August 4, 2025 • 18 mins
The Battery Dance Festival is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival. Now in it’s 44th year, the Festival draws a combined audience of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers. For a backstage preview of this year’s festival, August 9-16 in Battery Park City, our guest is Battery Dance founder and artistic director Jonathan Hollander.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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 (00:12):
Welcome and thanks for listening to get connected. New York
City's Battery Dance is a cultural ambassador. They perform on
world stages and through their award winning Dancing to Connect program,
use dance as a tool to build community worldwide. To date,
Battery Dance has worked in over seventy countries and on
six continents, and while seeking out and discovering talent wherever
(00:33):
they go, Battery Dance, led by founder and artistic director
Jonathan Hollander, provides a forum for those artists to share
their work with New York audiences through the annual Battery
Dance Festival. The free festival is now in its forty
fourth year August ninth through sixteenth at two different venues
and for all the details, my guest is the charming
Jonathan Hollander. So lovely to see you, Jonathan.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, thanks, Nina, You're the charming one of this team.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you so much. I appreciate that. You can find
out more about the full schedule at Batterydance dot org.
But briefly, it's in two locations this year, Saturday August
ninth at Robert F. Wagner Park in Battery Park City
and then moves to the north end of Battery Park
City Tuesday through Saturday, August twelfth through sixteenth. This is
the forty fourth year of the festival, Jonathan. But in addition,
(01:21):
as of July first, twenty twenty five, just a few
weeks ago, this is the fiftieth year of Battery Dance.
So congratulations, how are you feeling about that?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, we are really taking twenty twenty six as the year. Yeah,
the fiftieth anniversary. But you're right in technical terms, and
you know, I did not think the world would be
as it is right now when we got to be fifty.
But it is what it is, And you know, I
think the power and importance of the arts and cultural
(01:53):
exchange among the United States and the world has never
been more important. So I feel lucky, fortunate to be
surrounded with a fantastic team here at Battery Dance and
our board. We're dedicated and we're not stopping. That's the
important part. The last four months of activities in New York,
(02:14):
in Germany and France and getting ready for this huge festival.
We've had NonStop work and in fact, our dancers are
in the studio right now working with a Dutch choreographer,
Faiza Grutens, on a new piece that will be unveiled
at the festival. So it's all systems go for us.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You also, by the way, just to mark one more
thing about this fiftieth year, you know, this is a
company that doesn't just perform work of choreographers to entertain,
which is a great thing in itself, but this is
a company that lives to serve. It was built to serve.
And it seems fortuitous and perhaps just forward thinking at
that time that you know you're still kind of in
this game of being more than the sum of the parts.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Thank you for that. Born to serve, love that I'm
going to hold on to that. We do feel a
compelled to service. And in fact, the program that we
did in France and Germany was part of the commemoration
of eighty years since the end of World War Two
and celebrating the bridge between France and Germany to formerly
(03:20):
warring countries and working with young people in France young
people in Germany to use the art form of dance
as a way of expressing things that cannot be discussed
in words. So to see young people, the next generation
embracing social action, human rights and the art of dance,
(03:41):
using the art of dance as a way to express
these very deep human concerns. That just reinforces our sense
that we're doing the right thing and we have to continue.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Let's talk about the festival. You're at two locations this
year Saturday, August ninth, back at Wagner Park. It's reopening.
It was the festival's home for many years and now
you're in the relaunch of the park.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It's so incredible for us to be going back to
Wagner Park in mad Sale and my counterpart here at
Battery Dance and I have had visits over there to
see the work going on. It's just incredible to see
the park reborn and that we will be part of that.
