NYC's Battery Dance on The Battery Dance Festival & Teaching Dance Around The World

As one of America’s leading cultural ambassadors, NYC based Battery Dance connects the world through dance by building bridges through international cultural exchange programs--to date, in over 70 countries. In summer, Battery Dance plays host to dancers and companies throughout the world, via the Battery Dance Festival. Our guest is founder and Artistic Director of Battery Dance, Jonathan Hollander. For more, visit Batterydance.org.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listeningto get connected. As one of America's
leading cultural ambassadors, Battery Dance connectsthe world through dance. They are a
unique company that performs on the worldstages and build bridges through international cultural exchange

(00:27):
programs. To date, in overseventy countries and in summer, Battery Dance
is home playing host to dancers andcompanies throughout the world with the Battery Dance
Festival, a free outdoor festival intheir home community where they were founded in
nineteen seventy six by our guest founderan artistic director of Battery Dance, Jonathan
Hollander. Jonathan, Welcome back tothe show. It's so great to be

(00:49):
here. I love having these conversationswith you. I always love speaking with
you, and I really love thefestival. The forty second annual Battery Dance
Festival is August twelfth through eighteenth,featuring in person and live stream performances this
year in Rockefeller Park, which we'lltalk about. You've moved up the park
a little bit. The website isBattery dance dot org. This festival is

(01:11):
New York City's longest running free publicdance festival. Each year, there's a
combined audience of over twelve thousand inperson and over thirty five thousand virtual viewers.
Those viewers come from over two hundredcountries. And not that you planned
it this way, Jonathan, butthat love from around the world from over
two hundred countries is something you've reallybeen laying the seeds for for a very

(01:34):
long time. That's true. Andit's also the silver lining of skills that
we had developed during the pandemic when, of course dance companies were unable to
perform live and we went online intwenty twenty in May with five programs a
day, seven days a week,and that earned us this very very strong

(01:55):
and robust international online audience that wedidn't want to lose when you know,
we were able to go live again. To go back in time a little
bit, you know, back innineteen seventy six. That's the story of
your company beginning in nineteen seventy six. What did you envision when you started
this company downtown? The global peacecame later, right, well, yes

(02:16):
and no. I mean I myearly life as a young person was deeply
influenced by going to India and livingwithin Indian family as an American Field Service
exchange student sixteen years old, noaccess to internet. I was really in
India for those three months, andthe experience has never left me and also

(02:38):
prompted this fascination with the world atlarge and other cultures and countries. And
I can honestly say, having justcome back from Nigeria with the Dance Company,
every time I go to a differentcountry and inspired and enriched by the
interaction with young people, the talentmuch of the time under discovered by anyone

(03:00):
outside their own families. It's likea restart button for me in my dance
company. Tell me a little bitabout going to Nigeria just because that video
on your Instagram is fantastic. Well, all I can say is that I
had not been in Nigeria before.However, the company had been, and
we had actually hosted some of theteachers from Nigeria some years before the pandemic,

(03:23):
so there was a relationship and wewere able to set in motion workshops
in Lagos and Abuja with one hundredplus young people in each of those two
cities, and in fact the programhasn't ended. We've gone, but those
whom we trained are now out incommunities around and about taking the skills that

(03:46):
they learned from us. The methodologyof what we call Dancing to Connect and
is using that in villages and communitieswith more young people. So this is
the gold standard of what we hopeis that it's not a helicopter in and
out experience. This is such aninteresting program, Dancing to Connect, because
as I understand it, you preferto work mostly with non dancers. You

(04:10):
guide them to craft a live performancein just a few days. You've done
this around the world. Perhaps maybethat's what makes it so portable, because
you know how dancers can keep thingskind of precious sometimes, you know you
have these tools now you can takethem wherever you go. That's absolutely true,
and I think that for me andeveryone, that's part of Battery Dance.
The mission of artistic excellence and socialrelevance, the outreach, the making

(04:35):
access to the arts for everyone.These are built into our DNA, and
Dancing to Connect gives us that abilityto really share our passion and share our
technique and skills and methodology that we'vedeveloped over these four plus decades, And
what do you think the dancers andyou actually as a choreographer to what do

(04:56):
you bring back into your own work. Honest speaking, the last two big
productions that I personally created with mycompany were both deeply infused with the context
and texture and experience that that wehad. One in India, the other
with refugees in Germany where we've beenworking for a number of years, with

