NYT gives good review to Downtown Dance Festival

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SUB22ERASING-master675August 22, 2014- If you think that some restaurant reviewers are overly critical, try reading the arts sections and reviews of dance theaters. Some of them can be really persnickety. With that in mind, the NYT gave an overall positive review for the Battery Dance Downtown Dance Festival, “Krishna was evoked, Ganesha was praised, the 10 avatars of Vishnu were illustrated, seven of the eight classical dance forms of India were demonstrated — and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were on the horizon throughout. Passing runners and cyclists slowed down to gawp at the costumes, steps and gestures….Even yachts in the harbor veered in their course to get a better view. Because the Battery Dance Company always gives one day of its Downtown Dance Festival to the Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance (which is organized by the Indo-American Arts Council), the juxtaposition of the South Asian dances and the outdoor spaces of Lower Manhattan has become an August fixture. And since the Downtown Festival this year is taking place close to the water in the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, the setting ought to be more tourist-perfect than ever before…..Magic of a different kind came simply when the stage side lighting — gentle — was switched on for the final two items: a Sattriya number and one combining the Odissi and Bharatanatyam genres. Costumes and jewelry in Indian dance always make an impact, but now the way in which certain fabrics, gems, metals caught the light was sensational. At the start of the program, performers had been dim shapes before the shining sky and harbor; but now, it was the dancers who glowed.”

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