And Marie Ponset, an indigenous artist who has worked with
(04:23):
us before, will be blessing the renewed space. And then
the Lemone Dance Company and tap dancer John Mansari and
his band will join Battery Dance in a mixed program
that I think is going to be spectacular and then,
of course, as you said, we moved north to Rockefeller
Park for the twelfth Tuesday the twelfth through Saturday the sixteenth,
(04:46):
with five nights a very mixed, wonderful international and local
dance companies.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I want to talk about some of those companies. But
let's remind everybody when the festival is. It's again Saturday,
August ninth at Robert F. Wagner Park in Battery Park City,
Tuesday through Saturday August twelfth through sixteenth, Rockefeller Park in
Battery Park City. The full schedule at Battery Dance dot org.
And as always, this is a free festival. You can
find the full schedule at battery Dance dot org. I'm
(05:14):
speaking with Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director of
Battery Dance. You're listening to get connected on one six
point seven light I FM. I'm Mina del Rio. Both
of those locations also have that backdrop of the Hudson River.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You know, New Yorkers are always on the move. We're
going from place to place. We're underground. Often when do
you get to sit and watch the sky change, see
the clouds move across and dancers in your vision from
all parts of the world in so many different genres.
We have a wonderful duo making their American debut from Spain.
(05:51):
We have an incredible dance company from Taiwan that actually
it's a full circle for Battery Dance because Boola ray
On Paga Lava, who is the artistic director and founder
of this company in Taiwan, was originally part of Battery
Dance in two thousand and four when we toured now
North Africa, so that's very exciting for us. We're working
(06:13):
with the Dutch Consulate again as we did last year
and the year before with Fisa Gruttin as I mentioned,
who's working with our dancers right now, and we'll be
presenting a work of her own from the Hague from
the Corso Theater. We have our India Day program which
has had a last minutes which we're going to be
(06:34):
doing mixed genres from Bardovnatim, Katakali, Kuchipudi where we're going
to have a very exciting array of different dance forms
from India. And let's see, we have a company from
Indonesia as well, a fascinating group and platform A thirteen
doing Balkan ballerinas from Romania. I mean I could go on.
(06:57):
It's just it's a richness.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Of it's really interesting. I took a look at some
of the online video from some of these companies, so
Platform thirteen, they feel kind of very raw and experimental.
They you know, they're in track suits, that sort of thing.
And then the company from Spain on Arte it's very
specific to Spain. It's about tradition as usual. You have
this this whole circle of dance sort of represented.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That's true. And Battery Dance itself is showing works by
Demani Pompeii that he made for us during our Vassar
College residency last spring, and bringing back Rutkai Uspinar's piece
Frontiers that we premiered last year that will be on
the ninth at Wagner Park, and fizas piece that she's creating.
(07:47):
So we're going our own dancers will be going into
different zones during the course of the festival.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You mentioned Bullery Young. This is the company from Taiwan
dancer who worked with you, who is now got this company.
Are you getting to this point where you're starting to
see sort of the fruit of all this international work
pop up.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
That's a very good point. Yes, And when I consider
our own dancer rosvon Stoyan, who we originally encountered in Bucharest,
Romania as a student in our Dancing to Connect workshops,
who then became a choreographer in his own right and
a dancer who's been dancing with us for seven eight
years now and then connect. So this connection on multi
(08:30):
levels with the country Romania. It's wonderful. The bilateral exchange
of ideas that artists.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Purvey regarding the India Day performances. You always do that
on the fifteenth of August. How does the Indian community respond.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well? I will remember a comment made by an Indo
American dancer who watched the program we did one year
on Montipori dance and she said, I had no idea
about this form. Thank you for bringing it. So even
Indian dancers and people in the know are still introduced
(09:09):
to new things on the India Day program and that
will be the case this year. We have a Kolkatta
based choreographer and dancer, Subaji kush Das who is choreographed
to work for a dance company in Pittsburgh, the Nandani
Dance Company, and Bijayani Sadpathi, who has been become kind
of celebrity in dance. She has choreographed a duet by
(09:32):
two of her senior dancers and they'll be presenting that
and the Sutra dar that is the narrator of the
program for the India Day will be none other than
Rajika Pori, who was our honoree at our Agala this
spring and has been a mainstay for Indian dance throughout
our entire years of focusing. So she allows a non
(09:56):
initiated audience to understand what's what's going on and to
give context and sometimes, Nina I feel that dance needs
a wrap around. Like when you go into an art gallery,
you often encounter a curator a gallery manager who if
you're show interest, they will contextualize the work on the walls.
