Battery Dance Presents Free Performances in Battery Park City Parks and The 44th Annual Battery Dance Festival

Battery Dance celebrates the art of dance in its home community this August, in partnership with Battery Park City Authority.  On Saturday, August 9, the Company celebrates the re-opening of Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, following a two-year pause during which it was rebuilt as part of a coastal resiliency effort to protect Battery Park City and lower Manhattan from storm surge and sea level rise. A medley of dance companies will present a 1-hour program opened by Indigenous performer Marie Poncé, followed by tap-dancer John Manzari with a live band.  Battery Dance presents Frontiers by Turkish-Dutch choreographer Rutkay Özpinar and Limón Dance Company caps off the evening with the classic work A Choreographic Offering created by José Limón in 1964.

The following week brings the 44th Annual Battery Dance Festival enlivening Rockefeller Park from August 12-16, 2025, with a rain date on August 17. New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival brings together eight diverse dance companies from around the world coupled with a dynamic roster of eight New York-based companies. The free series of events celebrates the universal language of dance with a mix of performances, workshops, and immersive experiences for audiences of all ages.

The five-night performance line-up features a plethora of premieres and several performances featuring live music.  Crowds of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers typically flock to the Festival each summer, with audiences glorying in the opportunity to experience dance against the spectacular water, sky and cityscape backdrop.

“Battery Dance stands committed to providing the enlightenment and transcendence of dance free to the public despite the shattering of precedents we had taken for granted. We prevailed through Superstorm Sandy’s flooding of lower Manhattan, the financial crisis of the 2008/09 recession, and the attacks on the World Trade Center,” said Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of Battery Dance. “Thanks to our partners at Battery Park City Authority, our sponsors and donors, and the dancers and staff and Board of Battery Dance and all the participants who join us in the timeless pursuit of community gathering and beauty, we are prevailing again!”

“For more than a decade our beautiful public spaces have played host to the beauty of the Battery Dance Festival, and we’re honored this year to host events both as part of Wagner Park’s reopening celebration, and in Rockefeller Park for five more fantastic evenings of dance,” said BPCA President & CEO Raju Mann. “A neighborhood favorite and staple of Battery Park City’s summer programming calendar, the Festival provides New Yorkers a front-row seat to world-class talent, and we thank our partners at Battery Dance for this enduring partnership.”

Performance Schedule:

Dance @ The New Wagner Park, Saturday, August 9 at 7pm

Battery Dance performs in this celebratory night of dance alongside Marie Poncé, The Limón Dance Company, and tap dancer John Manzari & Band in celebrating Wagner Park’s reopening.

Battery Dance Festival:  Tuesday, August 12 – Saturday, August 16 at 7pm

Tuesday, August 12: John Manzari & Band, excerpts of Recenter (USA); Pace University Dancing to Connect conducted by Robin Cantrell (USA); Battery Dance, Sense of Belonging, a world premiere by Faizah Grootens (USA); Faizah Grootens, While You’re Here (Netherlands), Bulareyaung Dance Company, Colors (Taiwan)

Wednesday, August 13: UNARTE, Verso Roto (Spain -World Premiere); Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble, Eden (South Korea/Germany); Bulareyaung Dance Company, Colors (Taiwan); Faizah Grootens While You’re Here (Netherlands), Platforma 13, Balkan Ballerinas (Romania – U.S. Premiere)  

Thursday, August 14: Kar-mel Small, La Manta de Reina (USA); Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble, Eden (South Korea/Germany); Platforma 13, Balkan Ballerinas (Romania – U.S. Premiere); UNARTE, Verso Roto (Spain -World Premiere); Buglisi Dance Theatre, Sospiri (USA), Battery Dance, Empty Hand by Damani Pompey (USA – World Premiere)

Friday, August 15: India Day- Dances of Kerala, presenting dancers and musicians from five different dance, theater and martial arts traditions from the Southwestern Indian State of Kerala:  Kalaripayattu, Kutiyattam, Kathakali, Mohiniyattam and Theyyam.

Saturday August 16: Mofassal Al Alif, In Search of You ( Bangladesh); Ô’tänamos, Aeternus Viator (USA – World Premiere) Battery Dance, Sense of Belonging by Faizah Grootens (USA- World Premiere); Wan Dance, Mak Long(Indonesia – New York Debut); Dorchel Haqq, Swallow (USA – World Premiere) Al-Dal’ouna Dabka Team, Dal’ouna Events (USA)

Program subject to change.

