Downtown Dance Festival 2002
August 24 - 30

Sponsored By:

Con Edison
JPMorganChase
Crown Properties
Conservancy for Historic Battery Park
New York City Department
of Cultural Affairs
New York City Department
of the Aging
Office of Manhattan Borough President
C. Virginia Fields

Battery Dance Company's 21st Annual Celebration of Dance.

Celebrate Lower Manhattan's great dance companies in free outdoor performances under the London plane trees at Battery Park, with the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor providing a welcoming backdrop, or in the elegant urban gathering spot of Chase Plaza.

Festival Highlights

A coalition of downtown-based dance companies have come together post 9/11, to play a coordinated role in enhancing and rebuilding the cultural life of their community. This coalition, the Downtown Dance Partners - comprising Battery Dance Company, Chen & Dancers, and Chinese Folk Dance Company, will make its first public appearances together as part of the 21st Annual Downtown Dance Festival. Joining them are their fellow downtown artists: Jane Goldberg, a seminal figure in the genre of tap dance; Dha Fuzion, a young group of multi-talented, multi-ethnic dancers and musicians, who teach in Tribeca; and the estimable Center for Traditional Music & Dance, whose offices are located in Tribeca.

The Downtown Dance Festival is one of a string of events taking place between mid-May and mid-September under the rubric of River-to-River Festival. These various events are unified in their aim to bring people back to Lower Manhattan and to bring culture and other amenities to those people who work and live here, who have suffered the trauma of the attack and the subsequent problems of dislocation, financial hardship and emotional distress.

To find out more about the River-to-River Festival and all of the range of cultural activities taking place in Lower Manhattan this summer, visit the Alliance for Downtown New York's Event site.

Schedule of Events

Date/Time Program Venue
August 24,
2 - 5 PM 		Opening Ceremonies
Battery Dance Company
Chinese Folk Dance Company
Jane Goldberg's Changing Times Tap & Friends
Lori Belilove & Dancers, Isadora Duncan Dancers 		The Great Lawn at Historic Battery Park
August 25,
2 - 5 PM 		Chen & Dancers
Dha Fuzion
Center for Traditional Music & Dance presents: Ballet Folklorico Mexicano 		The Great Lawn at Historic Battery Park
August 26,
12 - 1:30 PM 		Dha Fuzion Chase Plaza
August 27,
12 - 1:30 PM 		Changing Times Tap Chase Plaza
August 28,
12 - 1:30 PM 		Center for Traditional Music & Dance presents: Tokounou All Ability African Dance Chase Plaza
August 29,
12 - 1:30 PM 		Chen & Dancers Chase Plaza
August 30,
12 - 1:30 PM 		Chinese Folk Dance Co. Chase Plaza

Performance Venues

Need Directions?

Battery Park
The Downtown Dance Festival performances at Battery Park will be presented on the Great Lawn, accessible from State Street at Pearl, adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. The stage is 24' deep by 36' wide, 18' high. Sound reinforcement is provided by Gotham Sound, with a back-up generator; and on-stage monitors in addition to speakers adequate to reach a large area of the park. Seating comprises two sets of bleachers provided by the NYC Department of Parks and ground level seating in the form of folding chairs.

Chase Plaza
The Festival performances at Chase Plaza will be presented on the Nassau Street side of the Plaza, at the level of Cedar Street. It is a thoroughfare for pedestrian traffic, yet the Nassau Street side is sheltered from the street noises and distractions by a raised retaining wall and its raised position of approximately 8 feet above the street. The stage dimensions and sound equipment are equivalent to those described for Battery Park. Seating is available on lawn chairs, planters, and the low retaining wall. In past Festival performances, hundreds of audience members were happy to stand in order to watch the performances.

Both venues are wheelchair accessible (via ramp at Chase Plaza).

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