Battery Dance to Present THE DURGA PROJECT, 8/20

Because of popular demand and an overwhelming audience response at the world premiere in May, Battery Dance will reprise its Indo-American collaboration of "The Durga Project" as the finale of the 35th annual Battery Dance Festival on Saturday, August 20, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University (3 Spruce Street).

"I was exposed to Indian classical dance and music as a teenager while on an exchange program in India, long before I became a dancer and choreographer," said Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of Battery Dance. "What we have created in 'The Durga Project' is an homage to the Indian goddess Durga's shakti (strength) and bhakti (devotion), and the packed audiences at our world premiere performances earlier this month served as the impetus to bring this performance back to life ONE more time."

In "The Durga Project," guest artist Unnath H.R., one of the leading classical dancers of his generation in India, engages in a symbiotic process with Battery's Western-trained team of five brilliant and diverse dancers, yielding swaths of distinctive, yet undefinable, choreography that are like none other in the Company's repertoire. Music has been contributed by acclaimed Hindustani vocalists Rajan and Sajan Mishra, whose Raag Durga served as the impetus for the piece. Additional music, "Garuda's Dream," has been contributed by Sangita Sounds, and a specially recorded tabla solo by Samir Chatterjee links the score together. Costume designer Solé Salvo applies her vision and skill to adorn the dancers in garments suggestive of a primitive time and place, in hues inspired by the spices of India. Calvin Anderson employs a variegated palette in his lighting design with sculptural chiaroscuro suggestive of the bas relief on Indian temples.

Watch a sneak peek of the performance below!