Downtown Dance Festival

Established by Battery Dance Company in 1982, the Downtown Dance Festival (DDF) is New York City’s longest-running free public dance festival that provides a unique opportunity for both professional and emerging dancers and choreographers to present original works of high artistic merit in a free public forum.

The DDF revels in the panoply of dance that our city offers, with strong emphasis on the inclusion of diverse dance styles and an international roster of performers. American choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Mary Anthony, Elizabeth Streb, Jane Comfort and Darrell Moultrie have all presented their works alongside pre-eminent companies from Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.

In August 2011, the Festival celebrated its 30th anniversary with a week of programming at multiple venues featuring two sensational companies from Malaysia and Poland, Sutra Dance Theatre and Silesian Dance Theatre, that performed alongside a diverse mix of New York-based companies. As part of an effort to expand the reach of the Festival, BDC also offered low cost master classes and workshops at its studios, taught by Ramli Ibrahim, Carlos Fittante, Tadej Brdnik and Attila Csiki, as well as two free indoor performances at Dance New Amsterdam.

The 2012 Downtown Dance Festival will take place in August 2012. Please, stay tuned for more details. If you represent a dance company and want to perform at the Festival click here.