(10:17):
Dance doesn't usually have that, and so I'm very grateful
for the India Program that Rojica is there to bring
the audience into the picture, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I think that's an amazing point. Sometimes when you really
know the context, it makes a huge difference for you
and how you can connect to that very true.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I want to also mention our first ever Bangladeshi artist,
mofas Al Alif will be performing and I'm very excited
anytime that we bring in something new and from a
different part of the world. I'm very excited about that. Also,
Daluna Events will be doing Debka dance at the finale
of the last evening, so excited about that and our
(10:57):
local artists that we presented during our virtual festival. Dorschell
Hawk is presenting a work Swallow US World premiere. You know,
it's not just about overseas, it's about right here in
New York.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
About half of the program this year is actually New
York based, and I think there's one New Jersey based company.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yes, what is it?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know they are often performing in small theaters and
small venues. This is a huge forum for them.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
That's very true, and we ask the artists to think
about contextualizing their work on that stage, in that site.
Without the special lighting cues that you can have in
a theater, the work has to stand on its own choreographically,
and the music obviously helps a lot too.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I would imagine. There's also, like you were mentioning for
the India Day performers, these performers are getting to see
a cross section of other companies in their own city
they might not otherwise have met.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
That's very true. The interchange that happens offstage is really
delightful and important, and in fact, we have workshops by
many of the international groups on the mornings of the festival,
so that there's an opportunity to actually be in the
studio with some of these wonderful international artists.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And to remind everybody. Each night after the festival, there's
also like a public dance.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
That's true. We have everybody dance now after every single evening,
and I'm telling you, my heart beats when I see
this huge gathering of the public, children, seniors, everybody just
getting into the mood at the end of the program.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
It's kind of necessary at this point in some ways, right,
I think so many people are tense about things. You
watch this beautiful festival over the river, and then you
have an opportunity to get up and have a bit
of a release.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I think it's really important. I think we all need
that cathartic experience, and also we need to understand the
importance of community. Right now, We've been thinking about a
project we hope to do in Germany next year that
brings generations together, youth and senior citizens to combat the
sense of isolation and loneliness. This is a plague right now.
(13:11):
I think in the world during pandemic, everybody was sequestered
and isolated and they really haven't come back fully into
that exchange, that human exchange that you get in community
with friends, family, and the people that you don't even
know yet, and then you're in a park together. So
(13:32):
I think that this needs to be a focus. I
know it is a focus for doctors and people working
in social work, the isolation that happens and how an
event like this I know for me, here I am
talking to you, I'm in front of a laptop, I'm
in my home office isolated. But when I'm in the park,
(13:53):
all the work that we've done for nine ten months beforehand,
it all makes sense because then that energy of community
and people coming together in that positive spirit that we
all need just infuses me.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Is that perhaps the most interesting part for you, the
most exciting part for you?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It really is. It really is. And also I love
dance and I love all the genres of dance, and
that's what inspired me to start public outdoor performances in
the first place. Back in the Battery in our earliest
years of Battery dance seeing a thousand people come out
at lunchtime and surround dancers and just take it in.
(14:32):
And so that's never left me that feeling that there
is a calling we need to get out of the
small isolation, isolated spaces and into a larger public and
give people access to the art of dance that we
love so much.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So the festival kind of nuts and bolts. It is free,
it is for all ages. There's lawn seating, yes, there's
some seating.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
We encourage people to bring their own picnic blanket and
whatever else. I do want to say that we could
not do what we're doing without Battery Park City Authority.
You know, the people at BPCA have been working night
and day to get Wagner Park reopened in time. They
had a performance last night and we were there just
(15:18):
a few days before where stones were still being put
in place to get ready. So here you have a
public private partnership, but there are human beings behind that.
