Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 599
(upbeat music) - Welcome back in everyone to a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. We are bringing you another amazing festival here in the beautiful city of New York. And this time it's a wonderful dance festival. And joining us to speak about it, we have the founder and artistic director of Battery Dance, Jonathan Hollander. He is joining us to talk about the 43rd annual Battery Dance Festival, which is happening August 11th through the 17th in person and via livestream at Rockefeller Park and Battery Park. And you can get your tickets which are free and more information by visiting batterydance.org. We're so excited to be bringing another beautiful arts festival to you. One, that's perfect in the perfect time of year, the perfect summer or a point in summer. And we're so excited to learn more about this amazing company. So let us welcome on our guests, Jonathan, welcome to Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. - Thank you, Andrew. It's a real honor to be here. And thank you for giving shining a light on this festival that's going into it, as you said, 43rd year. We have staying power. - You made it through a lot. He's living in a pandemic, a recession, you, yes. - That's true, that's true. - Well, I'm so excited to learn more about not only the company, but this festival. So let me start by having you tell us a little bit about the Battery Dance Festival. - So the festival is produced every year by Battery Dance Company. Battery Dance was founded in the Financial District in 1976. And that was an area where we found ourselves a space to rehearse and to create. But there were no theaters. There was no sort of venue in Lower Manhattan where we could present dance in a traditional fashion. So, you know, of necessity, we went out onto the street, the parks, the plazas, the peers of Lower Manhattan. And lo and behold, we realized this is a great way to bring a dance to the public free of charge and open people's minds to all of the different diversity and beautiful variety of dance that lives and grows in this incredible city of ours. So back in those days, we presented in various different places on a pier, city hall steps, the South Street Sea port and the old much remembered World Trade Center Plaza. So various things happened. We started as an art in the lunch place kind of exit production in the noontime. And because it was noontime in August, we had to find locations that were shaded by some of these towers because the audience and the dancers could not have managed to be in the full sun at noon in August. So that meant that we found shade in Lower Manhattan and we created beautiful dance opportunities for the audience to experience. Chinese folk dance, tap dance, classical ballet, all forms of modern and contemporary dance. And in those days, we had practically no budget. So we always relied on our good neighbors in Lower Manhattan to give us space and lend staging and whatever we could find. Low then 2014 Superstorm Sandy, you may remember, Andrew, that it flooded all the parks and plazas and underground of many of the buildings in Lower Manhattan. And so we found ourselves in a real dilemma. We didn't know where we were gonna present the festival that year. And we had a meeting with the Battery Park City Authority, which is a public-private partnership that looks over the land, the buildings, the residential and business buildings in Battery Park City. And they said, why don't you come here and walk through the area and see if you can find a suitable location. And that's when we found Wagner Park. And Wagner Park was uncanny in the sense that it was built almost like an amphitheater because it sloped down to the Esplanade, which had just enough space for a stage. And then you had the glorious background of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty in the background. So we thought, okay, this is perfect. Why didn't we ever think of this before? But shade, there was no shade, there were no trees. So we thought, oh, okay, we're gonna have to shift everything and perform in the evening, bring in lights. And we wondered if anybody would find us 'cause we had sort of established ourselves by that point in the lunchtime arena. Well, we ended up having twice the sides of the audience at night. People loved sitting there and watching the sunset and seeing these beautiful dance performances with the water in the background and the Statue of Liberty. It had this grandeur, natural grandeur to it. So that was great until last year when the resiliency plan for Lower Manhattan started to be implemented and Wagner Park was dug up. Literally, it doesn't even exist right now. It's being recreated 12 feet higher because that was where all the water came in from the harbor and flooded Lower Manhattan during Superstorm Sandy because you remember it wasn't such a hurricane kind of situation, but the water came up and went in and flooded the number one, you know, the Whitehall and Southbury train station that was closed just after having reopened after 9/11. So last summer, we moved to Rockefeller Park which is starts up by Chamber Street. And, you know, everything you move because you have to, but then you realize it was an actual benefit to the move because we had much more lawn and the audience stretched way, way out. So there was a much more space for the audience at Rockefeller Park and that's where we will be again this year with our seven days of programming from August 11th through 17. - What an incredible journey story. I love all that. Talk about the adversity you all have overcome. That's amazing. - Yeah, that's true. Sometimes there is a silver lining. You have to look very carefully to find it sometimes, but, you know, and there's a fear factor. You fear that you're going to lose your audience. You fear that when you don't have the spectacular setting that Wagner Park offers that Rockefeller won't do, but there was a benefit in the sense that Wagner Park, sometimes people would be blinded if the sun came out from behind a cloud and shown right into the audience's eyes. Obviously, if you needed a cap and if you didn't have one, you were in trouble. Rockefeller, we switched the orientation. So we don't have that sun in the eyes problem. So there again, you win some, you lose some. - Well, turning to this year's festivities, I'd love to know what's it been like developing it and getting it put together. There are many factors that we take into consideration. When you're presenting dance outdoors, first of all, some of the audience is moving. Bikers, walkers, dog walkers, whatever. And you want to be compelling and you don't want to be too long with each offering. So we generally stick with about 20 minutes