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The Annual Downtown Dance Festival was initiated by Battery Dance Company in 1982 and provides a unique opportunity for professional dancers and choreographers as well as emerging dancers and choreographers to present original works of high artistic merit in a free public forum.
The Festival is a carefully measured blend of meticulous administrative, technical and promotional planning and facilitation by a team of seasoned managers working to support the presentation of dance, the most ephemeral of art forms. Similarly, the natural ambiance of an out-of-doors performance is encouraged, tempered by the decorum due to high-level professional performers. This delicate balance is achieved in part through the obviously superb caliber of the performers, the formality of the staged setting, and through the distribution of printed playbills to the audience, carrying the implication that this is an event to be given attention and respect.
Audiences are as likely to be first-timers as to be aficionados, with business executives sharing the space with mothers and toddlers, construction workers and bike messengers on their lunch break.
The Festival places a strong emphasis on the inclusion of diverse dance styles and a multi-ethnic roster of performers. American choreographers Paul Taylor, Mary Anthony, Lê Minh Tâm and Darrell Moultrie have all presented their works alongside pre-eminent companies from Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.
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