Battery Dance Festival 2024

 

AUGUST 11-17, 2024, 7PM

@Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City: 75 River Terrace (North Esplanade)

 

Ballet Neo, Fellini's Dream, Choreography by Kate Thomas, 2015. Photo: SUkie Park/NYCultureBeat  

 

The Battery Dance Festival is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. Each year, the Festival draws a combined audience of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers. 

 

Battery Dance Festival is back for our second season at Rockefeller Park and our 43rd year.  Opening night of our main festival will showcase a selection of never before seen works from around the globe: 2 World premieres, 3 US premieres, 1 NYC premiere, and 6 companies making their Festival debut.

 

As a major highlight, Battery Dance Company will offer the first of two World premieres at the festival on this first night: a new work created by Dutch-Turkish choreographer Rutkay Özpinar.

 

This program is made possible in part by our international partner organizations: DutchCultureUSA at the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York, the Netherland-America Foundation, the Consulate General of Canada in New York, the Québec Government Office in New York, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council for the Arts, Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York, The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York, and Goethe-Institut New York.

 

Program: August 11

 

#Battery Dance

Frontiers (working title) | World Premiere

Battery Dance premieres Frontiers (working title) by choreographer Rutkay Özpinar, created in Summer 2024 as part of the FUTURE400 program.

This program is supported by Dutch Culture USA’s FUTURE 400 program of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York. Additional support provided by the Netherland-America Foundation.

 

#Alexandra F. Light

Inimical Architecture | World Premiere

Moss-rich cradle to ivy-laced grave, humans are intrinsically tied to, made of, and dependent on earth. This work explores the detriment of our own making in that relationship.

 

#A’nó:wara Dance Theatre

Hoop Dance1 and Where Do We Meet? | US Premieres

Two powerful pieces highlighting the strength of dance in their Indigenous culture and the importance of the transmission of knowledge.

Hoop Dance1: The hoop dance is an Indigenous dance that has been shared across powwows all over Turtle Island (North America). It is a dance where the dancer tells stories by weaving intricate shapes from nature and life with multiple hoops. There is also a healing aspect to this dance and reminds us to stay connected with our natural world. 

 

Where Do We Meet?: Two generations, the past and future. The strength of our Indigenous traditions; their reach into our future. Joined by blood, joined by culture. How do we move forward to the future without losing our past?  Can this bond overcome space and time? Two Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) dancers – mother and son – find connection through the timeless transmission of dance.

 

Generous support provided by the Consulate General of Canada in New York, the Québec Government Office in New York, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

 

#wee dance company

De Torrente and Happily Ever After | US Premieres

De Torrente is a simple, personal encounter with the flow of water and time whose inspiration comes from Handel’s “Dixit Dominus”, verse 7 of Psalm 110: “He will drink from the brook by the way; therefore he will lift up his head.” Happily Ever After: Since childhood we are inundated with fairy tales about how we will eventually find and marry our soulmate; then the story goes: “…and they lived happily ever after”. In adulthood, we are convinced that we were promised this happy ending. Yet, how many opportunities for happiness right under our noses do we miss by looking beyond them in constant search for that non-existent, promised dream partner?

 

Generous support provided by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York and Goethe-Institut New York.

 

 

Photo by Cein Lockefeller

 

#Sun Kim Dance Theatre

Lost and Found

Lost and Found is a captivating production by Sun Kim Dance Theatre that explores the journey of losing hope and the internal struggle to fill that void. Through spoken word and popping-based storytelling, this innovative piece invites the audience to embark on a voyage of self-realization, discovering what they have lost and allowing it to find its way back to them.

 

Sun Kim Dance Theatre (SKDT), founded by Sun Kim, is a dance company deeply rooted in popping, a street dance style, with different elements of physical theatre. Its mission is to create platforms for underrepresented artists and to reflect universal human experiences through diverse perspectives. SKDT has performed at Works & Process/Guggenheim, San Francisco International Hip Hop Dance Festival, Ladies of Hip Hop Festival, and Dance Parade NYC. Sun Kim has received The Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award and was nominated at the 2022 Bessie Awards for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer. 

 

*2015 배터리 댄스 페스티벌 스케치

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=FunNY2&document_srl=3925716

 

 

   https://batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival

 

 

 

한류를 이해하는 33가지 코드

#16 음주가무-춤추고 

'피겨 여왕' 김연아(Yuna Kim, *TIME 100-2010)은 춤꾼의 DNA를 갖고 있다'. 마린스키 발레(러시아)와 아메리칸발레시어터의 유일한 아시안 수석 무용수들은 한인들(김기민, 서희, 안주원)이며, 국제 발레 콩쿠르와 브레이크 댄스 대회(Battle of the Year)에서도 한인들이 수상을 휩쓸고 있다. 또한, K-Pop 스타들에게 춤은 필수요소다. 

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Focus&document_srl=4079703 

 

 

 

33 Keys to Decoding the Korean Wave

#16 음주가무-춤추고 Dance

"The Figure Skating Queen" Yuna Kim (*TIME 100 in 2010) has the DNA of a dancer, and the only Asian principal dancers at the Mariinsky Ballet (Russia), Kimin Kim, and at the American Ballet Theater (Hee Seo, and Joo Won Ahn) are Korean. Korean dancers have been winning awards at international ballet competitions and breaking dance competition "Battle of the Year''. Of course, dance is an essential part of K-Pop.

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Zoom&document_srl=4102377