August 5, 2024 • 18 mins
NYC’s Battery Dance performs on the world’s stages and builds 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. The free, outdoor festival is August 11-17 at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City, NYC at 7PM ET. Our guest is founder and Artistic Director of Battery Dance, Jonathan Hollander. For more, visit BatteryDance.org.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you for listening to Get Connected once again, Joined
by Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director of Battery Dance.
They are one of America's leading cultural ambassadors. Battery Dance
connects the world through dance. They are a unique company
that has performed on the world stages and built bridges
through international cultural exchange programs. To date in over seventy
(00:36):
countries and in summer, Battery Dance plays host to dancers
and companies throughout the world with the Battery Dance Festival,
a free outdoor festival this year August eleventh through seventeenth
in Rockefeller Park, Battery Park, City and online. Jonathan Hollander,
thank you for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
What an honor to be with you again, Nina. You're
I love having interviews with you because you're concerned for
the arts, and your knowledge and your experience is palpable,
and so it's so easy to have these wonderful conversations
and to share with your audience the wonders that are
coming up August eleventh through seventeenth, as you mentioned, at
(01:18):
seven pm at Rockefeller Park.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's always something surprising. The full schedule for the event
is it Batteryedance dot Org. And like Battery Dance, this
is a New York based event, and like our city,
it is very international. The world is represented. You are
very committed to that.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
We really are. Battery Dance has been privileged to work
and as you said, over seventy countries around the world,
and we seek out talent everywhere we go, and of
course it's on display, whether in Nigeria or Finland or
all these different countries that are then represented in our festival,
so that we can share with our audience in New
(01:59):
York the incredible inspiring performances that we get to see overseas.
For example, a group from India, nine dancers representing the
very rare form of Meyer bunch Chow from the eastern
state of Orisa. Last year we had a phenomenal group
(02:20):
that came from the same state, but doing O Diissey dance.
This time it's the martial arts slash dance form of
Meyer Bunch Chao, which UNESCO has recognized as one of
the world Intangible heritages. So this is this is we
take this role very seriously, being so committed to Manhattan,
(02:43):
to Lower Manhattan, to the audiences in the metro area.
We feel like they're not that many free opportunities to
experience this kind of diversity of dance and also the
talent that surrounds us right here in our own city
India performances.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
There's always a day reserved for India Day is August fifteenth.
If you go to this event, I think you know
that every night is something special and you can see
surprises every time you go. I wonder how much of
the diversity is based on you reaching out to different
(03:22):
companies and how much, especially because you're online now, how
much are people reaching out to you.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
There's so much more coming in these days. And Amy Santos,
the manager of the festival, and our curatorial committee and
our interns have gone through over three hundred applications in
order to find these jewels that we've been able to
represent this summer, and hopefully if we didn't select a
(03:51):
group this year because there just wasn't an opportunity to
fit them all in next year we're headed into the
forty fourth year and ultimately forty five year and by
the way, July one, twenty twenty five is the beginning
of Battery Dance his fiftieth anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Wow, congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's very exciting, you know, looking forward, always looking forward,
but at the same time taking stock of where we've been.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You know, as long as I've been aware of Battery Dance,
which is maybe ten years, which is not that long
given to your long history, You've always been focused on
connecting cultures and serving people who live in disadvantaged areas
and areas of conflict, and working with refugees in your
international programs Dancing to Connect. You are the founder of
(04:40):
this company, this is your vision. Where did that focus
come from? Does that interest predate the company?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think we all owe a huge debt to our parents,
our teachers, our siblings, the people who brought us up.
And in my case, my father was dedicated to public service.
He was an attorney with the US Department of Justice
in the Anti Trust Division. My mother was a concert
pianist who started a program of performing in the senior
(05:11):
centers around Washington, d C. To bring music to people,
Alzheimer's patients and so forth. So yeah, it's in my family.
My sister is president of America's Meal on Wheels Meals
on Wheels, So it's in the family, so to speak.
It's our responsibility. We feel that.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We're speaking with Jonathan Hollander. He is the founder and
artistic director of Battery Dance, hosting the Battery Dance Festival.
It is free this coming Sunday through the seventeenth in
person and live stream from Rockefeller Park, Battery City, seven
pm Eastern. The full schedule at batteryedance dot org. There's
(05:51):
a different event every night. The schedule is deep. I
really love this year. By the way, Jonathan, on Sunday night,
at the first night, you've got a company from my
hometown Fort Worth.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, you know. Every night there is a different schedule. Monday,
you have the Young Voices in Dance. On Thursdays, Indian Dance.