(05:20):
Syrians, with Eritreans, with peoplewho had to flee their countries because of
war and deprivation, and what theywent through, The travelers who went across
the Mediterranean to reach the island ofMalta or to get across the land that
would take them eventually to Germany.These stories of human sacrifice and perseverance,

(05:44):
just you can't help but be influencedby this in your work as an artist.
And just briefly, you know,when you're starting with people who may
not speak the same language, theirperception of America maybe one thing. Your
perception of them may be something else. You only have a few days to
create performance with non dancers, wheredo you start the conversation? Well,
I think, for one thing wenever think of non dancers. We always

(06:08):
think of everyone is a dancer,and we're there to help them explore that
part of themselves that maybe has nothad an opportunity to emerge. You know.
We also recently came back from Houstonwhere we did the second year of
a Dancing Connect program with Afghan refugeesand others. And can you imagine newly

(06:29):
arrived teenagers from Afghanistan the new culture, the food, the language, the
moray's, the way that people interact, and being in a dance workshop where
they could let go of all ofthat tension and stress and understand through my
incredible teaching, artists be empowered tobelieve that their stories are important and need

(06:50):
to be told. Our guest isJonathan Hollander. The forty second annual Battery
Dance Festivals August twelve through eighteen,featuring in person and live stream performances this
year in Rockefeller Park. We're goingto return to talk about the performances in
just a moment. You can findthe full schedule at Battery Dance dot org.

(07:10):
You're listening to get connected on oneoh six point seven Light FM.
I'm Mina del Rio, So thefestival this year. For every one of
the seven evenings, the program featuresa series of performances by companies or dancers
who could be from anywhere in theworld or the New York area. Am
I right in saying that it seemslike there's many more local companies and performers
this year. I feel like it'sa very rich group of New York City,

(07:35):
locally based dance company many of themI've never heard of or seen.
Our wonderful festival manager, Amy Santos, and our curatorial committee have gone through
over three hundred and fifty applications andthey have come up with some wonderful,
wonderful companies. And you know,that's the interesting thing for me. Where

(07:57):
I was in Nigeria, I've beenworking in the office, I'm doing all
these different things. But then tocome out to the park this year,
Rockefeller Park, as you mentioned,and look at the sky and look at
the clouds, and look at thewater, and look at the dancers,
this incredibly diverse roster of dancers.It makes it all worthwhile because literally it
takes nine months at least to puttogether all of the parts that make up

(08:22):
this incredibly complex festival. Well,you have different companies who submit every year,
and of course because of the onlinecomponent, the access, I'm sure
so many people are submitting that mightnot have before. But do you also
think about or does the committee alsothink about who it might be time to
present? Very much so, Ithink, you know, thinking back to

(08:43):
the very earliest days when this wasoriginally called the Downtown Dance Festival and we
were on corporate plausas in the WallStreet area. The goal was to expose
public audiences to the diversity of dancein New York City, and whether that
be flamenco or tap dance, orhip hop or any of the forms of

(09:07):
modern contemporary plus classical ballet. Whatwe saw was that people didn't know that
they liked dance, or thought theyonly liked one form of dance. So
therefore you have every night at RockefellerPark a mixed program so people can taste
the different genres and make their owndecisions about what they'd like to pursue in

(09:28):
future. So you have a fullschedule, and Jonathan, I've just picked
out a few that piqued my curiosity. You're welcome to throw at anybody else,
but I wanted to start with Augusttwelfth. You're presenting young voices in
dance. Yes, we're so excitedabout this. The idea originally came from
a former dancer with our company whoteaches dance at LaGuardia, the School of

(09:50):
the Arts here in Manhattan, andwas a lead dancer in the Martha Graham
Dance Company. And he came tous and he said, you know,
I'm seeing so much talent in theunder twenty two year old group, and
what about having like sort of anopening pre festival program that features young dancers
and choreographers. So I think thisis our third year of that program,

(10:13):
and people have been just totally bulledover by the last two years, and
this year looks to be great.We're also focusing on a group from QCC
Queensboro Community College, where we've starteda college partnership program, the second of
what will eventually be three college partnershipprograms at Battery Dances running. We're also

