Video: A Dance Feast for Downtown at the Battery Dance Festival

Isha Parupudi of the Anjali Dance Company of Houston performs a South Indian classical dance at the 41st annual Battery Dance Festival in Wagner Park. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The Battery Dance Company [1] has performed and taught in 70 countries since Jonathan Hollander formed the company in a Stone Street loft 46 years ago. Germany, Vietnam, Indonesia and Nigeria are on the itinerary in the coming months. But last week Tribeca-based Battery Dance was back Downtown to host its free outdoor Battery Dance Festival [2], a popular annual event now in its 41st year.

Video by Carl Glassman/The Tribeca Trib

The festival again featured a vast, international array of dance forms and innovative choreography. Over seven evenings in Battery Park City’s Wagner Park, the festival treated a combined audience of more than 12,000 to nearly 50 works, with no less a backdrop than New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

“Look at this audience! It’s just wonderful to see you all here this evening,” Hollander said, looking out from the stage at the seated and standing crowd before him. “It’s great to come home from our tours around the world and be here in Lower Manhattan where everything started.”

The Trib’s video slideshow offers just a taste of the offerings at this latest edition of the Battery Dance Festival, Lower Manhattan’s most enduring cultural gift.