And what they have done about resilience and protecting Lower
Manhattan from the next time that the water's rise is
phenomenal and at the same time caring about the lawn
(15:39):
and the sculptures and the amenities for the public to
appreciate public space. I mean, this is really incredible, and
when we go around the world, it's something I talk
about is the volunteer spirit in America and these partnerships
between institutions and entities and the arts community that makes
(16:02):
something like the Battery Dance Festival possible.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
The Battery Dance Festival starts at Robert F. Wagner Park
in Battery Park City on August ninth. It actually just
reopened this past week. If you look at the photos online,
it looks incredible. So I'm so glad you're back there
for the opening night. The second part of the festival
is August twelfth through sixteenth, Tuesday through Saturday in Battery
Park City. The performances start seven pm every night. How
(16:27):
long do they go?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
A couple hours there, it's more or less an hour
and a half mostly, I mean it stretches. Some evenings
are longer, more companies, others are a little shorter. But
we always end with that everybody dance Now experience.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And it's designed to be seen in person, but can
you watch it virtually again?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
This year we're working on live streaming. If it's not possible,
what we do is to record every evenings program and
put them online, so one way or another, people around
the world have been able to watch the festival in
prior years, and we're going to make that possible again.
We did forget to mention the company from Germany, Minsu Kim,
(17:05):
who we saw as a soloist last year, and he's
bringing a new duet Eden to the festival this year.
So we're very grateful also to the Dutch Consulate, to
the German Consulate, to the Indian Consulate, the Spanish Consulate
that have made you know, we don't this is a
free festival. We do get public funds from the New
(17:27):
York State Council and the Arts, the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs, the City Council, and the Battery
Park City Authority, but there are no ticket revenues, so
when we get support from these consulates it's critically important.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It is a herculean task to put this event together
and it comes out beautifully every year. You can find
out the full schedule everything that's going on at Battery
Dance dot org. Jonathan Holland are lovely to see you
and thank you for being on to get connected again.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's my pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
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 (00:12):
Welcome and thanks for listening to get connected. New York
City's Battery Dance is a cultural ambassador. They perform on
world stages and through their award winning Dancing to Connect program,
use dance as a tool to build community worldwide. To date,
Battery Dance has worked in over seventy countries and on
six continents, and while seeking out and discovering talent wherever
(00:33):
they go, Battery Dance, led by founder and artistic director
Jonathan Hollander, provides a forum for those artists to share
their work with New York audiences through the annual Battery
Dance Festival. The free festival is now in its forty
fourth year August ninth through sixteenth at two different venues
and for all the details, my guest is the charming
Jonathan Hollander. So lovely to see you, Jonathan.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Well, thanks, Nina, You're the charming one of this team.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Thank you so much. I appreciate that. You can find
out more about the full schedule at Batterydance dot org.
But briefly, it's in two locations this year, Saturday August
ninth at Robert F. Wagner Park in Battery Park City
and then moves to the north end of Battery Park
City Tuesday through Saturday, August twelfth through sixteenth. This is
the forty fourth year of the festival, Jonathan. But in addition,
(01:21):
as of July first, twenty twenty five, just a few
weeks ago, this is the fiftieth year of Battery Dance.
So congratulations, how are you feeling about that?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Well, we are really taking twenty twenty six as the year. Yeah,
the fiftieth anniversary. But you're right in technical terms, and
you know, I did not think the world would be
as it is right now when we got to be fifty.
But it is what it is, And you know, I
think the power and importance of the arts and cultural
(01:53):
exchange among the United States and the world has never
been more important. So I feel lucky, fortunate to be
surrounded with a fantastic team here at Battery Dance and
our board. We're dedicated and we're not stopping. That's the
important part. The last four months of activities in New York,
(02:14):
in Germany and France and getting ready for this huge festival.