(10:35):
working with young people from a communitycenter right here in Manhattan that serves young
people who are homeless or from verydeprived backgrounds, and we're working with them
as well. So we're sort offeeding the different elements of Battery Dances mission
into various elements at the festival,and that's sort of an overall institutional goals

(10:58):
that are executive director who was recentlynamed, he's been with us for twelve
years, but he's now executive director. Imad Salem is really pushing this forward
and it's such a wonderful confluence ofall the different things that mean something to
Battery Dance. He's talking about NewYork again. One of the performers is
Jim and Yang. I'm not sureif I have a name right, but

(11:22):
this is on one of the eveningsin original contemporary dance inspired by Asian immigrant
stories, specifically in Flushing Queens.I love that because it kind of covers
so much territory. August fourteenth,Yes, you know, I came to
it after it had been gone throughthe curatorial panel. I was not aware
of the work before, but Iwas very touched. And you know,
Battery Dance is located right next toChinatown, and we've had wonderful interaction with

(11:48):
the Chinatown community through our work withsenior centers and so forth, and also
politically speaking, getting involved in theManhattan Detention Center and what's happening there with
the plans to create a skyscraper jail. We're supporting the community. We're very
much involved, and so having theChinese American voice in our festival is very

(12:09):
important to us. A special eveningfocused on the work of turn of the
century dance pioneers. That's Thursday,August seventeenth. I love this program and
I've been thinking about this for along time. And Amy Santos, our
festival manager whom I mentioned earlier,has been in conversation with Audrey Ross,
who helped put this program together,with some of New York's legendary performers as

(12:35):
well as you know, those whoare really dedicated to preserving the history of
contemporary of modern dance, really thepioneers of modern dance. When I think
about American culture and what we've contributedto the world, jazz is an obvious
one, hip hop is obvious,but people forget what we have done in

(12:58):
terms of modern dance and contemporary dance, which is all over the world very
very strongly enthusiastically carried forth. Thisis something that is American. What people
like Isadora Duncan. You know alot of her career within Europe and Russia,
but she's an American Woman and MarthaGraham and Dora's Humphrey and Ted Sean

(13:22):
these people. You know, danceis ephemeral and it can evaporate in space
and time, and I'm so gladthat we have brilliant dancers who are dedicating
themselves to carrying this work forward.I'm so excited to see that show,
the Battery Dance Fester. Let's againmention the location you are now in Rockefeller

(13:43):
Park. In Battery Park, peoplemight know Stevenson High School, Chamber Street,
the Esplanade. We're at the northend of the Battery Park City Esplanade.
And I do want to mention thatthe Battery Park City Authority is our
host once again as they have beenfor ten years, and without them we

(14:03):
wouldn't be able to do this festival. They are a huge important partner in
helping us with the logistics, whichare quite challenging, I must say for
an outdoor festival. Well, oneof the great things about moving to this
park, like the park you're normallyin, which is undergoing construction, you
still have that amazing view behind you. We have the view, we have

(14:24):
the sky, and we have ahuge lawn, so we can actually accommodate
many more people. Wagner Park wasfabulous. It was like a natural amphitheater,
but it was limited in terms ofseating and space and so forth.
We've got an expansive lawn for peopleto enjoy at Rockefeller Park. So I

(14:45):
highly highly hope that audience members willflock to the park and make this kind
of interaction between the public and theperformers that we've enjoyed so many years come
alive at Rockefeller Park before second annualBattery Dance Festival August twelfth through eighteenth,
in person and live stream. ToJonathan, what do people need to know

(15:07):
about the live stream? Briefly,Yes, they can go on the Battery
Dance dot org website and register foreither a single night or the entire festival,
and they will get prompts you know, on the day of, on
the evening of, and they willbe able to you know, they'll get
a link to sign in. They'llalso get access to bonus content, which

(15:28):
is always fascinating, you know,interesting facts and background about some of the
performers that are on the program thatevening. So I recommend to anyone who
can't make it downtown or even thosewho come downtown once or twice but would
like to see the other evenings athome. It's right there through the battery
dance dot org website. Jonathan Hollanderis artistic director of Battery Dance. The

(15:50):
festival is August twelfth through eighteenth,and again the website Battery dance dot org.
Thank you for being on the show, Jonathan, great to talk to
you. It's it's your pleasure.Thank you. This has been get connected
with Nina del Rio on one ohsix point seven Lightfm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarilyreflect the views of the station. If

(16:11):
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