Other nights, different companies from around the world. How does
that schedule work itself out? Or how do you work
it out?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
This is the job of Amy Santos, who's just I
think she has a real feel for this, having worked
with the legendary Mrs Cunningham, Meredith A Monk, Lucinda Child's,
Martha Graham, company. She knows the legends, she knows these
different pillars of American modern dance, but she's also super
(06:40):
open to the new emerging voices in dance. She goes
to a lot of performances, she actually performs herself, so
she's really in the mix. And she has assembled a
curatorial panel that's diverse in terms of age and experience.
So we really try our hardest to make every evening
(07:05):
full of variety. And I think that this is one
of the distinguishing factors of our festival, is it? And
one of the reasons I founded the festival back in
those days is because I love all forms of dance,
and I love flamenco, I love tap dance, I love
hip hop. You know, there's nothing new or old that
I don't like about my discipline of dance. And I
(07:27):
didn't feel like there was a festival in New York
that was that diverse, certainly in one evening where you
could go from you know, an emerging choreographer in a
very contemporary dance avant garde kind of presentation to a
classical ballet piece. And I'm trying to win over audiences.
I'm trying to say, Hey, you think you don't know,
(07:49):
you think you don't like, but guess what, maybe you
actually do and let's give it a try.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And maybe dance isn't your thing necessarily. And you think
of dance, you think of ladies in two twos, which
is beautiful, but it's not just that. And you know,
even this year you have a company from Montreal presenting
indigenous dance and this is a dance that pow wow's
across North America would be familiar.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
With, and hoop dancing and also intergenerational a mother and son,
I'm super excited about this group. You know, we're right
a stone's throw, a stone's throw away from the museum,
the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and I don't
you know, I think we're all thinking about indigenous people,
(08:36):
land rights, what came before, you know, the white people
and so forth, and certainly our program with the Indigenous
group from Canada, but also Future four hundred, the Celebration
of New Amsterdam and the Dutch Consulate has done an
(08:57):
incredible job of supporting lots and lots of program which
reflect on the colonial period and what it really means,
all the different aspects and ways of thinking about this
So we have a Turkish Dutch choreographer who arrived last
night at JFK, flying in from Amsterdam, who will begin
(09:17):
rehearsing with Battery Dance on Thursday and preparing a new work, Frontiers,
that will be presented at the festival as its world debut,
and we're really excited. It's just who knows what it
will be. I mean, that's part of the wonderful thing
about the spontaneity and improvisation of dance. You don't know
until it's on stage what's going.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
To happen and where is that? Is that on the
Battery Dance schedule or is that with you?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, there are two performances on the Battery Dance schedule.
I think it's opening night and closing night or something
like that. But it's all there, as you said on
Battery Dance dot Org, the whole schedule. I mean, there's
more than thirty performances, so I'm trying hard. The only
one I'm always clear about is August fifteenth, India Independence Day,
(10:05):
and we're very grateful to the Indian Consulate in New
York and the State Bank of India because it costs
money to bring a group from India. But in addition
to the Meyer Bunch chiw that I mentioned, we also
have a very rare form of Odissy dance performed by
Rodi ka Jaw, who you know Odissy dances. It's one
(10:26):
of the forms of Indian dance that some Americans are
familiar with. But the form that she has studied with
a particular guru, Surrender not Jenna, is something that I
had never seen and most people haven't seen. It's based
on the temple sculptures of India and so you can
see the sculptural visual experience transposed into the body and
(10:48):
that's what Rady Kajaw will be presenting. So I'm very
excited about that as well.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
On Monday the twelfth is Young Voices in Dance. Who
are these choreographers and where are they in their professional journey.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, one of the rules is they have to be
twenty two or under to be and this is not
to be a dancer, but to be the choreographer. So
we're giving the space to the next year, the next
generation of talent, and there's so much of it. And
one of the things that Amy has done and before her,
Gabrielle Neederhoffer and by the way. The idea initiated from
(11:24):
our own dancer today, Bridnik, who now teaches at LaGuardia
High School. So going back to today's vision, he was
seeing this incredibly talented seventeen year olds eighteen year olds
at LaGuardia and he was saying, Jonathan, I think that
we really should give them a chance. So we started
the idea from today and built it out with Gabrielle
(11:46):
and now with Amy. And here's what's I'm thrilled about
the fact that the curatorial panel for the Young Voices
and Dance is made up of former performers from the
Young Voices and Dance, so being judged by their peers,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Even before you mentioned that, I was going to ask
you about that. You know, the dancers at the events,
they take away the experience, but they also must take
away some sense of community.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
I think that's that's something that is the underpinning behind
the festival. The audience members, the young family that just
moved into Lower Manhattan, or you know, somebody commuting from
Queens or you know, people coming from all over the
metro area. As you said, live streaming. I have to
say we're still working on the live streaming portion, because
(12:37):
as you can imagine, the arts are experiencing very dramatic
cutbacks in funding. You've seen big institutions cutting schedule. You've
seen big institutions, you know, being having to curtail certain programs.