Festival Artists:

Al-Dal’ouna Dabka Team (NJ)

Dalouna Events (Dabke dance troupe) takes pride in the deep-rooted cultural heritage of its members, offering traditional Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, and Lebanese Zaffa and Dabka/Dabke performances. Its performers respond to the rhythmic beats of the drums with synchronized footwork, celebrating culture, unity, and joy. https://www.dalounaevents.com/

Battery Dance (NYC)

Battery Dance, host of the Battery Dance Festival and celebrating its 49th year, presents two world premieres: Damani Pompey’s Empty Hand, commissioned through a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and created with Battery Dance during a residency at a 2025 NYSCA-supported Vassar College residency; and Faizah Grootens’ Sense of Belonging, commissioned through grants from Dutch Culture/USA, Netherland-America Foundation and the Fonds Podium Kunsten (Performing Arts Fund NL) with support from the Korzo Theater in The Hague, Netherlands. www.batterydance.org

Buglisi Dance Theatre (NYC)

Appearing in the Battery Dance Festival for the tenth time, Buglisi Dance Theatre presents the revival of Sospiri, choreographed by Jacqulyn Buglisi and premiered at New York City Center in 1996.  The Company was originally founded in 1993 and has since performed across the U.S. and worldwide.  Jacqulyn Buglisi was awarded the Juilliard President’s Medal in 2022.  www.buglisidance.org

Bulareyaung Dance Company (Taiwan)

Bulareyaung Dance Company was founded in 2015 in the rural district of Taitung by Bulareyaung Pagarlava, an indigenous choreographer from Taiwan who had performed internationally with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Battery Dance and has received choreographic commissions from the Martha Graham Dance Company. His Company’s training and choreographies are accomplished by working in the mountains and singing old chants by the waterside. Dancers develop unique body movements and vocabulary by delving into their indigenous heritage and culture through regular field trips. Colors was created in 2016 in response to a typhoon which destroyed his studio. Rattan was created in 2015 and represents a personal journey of acceptance and celebrating Bula’s indigenous roots. Bulareyaung Dance Company’s performances are sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York. https://www.bdc.tw/en

Dances of Kerala (India)

India Independence Day is celebrated with a unique program featuring five dance forms all originating from the Southwestern Indian State of Kerala.  Pallavi Krishnan, Mohiniyattam, is a leading exponent of Mohiniyattam in the national and international performance circuit, acclaimed for her versatility as a performer, choreographer, and trainer. She has appeared in the New York Times for her first performance as a soloist in the Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance presented on the Battery Dance Festival stage. She is presenting a trio along with Jayasree Nair and Annie Sajayan. Pallavi’s passion for Mohiniyattam led her to Kerala Kalamandalam for advanced training, making her the first Bengali to learn Mohiniyattam from this pioneering institution. Subsequently, she earned an M.A. in Mohiniyattam from Kerala Kalamandalam Deemed University and received a special award from the institution.

Surjith Panikkar, Theyyam, Hailed as an intelligent and thinking performer with spiritual and contemporary sensibility, Surjith is one of Kerala’s most prolific Theyyam performers who is regularly featured in the ceremonies in Kozhikode where he inspires awe for his transformation from human man to female diety Bhagawati. Pradeesh K. Thiruthiya, Theyyam is the first professional bharatanatyam dancer to master the art of Theyyam. He was featured in the 2020 Virtual Battery Dance Festival and was especially noted in the New York Times. A native of Kozhikode, Kerala, he has also performed internationally as part of the Hebel Theater in Germany and elsewhere. Raam Kumar, Kalari Payattu Hailing from Thiruvananthapurm, Raam is one of the leading practitioners of the Martial Arts form of Kalari Payattu and simultaneously earned a reputation for being a creative choreographer and solo performer. His initial training under his grandfather, Sri CV Govindan Kutty Nair, continued while also evolving his multi-disciplinary technique by studying contemporary dance at Attakalari where he eventually joined the faculty. He has performed internationally in South Korea, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Lebanon.  Sooraj Irinjakaluda, Kutiyattam is widely recognized throughout India and internationally as one of Kutiyattam’s most celebrated performers, Sooraj was one of two Indian performers selected to participate in the World Theater Festival in Sweden. He has toured internationally in Singapore, Spain and elsewhere around the world, portraying Hindu mythological characters through his deft mastery of the gestural, expressive and physical attributes of the ancient theater/dance form of Kutiyattam.  Kerala Kalamandalam, Kathakali, is the leading institution focused on preserving the ancient art of Kathakali. Thulasi Kumar and Adyattingal Harinarayanan are two of the most accomplished performers of this elaborately costumed dance form requiring training that begins during childhood when the body is flexible enough to achieve the movements required of this form. Each of the dance forms will be accompanied by live musicians. Dances of Kerala is sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Consulate General of India in New York, and the State Bank of India. https://kalamandalam.ac.in/ 

