The forty fourth Annual Battery Dance Pageant, which brings collectively numerous dance firms from all over the world, will run from August 12-16.
On August 15, marking India's Independence Day, the competition will host ‘India Day,' a showcase of ‘Shakti – Divine Power,' a blended programme that includes dance and cultural performances by world artists, paying homage to the feminine essence and creativity.
“The final two years we had a really sturdy concentrate on ‘Purush', male dancers, and this yr we've got switched it round and we could have a robust concentrate on ‘Shakti, divine power,” Founder and creative director of Battery Dance Jonathan Hollander instructed PTI in an interview.
The specifically curated day could have seven completely different teams which is able to supply their “inventive tackle the essence of the female precept in creativity and in life itself. It is a actually essential theme for right this moment's world, the place there's a lot battle, fracture and unknowns,” Hollander mentioned.
“Mom and the feminine essence is one thing that all of us can relate to”, at occasions like these, he mentioned. The India Day Programme is supported via grants from the Consulate Basic of India in New York and the State Financial institution of India, New York. It should characteristic the Nandanik Dance Troupe from Pittsburgh with choreographer and soloist Subhajit Khush Das from Kolkata in a brand new manufacturing on the Goddess Kali. Different works that may pay tribute to the feminine essence will probably be by choreographers Bijayini Satpathy, Maya Kulkarni, Lada Pada, Sonali Skandan, Swathi Gundapuneedi-Atluri, Subhajit Khush Das, Renjith Babu and Malini Srinivasan for dancers and dance firms from Kolkata, Pittsburgh, New Jersey and New York within the kinds of Odissi, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali, and Uday Shankar.
Emphasising the theme of the ‘India Day' performances, Hollander mentioned that on a political and social degree, ladies's rights and respect for ladies and the way in which “all of us relate to the ladies in our lives, that is one thing that may by no means have an excessive amount of consideration.”
With artists from throughout India and the US coming collectively for varied performances, he underscored that this speaks to the extremely expert and inventive diaspora of the Indian tradition in North America.
The Battery Dance Pageant is New York Metropolis's longest-running free public dance competition, drawing a mixed viewers of over 12,000 in-person and over 10,000 digital viewers yearly.
“We're all searching for a second of refreshing ourselves, refreshing our minds,” Hollander mentioned, talking in regards to the message of the competition.
With folks consumed with the information on daily basis, many are left questioning, “What's the subsequent disaster or what's the subsequent horror that we will see and really feel?” he mentioned.
“And while you're sitting on the park, in a neighborhood of folks that a lot of whom you do not know, and you might be shoulder to shoulder with folks of all cultures, ethnicities, ages, I feel there is a sense of celebrating human nature and celebrating what we've got in widespread,” he added.