We're not immune from that by any means, and so
(12:58):
we're working on trying to findonsorship. We're even now to
cover the expenses of the live stream, So stay tuned
for that.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
If you're showing up at Rockefeller Park in person. What
else do you need to know besides shows begin at
seven pm in Rockefeller Park Sunday through Saturday.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
One of the things that we found last year, which
was our first time at Rockefeller Park, having moved from
Wagner Park, which was undergoing this resiliency plan rebuilding the
entire park so that water couldn't flood in as it
did during Superstorm Sandy, that we have a big lawn,
much much bigger space for the public than we had
(13:37):
at Wagner Park. And so when I'm standing on stage
giving announcements, I just see this very very long parade
of people on picnic with picnics, with blankets, chairs that
they brought from home, you know, all kinds of different
(13:58):
ways of enjoying Parkland. The changing sky, the water and
the beautiful dancers against the sky. It's such an incredible
way to see dance.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It really is a beautiful way to see dance. Two
thousand people come out each night. You watch the performers
on stage as the sun goes down behind them, and
there's the water and the boats, and you know we're
watching the performances, you're also looking back at us a
little bit. What do audiences seem to react to most,
and what are you hoping to see? What do you
hope audiences take away.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Battery Dance stands for access to the arts. We feel
that everyone should have a license to experience the arts,
and unfortunately sometimes the arts and dance tends to feel
restricted in some way culturally, economically, and so having a
free festival where it's open to anyone and it reinforces
(14:58):
our reason for being a dance company and why we
care about the work that we do is and seeing
that that audience and people of all ages, colors, ethnicities, backgrounds.
There's no education that's needed for this. If your eyes
are open and your ears are open, then it's there
(15:19):
for you. And I think that that's a really important message,
is that accessibility. And you know I was talking about
the cutbacks and funding. You know, things are getting more
expensive in every level, and this is free and it
always has been free. One of the things about community
(15:40):
that is reinforced that you were asking about earlier is
that we have daily workshops in our studios where each
many of the individual the international artists are sharing their
vocabulary of movement, their style, whether it's a folk dance
style or some special technique. We had a sort of
(16:00):
circus type company from the Netherlands some years ago when
they were teaching juggling and it was just so much
fun to watch children and seniors learning the fundamentals of juggling.
And we had an Indian dancer with teaching them the
facial expressions, the abi naya and you know, people who've
never had exposure to that and always thought can I
(16:22):
enjoy that? Is that something that is for me? Or
is that too specialized? So that's what I that's my
feeling is that again the license to appreciate the opportunity
to say, okay, that last that fifteen minutes was okay,
but wow what came after it was fabulous and I
(16:43):
think also, I always think about going to an art
gallery with a friend and I'll stop and Peru's particular painting,
and my friend or companion will just walk on and
find something else. And so there's no right or wrong,
there's no best or not best. It's personal taste and
whatever resonates for you. And I know that choreographers feel
(17:04):
that way. They're trying to tap into some kind of
resonance with their audience, and so we give them that chance.
Sometimes we're the biggest audience they've ever had for their work,
because if they've been performing in one hundred seat black
box theaters and all of a sudden they have two
thousand people at the park, it's a remarkable opportunity for
(17:26):
them to see how it.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Goes, especially if they've never been to the States or
never been or performed in New York. It's huge. The
Battery Dance Festival starts this coming Sunday, the eleventh, goes
through the seventeenth in person at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City,
seven pm each weeknight and Saturday, and is going to
be live streamed at Battery Dance dot org. The forty
(17:50):
third annual Battery Dance Festival just a week away. Our
guest has been Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director
of Battery Dance. Jonathan, thank you for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Thank you for being such a wonderful interviewer and supporter
of our festival. It means so much.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one o six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thank you for listening to Get Connected once again, Joined
by Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director of Battery Dance.