per group. So each night, there might be five or six dance companies that you can see. And that's a wonderful opportunity to just taste so much variety and be exposed to things that you never would have found any other way. Amy Santos is the manager of the Battery Dance Festival. And she's been working, it's sort of a year round job because when you consider that we had 350 applications for the festival, we're only able to take about 10% of that. So that means looking through seriously considering all of the work that's on offer. And then in terms of the international groups, and this year we have a group coming from Taiwan, from India, from the Netherlands, from Germany. I know I'm forgetting some right now, but it's a, oh Canada, Romania, it's an Olympics of dance. And but each one of those companies, you have, they have to work out the funding, the logistics, some need visas, you know, so you can imagine that the behind the scenes is quite complex. And we have a curatorial panel. We have two curatorial panels. We have one for the main stage productions. And then we have a program called Young Voices in Dance. And that is specifically pitched for choreographers age 22 and below. So that we give an opportunity for the young up and coming in incredibly talented dancers and choreographers that are being produced every year in this cauldron, this creative cauldron of New York City and surroundings. So one curatorial panel for these 350 applications that come in from professional dance companies and another curatorial panel made up of young people, some of whom were in the festival last year in the young voices and dance. So young people judging young people's work and having generational opportunities. So yeah, it's just a remarkable, if you're looking for a variety and you think, well, I love ballet, well, there's some ballet. And if you love tap dance, there's some tap dance. And if you love to experience dance from different countries like Indian classical dance or dance from Romania and can't quite imagine what that could be, it's on offer. So come and enjoy. - That's so wonderful. General, I want to snowball off of that because I'd love to know what can audiences expect from this year's festival? - One evening, it's on the Monday, which would be the 13th is the young voices and dance. And don't in any way think that these are going to be very amateurish and that you're going to have to make, you know, all kinds of concessions for, you know, these kids are absolutely unbelievable, talented. The 15th is India Day, it's India Independence Day. And so we have two different features, both from the same Eastern state of Odisha, used to be called Orissa in India, where we have a martial arts/dance group form called Myer Bunch Chow. And I wonder if anybody in the audience has ever seen Myer Bunch Chow. If not, come on August 15th and you'll get a wonderful taste from one of the leading dancers of that form, which is it's vigorous, it's strong, it show, you know, there's some sword fighting and so forth. At the same time, there's a delicacy to the movement. It's very refined. So I can hardly, you know, there's really nothing quite like it. And contrasting with that, we have a soloist, Radhika Jha, who is a Odhisi soloist, who has studied with a guru who is very rare. He had very few students and his style is different from the typical Odhisi. So very excited to present Radhika. We have the Romanian dance company just got confirmed but we're collaborating with the Romanian Cultural Institute. We've been able to feature Romanian dancers for the last seven or eight years, I believe. And the choreographer, Gigi, is Romania's most famous choreographer whose work has never been seen in the United States. So we're very excited about that. The We Dance Company from Gurlitz, Germany, which is in the far eastern part of Germany is coming. It's there, you know, we're so thrilled that the German consulate is supporting their involvement. The Taiwanese Focus Group, we have a connection with them because Chai Shihang is a fabulous choreographer who's done a lot of work in the United States. She's Taiwanese, she worked with dancers in Taipei and the Taipei Arts Council is bringing them over. So we're excited to see Chai Shih created a piece for us, which we presented in a festival last year. So excited to see what she's done on the Taiwanese dancers. There's just so much to mention we have a hoop dancers from Canada, from Montreal area. And so excited to have them, especially in lower Manhattan where we're near the Museum of the American Indian. So, you know, there's just so many touch points that people can find and all of this is on our website on batterydance.org. So people can really dig into each evening and see what they're going to experience. - That is also incredible. What variety you're bringing. I'm curious to know with such an international plethora of artists, is there a message or thought you hope audiences take away from this year's events? - Well, this really plays to battery dance itself because we are one of America's leading cultural ambassadors. We've done programs in 75 countries around the world. We were in Nigeria last year, the year before we were in the Palestinian territories. It's hard to even imagine that that could have happened. We've been in Germany every year since 2006. And we discover a wonderful talent overseas and it's such a pleasure to be able to present to our audience here in New York, some of the beauty and treasures that we discover overseas. So to us, it's a bilateral kind of respect for artists to artists. - I love that, I love that. Let me ask my final question off in this first part. And of course, that is, who do you hope have access to this year's battery dance festival? - I think part of our mission has always been from day one that the arts should be accessible to everyone. We feel like dance in particular because it has special needs on the flooring and the staging and so forth often needs to be in black box theaters or places where only the people who know come. Whereas this is a festival that can arrest somebody on a bike ride or on a walk. And they can come up and discover and be compelled and riveted by what they're seeing on stage. I think people, we want to invite everyone to this festival. And I mean everyone and we have an interpreter. So disability is not an issue for us. We endeavor to make our performances as accessible as possible. We've had a wheelchair dance company twice. We had a dancer last season who was one of the most spectacular dancers you've ever seen and a disabled dancer. We've had productions, battery dance had commissioned, Christopher Nunez, a visually impaired choreographer who made a piece for an abled company which we think is a very unusual thing. It's often an abled choreographer making work for a disabled or mixed company. In this case, the opposite. So we're trying everything that we can to open the doors to our art form because we're passionate about it, we love it and we feel that if people have access, they will love it too. