Battery Dance is accepting applications for the 45th annual Battery Dance Festival, New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival, with submissions open through Feb. 5, 2026.
The festival will take place Aug. 11–16, 2026, featuring free outdoor performances along the Hudson River. Applications must be submitted online, and the festival application will remain open until the February deadline.
Founded in 1982 as the Downtown Dance Festival, the Battery Dance Festival has become a signature summer event, drawing in-person audiences of about 1,500 people each night. Attendees include workers, residents, families, tourists, senior citizens and dance enthusiasts from across the New York City metropolitan area and beyond. The festival will also be livestreamed, reaching international audiences worldwide.
The festival offers professional dancers and choreographers from all genres the opportunity to present original works of high artistic quality in a free public setting, with sunset views of the Hudson River as the backdrop. Artists selected for the program perform alongside an international roster of companies, reflecting a wide range of cultural traditions and contemporary practices.
Past participants have included The Isadora Duncan Dance Company, New York Theatre Ballet, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Citadel + Compagnie, Dancing Earth Indigenous Dance Company, SOLE Defined and Jamal Jackson Dance Company, as well as leading dance companies from Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Europe, South America and the Caribbean.
Battery Dance Festival continues to serve as a platform for both established and emerging artists, celebrating dance as a global art form accessible to the public at no cost.
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