We've had NonStop work and in fact, our dancers are
in the studio right now working with a Dutch choreographer,
Faiza Grutens, on a new piece that will be unveiled
at the festival. So it's all systems go for us.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
You also, by the way, just to mark one more
thing about this fiftieth year, you know, this is a
company that doesn't just perform work of choreographers to entertain,
which is a great thing in itself, but this is
a company that lives to serve. It was built to serve.
And it seems fortuitous and perhaps just forward thinking at
that time that you know you're still kind of in
this game of being more than the sum of the parts.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Thank you for that. Born to serve, love that I'm
going to hold on to that. We do feel a
compelled to service. And in fact, the program that we
did in France and Germany was part of the commemoration
of eighty years since the end of World War Two
and celebrating the bridge between France and Germany to formerly
(03:20):
warring countries and working with young people in France young
people in Germany to use the art form of dance
as a way of expressing things that cannot be discussed
in words. So to see young people, the next generation
embracing social action, human rights and the art of dance,
(03:41):
using the art of dance as a way to express
these very deep human concerns. That just reinforces our sense
that we're doing the right thing and we have to continue.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Let's talk about the festival. You're at two locations this
year Saturday, August ninth, back at Wagner Park. It's reopening.
It was the festival's home for many years and now
you're in the relaunch of the park.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
It's so incredible for us to be going back to
Wagner Park in mad Sale and my counterpart here at
Battery Dance and I have had visits over there to
see the work going on. It's just incredible to see
the park reborn and that we will be part of that.
And Marie Ponset, an indigenous artist who has worked with
(04:23):
us before, will be blessing the renewed space. And then
the Lemone Dance Company and tap dancer John Mansari and
his band will join Battery Dance in a mixed program
that I think is going to be spectacular and then,
of course, as you said, we moved north to Rockefeller
Park for the twelfth Tuesday the twelfth through Saturday the sixteenth,
(04:46):
with five nights a very mixed, wonderful international and local
dance companies.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
I want to talk about some of those companies. But
let's remind everybody when the festival is. It's again Saturday,
August ninth at Robert F. Wagner Park in Battery Park City,
Tuesday through Saturday August twelfth through sixteenth, Rockefeller Park in
Battery Park City. The full schedule at Battery Dance dot org.
And as always, this is a free festival. You can
find the full schedule at battery Dance dot org. I'm
(05:14):
speaking with Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director of
Battery Dance. You're listening to get connected on one six
point seven light I FM. I'm Mina del Rio. Both
of those locations also have that backdrop of the Hudson River.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You know, New Yorkers are always on the move. We're
going from place to place. We're underground. Often when do
you get to sit and watch the sky change, see
the clouds move across and dancers in your vision from
all parts of the world in so many different genres.
We have a wonderful duo making their American debut from Spain.
(05:51):
We have an incredible dance company from Taiwan that actually
it's a full circle for Battery Dance because Boola ray
On Paga Lava, who is the artistic director and founder
of this company in Taiwan, was originally part of Battery
Dance in two thousand and four when we toured now
North Africa, so that's very exciting for us. We're working
(06:13):
with the Dutch Consulate again as we did last year
and the year before with Fisa Gruttin as I mentioned,
who's working with our dancers right now, and we'll be
presenting a work of her own from the Hague from
the Corso Theater. We have our India Day program which
has had a last minutes which we're going to be
(06:34):
doing mixed genres from Bardovnatim, Katakali, Kuchipudi where we're going
to have a very exciting array of different dance forms
from India. And let's see, we have a company from
Indonesia as well, a fascinating group and platform A thirteen
doing Balkan ballerinas from Romania. I mean I could go on.
(06:57):
It's just it's a richness.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Of it's really interesting. I took a look at some
of the online video from some of these companies, so
Platform thirteen, they feel kind of very raw and experimental.
They you know, they're in track suits, that sort of thing.