They are one of America's leading cultural ambassadors. Battery Dance
connects the world through dance. They are a unique company
that has performed on the world stages and built bridges
through international cultural exchange programs. To date in over seventy
(00:36):
countries and in summer, Battery Dance plays host to dancers
and companies throughout the world with the Battery Dance Festival,
a free outdoor festival this year August eleventh through seventeenth
in Rockefeller Park, Battery Park, City and online. Jonathan Hollander,
thank you for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
What an honor to be with you again, Nina. You're
I love having interviews with you because you're concerned for
the arts, and your knowledge and your experience is palpable,
and so it's so easy to have these wonderful conversations
and to share with your audience the wonders that are
coming up August eleventh through seventeenth, as you mentioned, at
(01:18):
seven pm at Rockefeller Park.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's always something surprising. The full schedule for the event
is it Batteryedance dot Org. And like Battery Dance, this
is a New York based event, and like our city,
it is very international. The world is represented. You are
very committed to that.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
We really are. Battery Dance has been privileged to work
and as you said, over seventy countries around the world,
and we seek out talent everywhere we go, and of
course it's on display, whether in Nigeria or Finland or
all these different countries that are then represented in our festival,
so that we can share with our audience in New
(01:59):
York the incredible inspiring performances that we get to see overseas.
For example, a group from India, nine dancers representing the
very rare form of Meyer bunch Chow from the eastern
state of Orisa. Last year we had a phenomenal group
(02:20):
that came from the same state, but doing O Diissey dance.
This time it's the martial arts slash dance form of
Meyer Bunch Chao, which UNESCO has recognized as one of
the world Intangible heritages. So this is this is we
take this role very seriously, being so committed to Manhattan,
(02:43):
to Lower Manhattan, to the audiences in the metro area.
We feel like they're not that many free opportunities to
experience this kind of diversity of dance and also the
talent that surrounds us right here in our own city
India performances.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
There's always a day reserved for India Day is August fifteenth.
If you go to this event, I think you know
that every night is something special and you can see
surprises every time you go. I wonder how much of
the diversity is based on you reaching out to different
(03:22):
companies and how much, especially because you're online now, how
much are people reaching out to you.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
There's so much more coming in these days. And Amy Santos,
the manager of the festival, and our curatorial committee and
our interns have gone through over three hundred applications in
order to find these jewels that we've been able to
represent this summer, and hopefully if we didn't select a
(03:51):
group this year because there just wasn't an opportunity to
fit them all in next year we're headed into the
forty fourth year and ultimately forty five year and by
the way, July one, twenty twenty five is the beginning
of Battery Dance his fiftieth anniversary.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Wow, congratulations, thank you.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
It's very exciting, you know, looking forward, always looking forward,
but at the same time taking stock of where we've been.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You know, as long as I've been aware of Battery Dance,
which is maybe ten years, which is not that long
given to your long history, You've always been focused on
connecting cultures and serving people who live in disadvantaged areas
and areas of conflict, and working with refugees in your
international programs Dancing to Connect. You are the founder of
(04:40):
this company, this is your vision. Where did that focus
come from? Does that interest predate the company?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I think we all owe a huge debt to our parents,
our teachers, our siblings, the people who brought us up.
And in my case, my father was dedicated to public service.
He was an attorney with the US Department of Justice
in the Anti Trust Division. My mother was a concert
pianist who started a program of performing in the senior
(05:11):
centers around Washington, d C. To bring music to people,
Alzheimer's patients and so forth. So yeah, it's in my family.
My sister is president of America's Meal on Wheels Meals
on Wheels, So it's in the family, so to speak.
It's our responsibility. We feel that.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We're speaking with Jonathan Hollander. He is the founder and
artistic director of Battery Dance, hosting the Battery Dance Festival.
It is free this coming Sunday through the seventeenth in
person and live stream from Rockefeller Park, Battery City, seven
pm Eastern. The full schedule at batteryedance dot org. There's
(05:51):
a different event every night. The schedule is deep. I
really love this year. By the way, Jonathan, on Sunday night,
at the first night, you've got a company from my
hometown Fort Worth.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, yeah, you know. Every night there is a different schedule. Monday,
you have the Young Voices in Dance. On Thursdays, Indian Dance.
