Battery Dance Presents BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL — Preview

WHEN:
August 14 - 22 @7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

*Films will remain online through August 31

WHERE:
Online each night via YouTube

TICKETS:
FREE

Battery Dance presents its 39th annual BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL which brings together 52 filmed performances including 28 premieres from 19 countries. Themed evenings include World and U.S. film Premieres from the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Japan, and North America. The centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which recognized the woman's right to vote, serves as a focus for a program by women choreographers. Works that focus on Black voices in dance, the resiliency of New York City, and a special program celebrating India's Independence Day round out the Festival.

This year's featured artists include a curated selection of local dance companies as well as video dance makers from Belgium, Canada, Curaçao, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Netherlands, Palestinian Territories, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States and Zimbabwe. 

From India, Saturday - August 15

• Acclaimed Indian dance artists perform ancient rituals, classical dances and contemporary works, moderated by dancer/scholar/curator Rajika Puri on India Independence Day. 
• New York-based Bharatanatyam dancer Sophia Salingaros opens the program with a dedication to the God Shiva. 
• Kathak/contemporary artist Aditi Mangaldas takes us into an interior monologue while Aakash Odedra and Hu Shenyuan share moments from Samsara whose European and U.S. engagements were halted by the pandemic. 
• A haunting melody suffuses a garden in Bijayini Satpathy's version of a classic Odissi work by Kelucharan Mohapatra, performed by her two disciples. 
• Kuchipudi dancer Sreelakshmy displays the storytelling aspect of the Kuchipudi form in a forest setting. 
• A Festival commissioned film showcases the makeup of Theyyam artist Pradeesh Thiruthiya in timelapse as he transforms into the goddess Bhagawati, and Koodiyattam prima donna Kapila Venu personifies the tortoise avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu by lamplight. 
• Sadhya Dance's Grapple explores darkness and light with three contemporary male dancers; while Sooraj Subramaniam presents a danced miniature against the Ghent skyline. 
• Director Zoya Akhtar's Gallan Goodiyaan from the film "Dil Dhadake Do" provides a Bollywood finale.

From the Middle East including Ayman Safiah Memorial Tribute - Sunday, August 16

• In the U.S. premiere of The Dérive, Tanin Torabi moves among the people in an old bazaar in Tehran where dance is prohibited. 
• The world premiere of Project TAG's A Call for Prayer encourages the making of peace with our own conflicted selves. 
• Hoedy Saad, a choreographer and voguer from Lebanon performs TBD, a world premiere. 
• Battery Dance remembers the life of Ayman Safiah, a 29-year-old Palestinian dance artist born in Galilee, who tragically died in May. A selection of films prepared by choreographer Samar Haddad King reveals the impact Ayman had on a generation of Palestinian and Israeli dancers as a choreographer, director, mentor, and role model. 

From Europe & Japan - Monday, August 17

• Future Temple by Japanese choreographer Emiko Agatsuma imagines the changing perception of the soul from past to future. 
• Commissioned by the Romanian Cultural Institute, Ana Maria Lucaciu and Razvan Stoian present Almost, a story of two echoing universes that aim to align; the air between two bodies resonate with what could have been. 
• Sisters, a dance film choreographed by Emma Evelein, portrays three sisters growing up in a broken family, revealing their inner world and unbreakable relationship. 
• In the U.S. premiere Trans-tánc Budapest by TranzDanz / cie. Gerzson Péter Kovács, young dancers repeat a sequence inspired by Hungarian folk dances as they traverse the emblematic sites of Budapest. 
• Filmed on sand dunes in Greece, the U.S. premiere of Anasa is contributed by Odos Productions, the work of Swiss choreographer Maja Zimmerlin and French filmmaker Thomas Delord. 
• Ludivine Large-Bessette's Drop Out Bodies questions the fatality of the human body and our individual and collective responsibilities in this complex time.

Celebrating the Centennial of U.S. Women's Right to Vote - Tuesday, August 18

• Combative Echoes by Ashley Menestrina investigates the role of memory and transient energy in the human experience. 
• Annalee Traylor's the nearness of you depicts four vignettes universally connected through aspects of relationships. 
• Inspired by the Persian tale of Shahrzad, Rosanna Gamson's Layla Means Night reveals our insatiable desire to be entertained. 
• Set to Steve Reich's Pulitzer-winning Double Sextet, Kathryn Posin adds a third sextet of dancers to the polyrhythmic interlocking musical network. 
• Futorian Dance Theatre presents a world premiere suite with the theme of compassion, nurturance, and dedication. 
• In Hamadryad with choreography by Jean Erdman, a dancer rehearses alone in a studio enchanting herself back into the forest as a wood nymph, while Isadora Duncan's Revolutionary, as danced by Lori Belilove, and Doris Humphrey's Quasi Waltz as danced by Meggi Sweeney Smith round out Tharin's legacy suite. 

From Africa - Wednesday, August 19

• Moving Into Dance Company performs Road and Everlast, fusing African and Western contemporary movement, ritual and music. 
• Thina, created by Phumlani Nyanga and performed by the dancers of Luthando Dance Academy, portrays a young South African family as they struggle to maintain harmony. 
• Abdul Kinyenya's Twete was shown on Battery Dance TV in May, earning a reprise in the Festival.

From North America - Thursday, August 20

• Toronto-based Kaeja d'Dance presents XDTO with 22 dancers improvising one-minute solos in an urban glade at the edge of Lake Ontario with the skyscrapers and harbor of Toronto in the background. 
• National Ballet of Canada's offers Gratitude, choreographed by the dancers of the company who perform on balconies and in homes, yards, woods, gardens and parks.  
• Cornfield Dance's Portal denotes the passageway from one state to another-agitation into peace and quotidian into sacred. 
• Choreographed by David Dorfman, Imagine, If You Will...  is performed by Dancing Wheels, the first professional physically integrated dance company in America, uniting dancers with and without disabilities.  
• Mexico's Delfos Danza presents Telempathies, a U.S. Broadcast premiere of an experimental work using dance on Zoom.  

From Battery Dance and its Resilient Festival - Friday, August 21

• Based on Greek mythology, Battery Dance Company's world premiere Icarus, choreographed by company member Razvan Stoian, reflects on hubris as our society's demise. 
• Partnering with artist/technologist Ellen Pearlman and Thoughtworks Arts, Art-a-Hack joins Battery Dance's Stoian and Hussein Smko in collaboration with 25 international art hackers exploring the intersection between dance and cutting edge technologies. 
• Curaçao-based dancer/choreographer Reuel Rogers, mentored by Battery dancer Sean Scantlebury, presents his new work Hero, a piece about how to become your own personal hero. 

For more information, please visit the Battery Dance website.

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