And then the company from Spain on Arte it's very
specific to Spain. It's about tradition as usual. You have
this this whole circle of dance sort of represented.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That's true. And Battery Dance itself is showing works by
Demani Pompeii that he made for us during our Vassar
College residency last spring, and bringing back Rutkai Uspinar's piece
Frontiers that we premiered last year that will be on
the ninth at Wagner Park, and fizas piece that she's creating.
(07:47):
So we're going our own dancers will be going into
different zones during the course of the festival.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
You mentioned Bullery Young. This is the company from Taiwan
dancer who worked with you, who is now got this company.
Are you getting to this point where you're starting to
see sort of the fruit of all this international work
pop up.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
That's a very good point. Yes, And when I consider
our own dancer rosvon Stoyan, who we originally encountered in Bucharest,
Romania as a student in our Dancing to Connect workshops,
who then became a choreographer in his own right and
a dancer who's been dancing with us for seven eight
years now and then connect. So this connection on multi
(08:30):
levels with the country Romania. It's wonderful. The bilateral exchange
of ideas that artists.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Purvey regarding the India Day performances. You always do that
on the fifteenth of August. How does the Indian community respond.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well? I will remember a comment made by an Indo
American dancer who watched the program we did one year
on Montipori dance and she said, I had no idea
about this form. Thank you for bringing it. So even
Indian dancers and people in the know are still introduced
(09:09):
to new things on the India Day program and that
will be the case this year. We have a Kolkatta
based choreographer and dancer, Subaji kush Das who is choreographed
to work for a dance company in Pittsburgh, the Nandani
Dance Company, and Bijayani Sadpathi, who has been become kind
of celebrity in dance. She has choreographed a duet by
(09:32):
two of her senior dancers and they'll be presenting that
and the Sutra dar that is the narrator of the
program for the India Day will be none other than
Rajika Pori, who was our honoree at our Agala this
spring and has been a mainstay for Indian dance throughout
our entire years of focusing. So she allows a non
(09:56):
initiated audience to understand what's what's going on and to
give context and sometimes, Nina I feel that dance needs
a wrap around. Like when you go into an art gallery,
you often encounter a curator a gallery manager who if
you're show interest, they will contextualize the work on the walls.
(10:17):
Dance doesn't usually have that, and so I'm very grateful
for the India Program that Rojica is there to bring
the audience into the picture, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
I think that's an amazing point. Sometimes when you really
know the context, it makes a huge difference for you
and how you can connect to that very true.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
I want to also mention our first ever Bangladeshi artist,
mofas Al Alif will be performing and I'm very excited
anytime that we bring in something new and from a
different part of the world. I'm very excited about that. Also,
Daluna Events will be doing Debka dance at the finale
of the last evening, so excited about that and our
(10:57):
local artists that we presented during our virtual festival. Dorschell
Hawk is presenting a work Swallow US World premiere. You know,
it's not just about overseas, it's about right here in
New York.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
About half of the program this year is actually New
York based, and I think there's one New Jersey based company.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yes, what is it?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know they are often performing in small theaters and
small venues. This is a huge forum for them.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
That's very true, and we ask the artists to think
about contextualizing their work on that stage, in that site.
Without the special lighting cues that you can have in
a theater, the work has to stand on its own choreographically,
and the music obviously helps a lot too.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
I would imagine. There's also, like you were mentioning for
the India Day performers, these performers are getting to see
a cross section of other companies in their own city
they might not otherwise have met.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
That's very true. The interchange that happens offstage is really
delightful and important, and in fact, we have workshops by
many of the international groups on the mornings of the festival,
so that there's an opportunity to actually be in the
studio with some of these wonderful international artists.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And to remind everybody. Each night after the festival, there's
also like a public dance.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
That's true. We have everybody dance now after every single evening,
and I'm telling you, my heart beats when I see
this huge gathering of the public, children, seniors, everybody just
getting into the mood at the end of the program.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
It's kind of necessary at this point in some ways, right,
I think so many people are tense about things. You
watch this beautiful festival over the river, and then you
have an opportunity to get up and have a bit
of a release.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I think it's really important. I think we all need
that cathartic experience, and also we need to understand the
importance of community. Right now, We've been thinking about a
project we hope to do in Germany next year that
brings generations together, youth and senior citizens to combat the
sense of isolation and loneliness. This is a plague right now.