Other nights, different companies from around the world. How does
that schedule work itself out? Or how do you work
it out?
Speaker 3 (06:18):
This is the job of Amy Santos, who's just I
think she has a real feel for this, having worked
with the legendary Mrs Cunningham, Meredith A Monk, Lucinda Child's,
Martha Graham, company. She knows the legends, she knows these
different pillars of American modern dance, but she's also super
(06:40):
open to the new emerging voices in dance. She goes
to a lot of performances, she actually performs herself, so
she's really in the mix. And she has assembled a
curatorial panel that's diverse in terms of age and experience.
So we really try our hardest to make every evening
(07:05):
full of variety. And I think that this is one
of the distinguishing factors of our festival, is it? And
one of the reasons I founded the festival back in
those days is because I love all forms of dance,
and I love flamenco, I love tap dance, I love
hip hop. You know, there's nothing new or old that
I don't like about my discipline of dance. And I
(07:27):
didn't feel like there was a festival in New York
that was that diverse, certainly in one evening where you
could go from you know, an emerging choreographer in a
very contemporary dance avant garde kind of presentation to a
classical ballet piece. And I'm trying to win over audiences.
I'm trying to say, Hey, you think you don't know,
(07:49):
you think you don't like, but guess what, maybe you
actually do and let's give it a try.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And maybe dance isn't your thing necessarily. And you think
of dance, you think of ladies in two twos, which
is beautiful, but it's not just that. And you know,
even this year you have a company from Montreal presenting
indigenous dance and this is a dance that pow wow's
across North America would be familiar.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
With, and hoop dancing and also intergenerational a mother and son,
I'm super excited about this group. You know, we're right
a stone's throw, a stone's throw away from the museum,
the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and I don't
you know, I think we're all thinking about indigenous people,
(08:36):
land rights, what came before, you know, the white people
and so forth, and certainly our program with the Indigenous
group from Canada, but also Future four hundred, the Celebration
of New Amsterdam and the Dutch Consulate has done an
(08:57):
incredible job of supporting lots and lots of program which
reflect on the colonial period and what it really means,
all the different aspects and ways of thinking about this
So we have a Turkish Dutch choreographer who arrived last
night at JFK, flying in from Amsterdam, who will begin
(09:17):
rehearsing with Battery Dance on Thursday and preparing a new work, Frontiers,
that will be presented at the festival as its world debut,
and we're really excited. It's just who knows what it
will be. I mean, that's part of the wonderful thing
about the spontaneity and improvisation of dance. You don't know
until it's on stage what's going.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
To happen and where is that? Is that on the
Battery Dance schedule or is that with you?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, there are two performances on the Battery Dance schedule.
I think it's opening night and closing night or something
like that. But it's all there, as you said on
Battery Dance dot Org, the whole schedule. I mean, there's
more than thirty performances, so I'm trying hard. The only
one I'm always clear about is August fifteenth, India Independence Day,
(10:05):
and we're very grateful to the Indian Consulate in New
York and the State Bank of India because it costs
money to bring a group from India. But in addition
to the Meyer Bunch chiw that I mentioned, we also
have a very rare form of Odissy dance performed by
Rodi ka Jaw, who you know Odissy dances. It's one
(10:26):
of the forms of Indian dance that some Americans are
familiar with. But the form that she has studied with
a particular guru, Surrender not Jenna, is something that I
had never seen and most people haven't seen. It's based
on the temple sculptures of India and so you can
see the sculptural visual experience transposed into the body and
(10:48):
that's what Rady Kajaw will be presenting. So I'm very
excited about that as well.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
On Monday the twelfth is Young Voices in Dance. Who
are these choreographers and where are they in their professional journey.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
Well, one of the rules is they have to be
twenty two or under to be and this is not
to be a dancer, but to be the choreographer. So
we're giving the space to the next year, the next
generation of talent, and there's so much of it. And
one of the things that Amy has done and before her,
Gabrielle Neederhoffer and by the way. The idea initiated from
(11:24):
our own dancer today, Bridnik, who now teaches at LaGuardia
High School. So going back to today's vision, he was
seeing this incredibly talented seventeen year olds eighteen year olds
at LaGuardia and he was saying, Jonathan, I think that
we really should give them a chance. So we started
the idea from today and built it out with Gabrielle
(11:46):
and now with Amy. And here's what's I'm thrilled about
the fact that the curatorial panel for the Young Voices
and Dance is made up of former performers from the
Young Voices and Dance, so being judged by their peers,
so to speak.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Even before you mentioned that, I was going to ask
you about that. You know, the dancers at the events,
they take away the experience, but they also must take
away some sense of community.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
I think that's that's something that is the underpinning behind
the festival. The audience members, the young family that just
moved into Lower Manhattan, or you know, somebody commuting from
Queens or you know, people coming from all over the
metro area. As you said, live streaming. I have to
say we're still working on the live streaming portion, because
(12:37):
as you can imagine, the arts are experiencing very dramatic
cutbacks in funding. You've seen big institutions cutting schedule. You've
seen big institutions, you know, being having to curtail certain programs.