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Well, on the second part of our interview, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit better. Pick your brains, if you will. And I've been having such a great time that I just want to jump straight to my favorite question and I'd love to ask you what is your favorite theater memory? Or even in this case, when we are talking dance, what is your favorite dance memory? - That's really a tough question for me because I have a huge appetite for all kinds of theater and dance. Early theater experiences on stage in adventure theater in the suburbs of Washington, DC. I was a rat in the Pied Piper and that was never to be forgotten 'cause I had to wear leotard and tights, oh my God. You know, as a 10 year old, how humiliating is that? But my parents were very kind and they brought us to see Fiddler on the Roof and a variety of different shows at the arena stage in Washington, DC. So Jane Alexander and a lot of absolutely terrific actors who were part of that repertory company at Arena Stage. In terms of dance, seeing Nuri Evan Fontaine at the Lincoln Center Opera House was something I'll never forget. And just the other night, I was at New York City Ballet. I saw Midsummer Night's Dream by Balanchine. He created that in the late '60s. It is the most compelling, beautiful Mendelssohn score, performed live beautifully by the orchestra. And we saw a diversity small with Meghan Fairchild and Chun Wei Chen, who we had honored just a few days before at our gala. Chun is the first Chinese dancer to be made a principal at the New York City Ballet to see him on stage partnering with Meghan Fairchild with one of the stars of City Ballet and himself a star. And in choreography that was not the showstopper, you know, turns and leaps and all of that, it was this subtle partnering that only Balanchine can do. And the two of them intricately interwoven balances like you've never seen. I think, so you see what I mean? Like, I just go to the theater and I come out with so many inspiring memories, including the night before or the day before, I went to the LaGuardia High School, dance, graduating class 2024, final performance. And from the beginning, which was classical ballet, all the way through totally contemporary works, a Martha Graham acts of light, which is, I mean, everybody is in unison in gold leotards. So one movement out of sync and it would have ruined the whole thing, it was perfect. These are high school students. I mean, and then the last piece was with live jazz band, great singers, all students from LaGuardia. It was just, I came out of there so inspired by the next generation of talents, you know, and a public high school. So I'm a dilettante, I like so many different things, which is why I, you know, sort of defined the battery dance festival as being multi genre. You know, this is what I wanted. I wanted the audience to be able to see all of the great different colors and textures and tempo and themes that dance can portray. - That is amazing. I love that, and I love that memory. Thank you so much for sharing that. - See, it all started in a black leotard and tight. So as a humiliated little boy. - Oh, testament to the power of theater there, or a good pair of tights. Take your pick. - Well, as we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you or your company have any other projects or productions coming on the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? - We are, I will point to a work that's been created in July by Ruth Kai Ozpinar, who is a Turkish Dutch choreographer being commissioned through this for wonderful celebration of New Amsterdam, the 400 years celebration. The Dutch government is supporting us in bringing a Dutch choreographer to New York who's going to create a piece on our company, which will become part of the repertoire. So yes, it'll be performed on stage of the Battery Dance Festival, but there will be future performances of that work. And of course, it doesn't exist right now. But given the fact that this young choreographer was the youngest house choreographer in the Netherlands, I think he was about 25 years old when he was made a house choreographer at the Corzo Theater in The Hot, The Hay. And his first creation in America will be on our company. So I'm very excited about that in the future that that holds. That is wonderful, wonderful. And it leads to my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about the 43rd Annual Battery Dance Festival, or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you, how can they do so? - Well, Battery Dance website is really, really full. There's a lot there and it's batterydance.org, very easy. And I think they will find every detail about the festival there. They will also find me as the founder and artistic director. And there's a, you know, there's one of those forms that you can fill out to if you have a query or you want to get in touch. So it's all on the website, batterydance.org. And I'm happy to be in touch with people, you know, especially to your audience, which I can decode would be a very engaged intellectual, but also arts forward group of people. So I'd love to hear from people. And I'll be there at every performance at the festival. So seek me out. - Wonderful. Well, Jonathan, it has been an absolute joy speaking with you today, learning all about your company and this incredible festival. So thank you for joining us. And thank you so much for your time today. - It's my pleasure, Andrew. And thank you and good luck with continuing this very, very important vehicle for sharing the arts with a wide public. - Thank you so much. My guest today has been the founder and artistic director, Jonathan Hollander, who joined us to talk about his company, Batterydance, and their presentation of the 43rd Annual Batterydance Festival. It's happening August 11th through the 17th in person and via live stream at Rockefeller Park and Battery Park. You can get your tickets, which again are free and more information by visiting batterydance.org. We hope you will join us in this beautiful part of the city for this incredible and wide variety filled festival that's happening. This is going to be an incredible event this year. So don't miss out. It's the Batterydance Festival, August 11th through the 17th. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies, and keep talking about the theater in a stage whisper. Thank you. 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