(13:11):
I think in the world during pandemic, everybody was sequestered
and isolated and they really haven't come back fully into
that exchange, that human exchange that you get in community
with friends, family, and the people that you don't even
know yet, and then you're in a park together. So
(13:32):
I think that this needs to be a focus. I
know it is a focus for doctors and people working
in social work, the isolation that happens and how an
event like this I know for me, here I am
talking to you, I'm in front of a laptop, I'm
in my home office isolated. But when I'm in the park,
(13:53):
all the work that we've done for nine ten months beforehand,
it all makes sense because then that energy of community
and people coming together in that positive spirit that we
all need just infuses me.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Is that perhaps the most interesting part for you, the
most exciting part for you?
Speaker 3 (14:10):
It really is. It really is. And also I love
dance and I love all the genres of dance, and
that's what inspired me to start public outdoor performances in
the first place. Back in the Battery in our earliest
years of Battery dance seeing a thousand people come out
at lunchtime and surround dancers and just take it in.
(14:32):
And so that's never left me that feeling that there
is a calling we need to get out of the
small isolation, isolated spaces and into a larger public and
give people access to the art of dance that we
love so much.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So the festival kind of nuts and bolts. It is free,
it is for all ages. There's lawn seating, yes, there's
some seating.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
We encourage people to bring their own picnic blanket and
whatever else. I do want to say that we could
not do what we're doing without Battery Park City Authority.
You know, the people at BPCA have been working night
and day to get Wagner Park reopened in time. They
had a performance last night and we were there just
(15:18):
a few days before where stones were still being put
in place to get ready. So here you have a
public private partnership, but there are human beings behind that.
And what they have done about resilience and protecting Lower
Manhattan from the next time that the water's rise is
phenomenal and at the same time caring about the lawn
(15:39):
and the sculptures and the amenities for the public to
appreciate public space. I mean, this is really incredible, and
when we go around the world, it's something I talk
about is the volunteer spirit in America and these partnerships
between institutions and entities and the arts community that makes
(16:02):
something like the Battery Dance Festival possible.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
The Battery Dance Festival starts at Robert F. Wagner Park
in Battery Park City on August ninth. It actually just
reopened this past week. If you look at the photos online,
it looks incredible. So I'm so glad you're back there
for the opening night. The second part of the festival
is August twelfth through sixteenth, Tuesday through Saturday in Battery
Park City. The performances start seven pm every night. How
(16:27):
long do they go?
Speaker 3 (16:28):
A couple hours there, it's more or less an hour
and a half mostly, I mean it stretches. Some evenings
are longer, more companies, others are a little shorter. But
we always end with that everybody dance Now experience.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
And it's designed to be seen in person, but can
you watch it virtually again?
Speaker 3 (16:45):
This year we're working on live streaming. If it's not possible,
what we do is to record every evenings program and
put them online, so one way or another, people around
the world have been able to watch the festival in
prior years, and we're going to make that possible again.
We did forget to mention the company from Germany, Minsu Kim,
(17:05):
who we saw as a soloist last year, and he's
bringing a new duet Eden to the festival this year.
So we're very grateful also to the Dutch Consulate, to
the German Consulate, to the Indian Consulate, the Spanish Consulate
that have made you know, we don't this is a
free festival. We do get public funds from the New
(17:27):
York State Council and the Arts, the New York City
Department of Cultural Affairs, the City Council, and the Battery
Park City Authority, but there are no ticket revenues, so
when we get support from these consulates it's critically important.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It is a herculean task to put this event together
and it comes out beautifully every year. You can find
out the full schedule everything that's going on at Battery
Dance dot org. Jonathan Holland are lovely to see you
and thank you for being on to get connected again.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It's my pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
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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