Battery Dance to Present 50th Anniversary Gala at Edison Ballroom in NYC
Jonathan Hollander and Victoria Phillips will be honored at the rooftop celebration.
Battery Dance will present its 50th Anniversary Gala, set for Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at The Rooftop at Edison Ballroom, 240 W. 47th Street, New York, NY. Cocktails begin at 6:30pm, with dinner and a performance at 7:30pm. Tickets to the gala start at $500.
The 50th Anniversary Battery Dance Gala will celebrate five decades of artistry, cultural diplomacy, and community engagement in New York City and around the world. This year, Battery Dance is delighted to recognize the outstanding contributions of Founder & Artistic Director Jonathan Hollander and honoree Victoria Phillips, Ph. D.
Join artists, supporters, and cultural leaders as they celebrate this important milestone with a three-course dinner and special performances by Battery Dance and its Dancing to Connect students.
Jonathan Hollander
Jonathan Hollander is a trailblazer in the field of dance beginning with his founding of Battery Dance in Lower Manhattan in 1976 at a time when the area was devoid of culture. Six years later he founded the Battery Dance Festival which is now New York City's longest-running public dance festival. Widely recognized as one of the outstanding choreographers of his generation, his works have been presented in major theaters and festivals across five continents. Hollander is a Finalist for the 2025 Social Innovation Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in partnership with the World Economic Forum. In June, 2018, he was awarded the Federal Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in honor of his "great commitment and leadership in bringing young people together across borders through cultural exchange." He was the Selma Jeanne Cohen Lecturer at the Fulbright Conference in Puebla, Mexico and served as a panelist for the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication at George Washington University in November, 2018. He established arts education residencies at the primary, middle, and high school levels in New York City public schools. He served as Fulbright lecturer on dance in India in 1992 and Fulbright Specialist in Malaysia in 2011. Hollander's work has been supported by the U.S. Department of State on multiple occasions and by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation and many others. Hollander received the Silver Mask of the Silesian Dance Theatre (Poland), the USable Award (Germany), and the Arts & Business Council's Encore Award. Under Hollander's leadership, Battery Dance Company actively supports the commissioning of new musical scores and the inclusion of live musical performance in its productions. Hollander regularly lectures at the university level in the U.S. and overseas on Arts Management and Arts Education. He collaborated in the creation and launching of the Cape Town International Dance Festival in South Africa and has facilitated U.S. tours by many of India's leading dance companies over the past 25 years. He co-founded the IndoAmerican Arts Council in 2000 in New York City and served on its Board until 2018. Jonathan was named Adjunct Professor by the Indian Institute of Finance and represented the U.S. performing arts field at the Inaugural Conference on Soft Power in New Delhi in December, 2018.
Victoria Phillips, Ph.D.
Victoria Phillips, Ph.D. is the author of Martha Graham's Cold War: The Dance of American Diplomacy, which explores the international political life of Martha Graham to promote the United States in over thirty nations for every presidential administration from Dwight D. Eisenhower through George H.W. Bush. Dr. Phillips is a Visiting Fellow and Guest Teacher in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics (LSE), where she specializes in Cold War history and cultural diplomacy. She manages the History, Culture and Diplomacy project and runs the Cold War Archival Research project (CWAR), which is a joint program between LSE, Columbia University, and West Point Military Academy. Between 2013 and 2020, she was a Lecturer in History at the European Institute and Department of History at Columbia University, Associated Faculty at the Harriman Institute, and Faculty Director of (CWAR). Dr. Phillips' teaching interests include Cold War cultural history, both as a full-year and one-semester course that explores the way in which the United States government and private institutions used books, film, television, radio, sports, food, stamps, and many other forms to project and promote American ideology internationally. In addition, she teaches a course on women in the Cold War, "Women as Cold War Weapons," as well as a course on women and the conservative tradition in the global post-World War II 20th century. Dr. Phillips received her BA, MBA and PhD from Columbia University, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in History and Performance Studies from New York University. Her articles have appeared in such varied publications as The New York Times, Dance Chronicle, Ballet News, American Communist History, UC Berkeley's Center for Right-Wing Studies, and Grant's Interest Rate Observer. She has curated several public exhibitions in the United States and in Europe. Phillips has lectured at universities, colleges, high schools, and international institutes. At present, she serves on the boards of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the European Institute at Columbia University, British Dance History Scholars, and the Historic Dance Theatre. She serves as chair of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations Task Force on Archival Digital Resources. She is on the editorial boards of American Communist History and Dance Chronicle. Her primary research is held at the Library of Congress as the Victoria Phillips Collection.
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