’ve all enjoyed every summer since 2013. With the prospect of rising seas in future, BPCA is enacting a pro-active resiliency plan, lifting Wagner Park up to 12 feet, making it inaccessible this summer. But fear not! BPCA has invited us to move to Rockefeller Park this summer where we’ll benefit from the large lawn and river-front views, as we bask in the glow of performances by local and international companies.” – Jonathan Hollander, Founder and Artistic Director of Battery Dance
This year’s program will feature Young Voices in Dance on August 12; a celebration of Indian Independence Day on August 15; a Tribute to Turn of the 20th Century American Modern Dance Pioneers, including a special In Memoriam Tribute to Jennifer Muller on August 17, in addition to a multitude of NYC and World Premiere performances over the course of the Festival.
As one of America’s leading cultural ambassadors, Battery Dance connects the world through dance. The Company pursues artistic excellence and social relevance by creating vibrant new works, performing on the world’s stages, presenting dance in public spaces, serving the field of dance and teaching people of all ages with special attention to the disadvantaged and areas of conflict. 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.