Battery Dance to Present 35th Annual BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL This August

Battery Dance, in association with Battery Park City Authority, announces the 35th Annual Battery Dance Festival (formerly the Downtown Dance Festival), with free performances on August 14-19, 2016, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm against the breathtaking backdrop of the New York Harbor at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park in Battery Park City, culminating in a closing event and reception on August 20, 2016, from 6pm to 8:30pm at The SchimMel Center at Pace University. For more information, visit batterydance.org/battery-dance-festival.

Established by Battery Dance in 1982 as the Downtown Dance Festival, today Battery Dance Festival (BDF) is New York City's longest-running free public dance festival. Audiences are drawn from the downtown working population and residents, families, tourists, senior citizens and dance fans from the greater NYC metropolitan area. Each year, the Festival draws a combined audience of over 10,000.

Battery Dance Festival provides a unique opportunity for local and international dance companies to present original works of high artistic merit in a free public forum. BDF revels in the panoply of dance that our city offers, with strong emphasis on the inclusion of diverse dance styles and an international roster of performers. American choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Robert Battle, Andrea Miller, Michelle Dorrance and Darrell Moultrie have all presented their works alongside pre-eminent companies from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.

The festival will begin on August 14, 2016 with a memorial to Adel Euro.

Our lives intersected with tragedy in the early morning hours of July 3rd. Our beloved protégé, Adel Euro, was killed in the bombing in Baghdad that took the lives of almost 300. He had dreams of dancing with us in New York. We will honor his memory at the opening of the Battery Dance Festival with a special performance by three of his compatriots from Iraq who are all in the U.S. as refugees.

This year's featured artists include:

AUGUST 14, 2016

Florida Dance Theatre | Lakeland, Florida

Joshua Beamish/Move: The Company

MOTOWN The Musical

Razvan Stoian - Bucharest, Romania (World Premiere)

XAOC Contemporary Ballet - August 14, 2016

Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project - Istanbul, Turkey (U.S. Debut)

AUGUST 15, 2016 - ERASING BORDERS FESTIVAL OF INDIAN DANCE

Presented in association with the Indo-American Arts Council

Avijit Das - Bangalore, India

Battery Dance

Carolina Prada - New Delhi, India

Pt. Krishan Mohan Mishra - New Delhi, India

Surabhi Bharadwaj - San Francisco

Sooraj Subramaniam - Gent, Belgium

Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts - Mumbai, India

AUGUST 16, 2016

De Funes Dance

Jennifer Muller/ The Works

Kilowatts Dance Theater

Shawnbibledanceco

Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project - Istanbul, Turkey (U.S. Debut)

AUGUST 17, 2016

FJK Dance

Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company

Obika Dance Projects

Steps Repertory Ensemble

Te Ao Mana

AUGUST 18, 2016

DoubleTake Dance

Maxine Steinman & Dancers

Robin Aren/TRAC

SEAD Company Bodhi Project - Salzburg, Austria (U.S. Debut)

Y + Y Dance

AUGUST 19, 2016

Amy Marshall Dance Company

Ballet Inc.

Battery Dance

Buglisi Dance Theatre

Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Dance Company

Thomas/Ortiz Dance | New Canaan, CT

Trainor Dance

AUGUST 20, 2016

Battery Dance

SEAD Comapany Bodhi Project - Salzburg, Austria (U.S. Debut)

Unnath H.R.

Battery Dance created its outdoor festival in 1982 as part of its service to the downtown community in which it has been based for 40 years. As one of America's leading cultural ambassadors, Battery Dance connects the world through dance. The Company pursues artistic excellence and social relevance by creating vibrant new works, performing on the world's stages, presenting dance in public spaces, serving the field of dance and teaching people of all ages with special attention to the disadvantaged and areas of conflict. Battery Dance is committed to enhancing the cultural vibrancy of its home community in New York City, extending programming throughout the U.S., and building bridges worldwide through international cultural exchange with programs in 65 countries to date. For more, visit www.batterydance.org.