Dorchel Haqq (NYC)

Returning to the Battery Dance Festival after being featured in its 2020 Virtual edition during the pandemic, Dorchel offers a reimagined version of the ensemble work she initially presented at Judson Church featuring a cast of six women.  She is a 2025 Movement Research Van Lier Emerging Artist of Color Fellow, an adjunct lecturer at Purchase College, and has performed with A.I.M by Kyle Abraham and in Punchdrunk’s “Sleep No More”.  https://www.instagram.com/dorchelhaqq/?hl=en

Faizah Grootens (Netherlands)

A house choreographer with Korzo Theatre in The Hague, Faizah is a native of Curacao with a career developed in The Netherlands. Her work has been seen across Europe, Latin America, The Caribbean and most recently at the Apollo Theater in New York.  While you’re here – Tanten bo t’aki (Papiamentu dialect of Curacao) was premiered in 2022.  Justin Brown and Ashley Affolter perform a playful and intimate duet in which the performers’ connection is undeniable; but the question is posed: what exists when they’re together, and who are they as individuals? In the end, they’re not by themselves, you are there as well. The NY premiere of this work is sponsored by Dutch Culture/USA, Netherland-America Foundation and the Fonds Podium Kunsten (Performing Arts Fund NL) with support from the Korzo Theater in The Hague, Netherlands. https://faizahgrootens.com/

John Manzari & Band (NYC)

Tap dancer, singer, actor and choreographer John Manzari provides a set accompanied by a jazz trio with Jon Thomas on keyboard, Michael Piolet on percussion and Jonathon W. Muir-Cotton on bass. Recent performances have included sets at Birdland, Solos with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, Funny Girl on Broadway, The Tap Dance Kid (Encores!) and guest performances with Seattle, Houston and National Symphonies. https://www.johnmanzari.com/

Kar’mel Small (NYC)

Choreographer Kar’mel Small presents a solo, la manta de reina, created for and performed by Charrie Burke.  Graduates of SUNY/Purchase Conservatory of Dance where Burke received the President’s Award for Achievement, they share Caribbean roots which served as inspiration for the piece. Small’s early background in ballroom set him on a path that has led to an international performing career. https://www.instagram.com/karmel_small/

Marie Poncé (Cherokee/Taino)

Marie Ponce is a lifetime member of Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, now in its 51st year, which preserves Native American culture through pow wows and shows at the National Museum of the American Indian and Queens County Farm Museum. She has performed across the U.S. and internationally and teaches hoop dance workshops at Lotus Music and Dance. She will open the Wagner Park program with a ceremonial performance, bringing her spirituality and authenticity to celebrate the re-opening of the park with dance.

Mofassal Alif (Bangladesh)

Mofassal Ali, Battery Dance Festival’s first-ever Bangladeshi performer, presents Moner Manus- “In Search of You” to two traditional spiritual songs of Lalon also known as Lalon Shah, Lalon Fakir, Shahji, a Bengali spiritual leader, philosopher, mystic poet and social reformer. Regarded as an icon of Bengali culture, he inspired and influenced many philosophers, poets and social thinkers including Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam and Allen Ginsberg.

The songs reflect Lalon’s philosophy of seeking the divine beyond formal religious practices, emphasizing personal experience and inner realization over external rituals.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1E8ZKiQusP/

Limón Dance Company (NYC)

Limón Dance Company presents Suite from A Choreographic Offering, inspired by variations, paraphrases, and motifs from fourteen seminal works by his mentor Doris Humphrey, honoring her craftsmanship as one of the founders of modern dance. Set to The Musical Offering by Johan Sebastian Bach, Limón’s 1964 work is a bright and uplifting ensemble work. https://www.limon.nyc/

Platforma 13 (Romania)

Dancer/choreographers Sergiu Diță and Anca Stoica present Balkan Ballerinas, focusing on three characters performed by Sergiu Diță, Sofia Sitaru-Onofrei & Andreea Vălean, a pastiche that reflects on the impact of Western stigmas and stereotypes imposed upon Balkan identity.  The work has been featured in performances at Bucharest Biennale 10.  Its U.S. premiere presentations are supported by The Romanian Cultural Institute NYC.  https://arealcolectiv.ro/2020/08/19/platforma13/

