A long-celebrated free dance festival is returning this summer to Battery Park City.
Battery Dance is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a free summer festival. From Aug. 12-20, New Yorkers can experience several in-person and virtual events, in partnership with Battery Park City Authority.
“Dancing in the open air, with the river and sky in the background, is always a blissful Battery Dance Festival experience,” said Jonathan Hollander, President and Artistic Director, Battery Dance. “This year, it will be even more exhilarating as people come out of isolation to witness the entrancing performances at Wagner Park. Before the action starts on stage, three nights of truly riveting dance films from many corners of the globe will be screened. Creativity was running high during the pandemic, and we have harvested a heady mix from voguing on a mountaintop in Lebanon to swing dancing in South Korea; commedia dell’arte in Mexico to birdlike flocking in the Netherlands.”
Battery Dance Festival is the city’s longest-running free public dance festival. Prior to the pandemic, the festival drew in 2,000 a night. Battery Dance went virtual in 2020, drawing in 30,000 viewers from 206 countries.
This year, the festival will run a hybrid model of both in-person and virtual events and performances, preceded by three nights of virtual performances by international artists. The festival will screen 16 international dance films from Aug. 12-14 at 7 p.m. ET via YouTube, and 40 in-person and livestreamed performances will be staged at Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, New York City, from Aug. 15-20 at 7 p.m. ET.
As always, it is free to attend the festival, though registration is encouraged. To register for live or virtual performances, or to see the full lineup of events, visit batterydance.org.