We're not immune from that by any means, and so
(12:58):
we're working on trying to findonsorship. We're even now to
cover the expenses of the live stream, So stay tuned
for that.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
If you're showing up at Rockefeller Park in person. What
else do you need to know besides shows begin at
seven pm in Rockefeller Park Sunday through Saturday.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
One of the things that we found last year, which
was our first time at Rockefeller Park, having moved from
Wagner Park, which was undergoing this resiliency plan rebuilding the
entire park so that water couldn't flood in as it
did during Superstorm Sandy, that we have a big lawn,
much much bigger space for the public than we had
(13:37):
at Wagner Park. And so when I'm standing on stage
giving announcements, I just see this very very long parade
of people on picnic with picnics, with blankets, chairs that
they brought from home, you know, all kinds of different
(13:58):
ways of enjoying Parkland. The changing sky, the water and
the beautiful dancers against the sky. It's such an incredible
way to see dance.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
It really is a beautiful way to see dance. Two
thousand people come out each night. You watch the performers
on stage as the sun goes down behind them, and
there's the water and the boats, and you know we're
watching the performances, you're also looking back at us a
little bit. What do audiences seem to react to most,
and what are you hoping to see? What do you
hope audiences take away.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Battery Dance stands for access to the arts. We feel
that everyone should have a license to experience the arts,
and unfortunately sometimes the arts and dance tends to feel
restricted in some way culturally, economically, and so having a
free festival where it's open to anyone and it reinforces
(14:58):
our reason for being a dance company and why we
care about the work that we do is and seeing
that that audience and people of all ages, colors, ethnicities, backgrounds.
There's no education that's needed for this. If your eyes
are open and your ears are open, then it's there
(15:19):
for you. And I think that that's a really important message,
is that accessibility. And you know I was talking about
the cutbacks and funding. You know, things are getting more
expensive in every level, and this is free and it
always has been free. One of the things about community
(15:40):
that is reinforced that you were asking about earlier is
that we have daily workshops in our studios where each
many of the individual the international artists are sharing their
vocabulary of movement, their style, whether it's a folk dance
style or some special technique. We had a sort of
(16:00):
circus type company from the Netherlands some years ago when
they were teaching juggling and it was just so much
fun to watch children and seniors learning the fundamentals of juggling.
And we had an Indian dancer with teaching them the
facial expressions, the abi naya and you know, people who've
never had exposure to that and always thought can I
(16:22):
enjoy that? Is that something that is for me? Or
is that too specialized? So that's what I that's my
feeling is that again the license to appreciate the opportunity
to say, okay, that last that fifteen minutes was okay,
but wow what came after it was fabulous and I
(16:43):
think also, I always think about going to an art
gallery with a friend and I'll stop and Peru's particular painting,
and my friend or companion will just walk on and
find something else. And so there's no right or wrong,
there's no best or not best. It's personal taste and
whatever resonates for you. And I know that choreographers feel
(17:04):
that way. They're trying to tap into some kind of
resonance with their audience, and so we give them that chance.
Sometimes we're the biggest audience they've ever had for their work,
because if they've been performing in one hundred seat black
box theaters and all of a sudden they have two
thousand people at the park, it's a remarkable opportunity for
(17:26):
them to see how it.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Goes, especially if they've never been to the States or
never been or performed in New York. It's huge. The
Battery Dance Festival starts this coming Sunday, the eleventh, goes
through the seventeenth in person at Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City,
seven pm each weeknight and Saturday, and is going to
be live streamed at Battery Dance dot org. The forty
(17:50):
third annual Battery Dance Festival just a week away. Our
guest has been Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director
of Battery Dance. Jonathan, thank you for being on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Thank you for being such a wonderful interviewer and supporter
of our festival. It means so much.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one o six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
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