Ô’tänamos – Srna Klotz (NYC-North Macedonia)

Aeternus Viator is a duet performed by the choreographer with Marko Micov that explores the timeless journey of migration. Through a fusion of contemporary dance and traditional Macedonian dances, music by Duke Bojadziev, visual storytelling and spoken word in native language, the performance captures the essence of the immigrant experience. The struggle of belonging, the tension between leaving and staying, and the search for identity in unfamiliar lands .https://www.instagram.com/aku_dama/?hl=en

Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble/Lucas Crew (Germany/South Korea)

“Is the world we see truly real?” Excessive beauty becomes fear, and pleasure turns into addiction. Reality may be nothing more than an illusion filtered through our senses. In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley argues that our perception is confined by language and education. Through hallucinogens, another door of perception opens, revealing how narrow and constructed our reality might be. Eden tells the story of two beings on the threshold of that door. With repetitive loops, unstable rhythms, and emotional surges, they dance together–deconstructing and reconstructing the world through their own perceptions. Theater Plauen – Zwickau Ballet Ensemble/Lucas Crew is represented by choreographer/dancer Minsu Kim, a member of the German company and founder of his own contemporary dance group in South Korea. Kim performed a solo in the 2024 Battery Dance Festival and is returning this year with with Ayane Nakamura, also a member of the Plauen-Zwickau ensemble, supported through a grant from the Consulate General of Germany in New York. https://www.lucascrew.com/about/about-us

UNARTE, Carlos Segura Sanchez and Manuel Del Rio (Spain)

UNARTE is a recently launched Madrid-based dance platform for creation and performance formed by two soloists from the Spanish National Ballet. Co-founders Carlos Segura Sanchez and Manuel Del Rio present Verso Roto (Broken Verse) a suite of Spanish dances that breathes through the cracks. It doesn’t seek perfect form, but the tremor of the moment: the unfinished, the words that break as they’re spoken. In this first encounter with an international audience, UNARTE presents a work where a young body enters into dialogue with its heritage—unafraid to deconstruct it. Here, every gesture is a fractured verse still longing to be a poem. U.S. premiere performances of UNARTE, sponsored by the Consulate General of Spain in New York. https://www.instagram.com/unarte.es/

Wan Dance (Indonesia)

L O N G, a trio performed by Wan Dance, takes its name as a tribute to Kak Long, a traditional Indonesian performer, celebrated for his loyalty in preserving the traditional art of Dangkong from the Riau Islands in which male performers transform themselves into female characters. https://www.facebook.com/wds14/?locale=es_LA

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. Originally envisioned and conducted as an “art in the workplace” series, the festival brought hundreds of free noontime dance performances to lower Manhattan public spaces including South Street Seaport, One Chase Plaza, City Hall and for many years, the World Trade Center Plaza.  When Superstorm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan in 2012, Battery Park City Authority offered Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park as an alternative site and the Festival refashioned itself into a nighttime event beginning in 2013.  With the need to conduct an extensive resiliency plan, Wagner Park was decommissioned in 2023 and the Festival relocated again, this time to the lawn at Rockefeller Park where it continues this year. https://batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival/

ABOUT BATTERY DANCE

Founded by Jonathan Hollander in 1976 in lower Manhattan, Battery Dance now serves as one of America’s leading cultural ambassadors, connecting the world through dance. With its exceptional team of dancers who also serve as teaching artists and choreographers, the Company pursues artistic excellence and social relevance, creating vibrant new works, performing on the world’s stages, presenting dance in public spaces, serving the field of dance with low-cost studios in its home in Tribeca 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 75 countries to date https://batterydance.org/

SUPPORT FOR THE 2025 BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL

The 2025 Battery Dance Festival is presented in partnership with Battery Park City Authority. Public Funds have been contributed by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature; and New York City Council member Christopher Marte’s Office. Generous support has been provided by The Shubert Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Consulate General of India in New York, State Bank of India, Dutch Culture/USA, Netherland-America Foundation, Fonds Podium Kunsten (Performing Arts Fund NL), Korzo Theater, the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York, the Ministry of Culture in Taiwan, the Consulate General of Spain in New York, the Romanian Cultural Center, the Consulate General of Germany, Weill Cornell Medicine, and many individual donors.