Tina Croll and Company Will Present A New Choreographic Work BALKAN BACCHANAL at The 41st Annual Battery Dance Festival

Tina Croll + Company will present Balkan Bacchanal, a new hybrid choreographic work combining modern dance and Balkan folk dance at the 41st Annual Battery Dance Festival in Battery Park City, Thursday, August 18, Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park. The performance will include nine Company dancers and 15 musicians from the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band. The Battery Park Dance Festival, 7-9pm, is free and open to the public.

Balkan Bacchanal explores the intricate rhythms and moods found in music from Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Romania. The dances are often rituals - some wild and playful, some slow and stately, some harsh and driven, others gentle, almost trance-like. Seven dances will be shown, with modern dance and traditional Balkan folk dance presented separately and in combination.

The Bacchanal's Romanian dance, "Floričica Olteneasca" will include the use of the Drymba, an instrument inherent to the Ukraine. In addition, Ukrainian Folk Orchestra/ director, founder Andriy Milavsky will appear with the Zlatne Uste band in tribute to his nation at this difficult time.

Tina Croll has always loved Balkan folk dancing, beginning more than 50 years ago. She started collaborating with Zlatne Uste in 2000 and they worked together to produce the critically acclaimed "Balkan Dreams," which premiered at Danspace Project in 2002. "Balkan Bacchanal" is an expansion of that work. The rich inspiration that Croll has found in Balkan music has resulted in a body of innovative and fresh, rhythmically complex, high-energy choreography. With a blend of folk and contemporary styles, the dance delivers unexpected twists of rhythm, space, and time.

BALKAN BACCHANAL, A SEVEN-PART DANCE WORK:

· Aman, Aman, Momče Bre - This title has no simple translation. "Aman" is an expression used in the Balkans and the Middle East. It can mean pleasure, satisfaction, pain, distress, longing, God, and many emotions in between.

· Rumelaj - This is a Romanian folk song sung in a Hungarian-Rom dialect. This song was first heard in a recording by the Hungarian group Kalyi Jag ("Black Fire"). Since this recording it has traveled to Turkey where it was taught to a group of musicians by Steve Kotansky

· Floričica Olteneasca - This Romanian piece is played on the drymba (jew's harp)

· Petrunino - a dance from West Central Bulgaria. The song asks Petrunina why she is so beautiful: "...did you fall from heaven or spring up in a garden?"

· Balada Za Trubače - "Ballad for Trumpeters" is a Rom dance tune in 9/8 time.

· Kojcovata - This music, "Kojco's dance," comes from the region of Veliko Tamovo in North Bulgaria. It belongs to the. "Dajcovo" family.

· Kopanica - A well-known Bulgarian dance tune in 11/16 time, also found in Slavic and Greek Macedonia and Serbia.

Tina Croll & Company Dancers: Andrew Barna, Erin DeLucia-Benson, Michelle Durante, Kendra Dushac, Michelle Gilligan, Michael Ginsburg, Noel Kropf, Heather Panikkar, and Bard Rosell.

Musicians: Belle Birchfield, Morgan Clark, Marian Eines, Sarah Ferholt, Catherine Foster, Emily Geller, Michael Ginsburg, Don Godwin, Emerson Hawley, Melinda Hunt, Jerry Kisslinger, Andriy Milavsky, Seido Salifoski, Matt Smith, and Daniel Stern.
Also appearing at Battery Dance Festival on August 18 will be Demi Remick & Dancers, Floyd McLean Jr., Fairul Zahid & Lasalle Dance Singapore, TeaTime Company and Battery Dance.