Battery Dance Festival online
August 14, 2020
David Mead
Like most dance festivals this year, New York City’s Battery Dance Festival is having to do things a little differently. This year there will be no dance fans heading to Robert F. Wagner Park on the southern tip of Manhattan to watch the 39th edition of the free event with its performances set against the harbour and sunset backdrop. But the pandemic hasn’t stopped Battery Dance artistic director Jonathan Hollander putting together a magnificently eclectic nine days of dance. It’s just that it’s all online, which means those of us elsewhere in the world can get a look in too.
Judging by the first evening, Black Voices in Dance, the new format hasn’t entirely robbed us of atmosphere, thanks to some of the 52 performances (including 28 premieres) from 19 countries having been shot recently on the Battery Park stage. The occasional glimpses of the empty surroundings show us what we are missing, however.
(you can just make out the Statue of Liberty in the distance)
Screenshot from film.
Pick of the pieces are the two middle works. I-will I-Will I-WILLLLL, choreographed and performed by Erv Works Dance artistic director Will Ervin is a solo that considers the complicated relationship we all have to our self. In the opening section, one senses Ervin is reaching down inside himself trying discover who he is. It opens with him, back to the would-be audience, appearing to prompt his body into life with his hands. As the dance develops, it is as heartbreakingly sincere as is George Benson cover version of The Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ to which it is danced. Somehow, the greyness of the sky and harbour beyond is just perfect too.
The second half, to ‘Akuhi’ by House Victimz, shows us a man of multiple experiences (he’s on record as saying he sits at the “intersectionality of queerness, blackness, and masculine vs. feminine”). Popping and street dance are clearly influences, but there are sublime balletic moments too. It’s dance that may be hard to categorise as it shifts seamlessly and blends genres, but it’s always full of interest.
Shifting to film shot in regular indoor performance, grEeneR grASsEs by Jamal Jackson Dance Company is an exploration of migration and the effects that a departure has on the individual and the community that the individual has left behind, inspired by Sailou Diop’s work depicting emigration in a death boat across the Atlantic Ocean.
Screenshot from film
A fusion of modern and West African dance, the choreography in the opening section is fluid and rhythmic. The energy is superb as the dancers bound along with the percussion in the jazzy score. When the trumpet cuts in, it almost feels like the colourfully dressed group of five are having a conversation with it. They frequently point or peer into the distance. Running on the spot suggests travel. All the time, there’s a sense of hope and expectation.
The second half is altogether darker. The impression is now very much of being on that ship. The dance is more bound, taut, with movement references to work on board. A white fence that’s erected pens them in, the same strips of wood later used to form the outline of a hull. It’s as though reality has struck. The cast shift gently to the sound of a swell, a single drum beat sounds remarkably like a funeral bell tolling. And that is where we seem to go as it ends with them what looks like drowning, finally laying down side by side. Strangely, for all that, I found it less powerful than the opening, though.
The show opened on the outdoor stage with CROSSROADS by Kofago Dance Ensemble. Artistic director Kevin McEwen’s choreography draws on different representations of the spirit Eshu, widely known in the Caribbean as the guardian of the crossroads. Inspired by Trinidadian and Haitian folkloric dance, the work has an infectious energy as it’s driven along by the accompanying live percussion.
I have to admit that I struggled with the closing tenderheaded by emerging company Co. D, led by Dorchel Haqq. For the most part it involves three dancers stumbling or running around the stage in dresses, trainers or boots, and full-face masks. For a long time, I didn’t get much sense of it exploring questions of ‘What do you want to shed? What masks do you wear? How do you get to your core?’ However, a solo towards the end that features a fourth dancer in body suit, seemingly struggling to come to terms with her new found body, does start to bring it all together.
On Saturday August 15, the Battery Dance Festival focus switches to India, then to the Middle East (Sunday 16), Europe and Japan (Monday 17), a celebration of the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States (Tuesday 18), Africa (Wednesday 19), North America (Thursday 20), an exploration of the past, present, and future of Battery Dance and the Festival (Friday 21), before rounding off with a tribute to New York City (Saturday 22).
All the Battery Dance Festival virtual performances can be watched free from 7pm (New York) on YouTube. They will remain available for ten days after their premiere. Black Voices in Dance is available here.
For individual programme details visit batterydance.org