Photo: Michelle Tabnick
Battery Dance presents Battery Dance NOW, featuring the work of three female choreographers, on March 8-11, 2023 at 7pm at New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th St., NYC. Tickets are $35 (standard), $20 (student/senior/veteran), and $75 (VIP opening night reception). For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.tickets.batterydance.org.
In its New York Live Arts debut, Battery Dance has assembled Battery Dance NOW, a program of three contemporary dance works that explore time and transitions: Robin Cantrell’s “The Liminal Year” captures the natural resistance to isolation and the need to fight against fear; Ana Maria Lucaciu’s “It Goes By Quick” explores the urgency and frustration of seeing time slip away; Tsai Hsi Hung’s “A Certain Mood” was inspired by the contrasting shift from dark to light in the work of abstract expressionist painter Hans Hofmann.
Each work is set to an original music score. “The Liminal Year” and “It Goes By Quick” have never been presented in a theater before; both premiered at the 2021 Battery Dance Festival and will now receive full lighting and staging during this engagement at New York Live Arts.
As an added feature to the evening, Battery Dance presents the world premiere of “GREY,” a music video featuring two Company artists, Jillian Linkowski and Razvan Stoian, who were commissioned by the band Eventually Epic to appear in this three-minute film.
In addition to four ticketed performances, Battery Dance will present a free matinee for New York City public school students. This performance is made possible with the support of the The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation.
Battery Dance is proud to present this program as part of its 47th annual New York City Season, which follows six months spent performing and teaching in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
It Goes By Quick
Choreography: Ana Maria Lucaciu with the dancers of Battery Dance
Music: T.M Rives (Original score) with music by Artie Shaw, AGF
Lighting Design: Leonardo Hidalgo
Dancers: Sarah Housepian, Vivake Khamsingsvath, Jillian Linkowski, Amy Saunder, Razvan Stoian
“It Goes By Quick” was created with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute of New York.
GREY
Director and Editor: Barry Steele
Music and lyrics: Eventually Epic (Debarun Bhattacharjya and Sachin Premasuthan)
Dancers/choreographers: Jillian Linkowski and Razvan Stoian
The Liminal Year
Choregraphy: Robin Cantrell
Music: Alexis Gideon
Costumes: Christine Darch
Lighting Design: Leonardo Hidalgo
Dancers: Sarah Housepian, Vivake Khamsingsvath, Jillian Linkowski, Zaki A’Jani Marshall, Amy Saunder, Razvan Stoian
A Certain Mood
Choreography: Tsai Hsi Hung
Music: Iggy Hung
Costumes: Tsai Hsi Hung
Lighting Design: Leonardo Hidalgo
Dancers: Sarah Housepian, Vivake Khamsingsvath, Jillian Linkowski, Zaki A’Jani Marshall, Amy Saunder, Razvan Stoian
“A Certain Mood” was created with the support of The Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ana Maria Lucaciu is a freelance choreographer and performing artist based in New York City and Antwerp, Belgium. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Ana Maria danced with Canada’s National Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and more. She has performed and created works with contemporary dance’s foremost choreographers, including Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Jiří Kylián, Jo Stromgren, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and many others. She regularly assists Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman.
Her choreographic work has been presented by the Norwegian National Ballet, New Dialect, Purchase Dance Company, Battery Dance, Ballet Finland, Dance Aspen, Philadelphia Ballet, OZ Arts Nashville/ Becca Hoback solo show, Rambert School, London, and a full evening work for Terminus Modern Ballet Theater in Atlanta.
Ana Maria is currently rehearsal director for Opera Ballet Flanders. She holds BFA in dance from Empire State College and is a 2018 TedX Bucharest speaker.
Robin Cantrell is a native of St. Paul Minnesota and received her BFA in ballet performance at the University of Utah. During her two-decade career on stage, Robin danced with City Ballet of San Diego, Rioult, and Rebecca Kelly Ballet. She was a member of Battery Dance from 2008 to 2020. With Battery, Robin has had the opportunity to perform, teach, and present her own choreography in over 60 countries worldwide. She is a subject of the award-winning documentary, “Moving Stories,” which captures Battery’s cultural diplomacy and social-impact work. Robin currently dances for Gabrielle Lamb’s PigeonWing Dance and is the Artistic Director of Indelible Dance: a Brooklyn based dance company that creates otherworldly dance films and presents multimedia immersive dance events. Her most recent dance films, ODYSSEY, and TRIPTYCH, have been awarded and acclaimed in recent film festivals.
Tsai Hsi Hung is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. A graduate of Taipei National University of the Arts, she has worked with the Australian Dance Theater, Tasdance, Expressions Dance Company, and Chunky Move Dance Company Dancers. Since moving to the U.S., she has received a Choreography Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts and her choreography was selected by the Joffrey Academy of Dance for “Winning Works” performance in Chicago.
Hung was invited by Taipei National Dance Theater to present her work in 2020 and by Ballet X for its 2020-21 Season. In 2021, Hung won Western Michigan University’s National Choreography Competition. During 2022, Hung was in residence in the dance department of Kennesaw State University, Georgia. She teaches in New York at Peridance Capezio Dance Center and NYU Tisch Dance and /MOVE|NYC|, and is the director of the Queens Ballet Center/QBC Company.
Support for Battery Dance NOW comes from: New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and The Renate, Hans and Maria Hofmann Trust.
Operational support for Battery Dance is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Booth Ferris Foundation, Jody and John Arnhold, the Marshall Frankel Fund, the Battery Dance Board of Directors, and numerous individual donors.
ABOUT BATTERY DANCE
Founded in 1976 by Artistic Director Jonathan Hollander, Battery Dance is a creative catalyst with a dual commitment to exceptional artistry and social impact. We aspire to change lives through dance by creating new works, performing on the world’s stages, presenting dance in public spaces, and teaching people of all ages with special attention to the disadvantaged and areas of conflict.
In its 46 years onstage, Battery Dance has presented more than 130 original works by Jonathan Hollander, company dancers, and guest choreographers. The Company is among New York City’s foremost cultural ambassadors through its participation in international performing arts festivals, conferences and symposia throughout 70 countries on 6 continents. Through the award-winning Dancing to Connect program, the company uses dance as a tool for building social cohesion and resolving conflict throughout the world.
Battery Dance is a community-spirited presenter with the free annual Battery Dance Festival, introducing New Yorkers to over 350 dance companies in more than 40 years. In its Lower Manhattan home-base, equipped with two large studios, the Company provides rehearsal space for over 400 choreographers and dance companies each year.
Through its arts-in-education programs in New York City public schools, Battery dancers serve as teaching artists in primary, middle and high schools throughout the five boroughs. Battery facilitates in-school performances and master classes by international visiting artists, providing first-hand introductions for many city school children to the cultures of the world.
