Choreographer Rutkay Özpinar Brings 400 years of Dutch-New York History to Battery Dance Festival

The Battery Dance Festival is New York City’s longest-running public dance festival, taking place each summer in downtown Manhattan. This year’s festival will festival features a special FUTURE 400 program, honoring 400 years of Dutch-New York history and, through the artform of dance, looking deeper at identity, migration and colonialism.

Dutch choreographer Rutkay Özpinar launches a world première of “Frontiers”, a new work commissioned by Battery Dance and featuring the company’s dancers, and sharing the stage that same evening with indigenous and immigrant dance companies including Marie Poncé.

“In the creation of ‘Frontiers’, I will explore the tension between our nature as humans and the industrialization of the Earth,” says Özpinar (1991), a Dutch/Turkish choreographer, and a choreographer-in-residence at Korzo Theater in The Hague.

With this commissioned work, Battery Dance joins the Consulate General of the Netherlands in honoring the 400th anniversary of New York City, by creating space for those that share this common heritage. This very special piece brings together dance artists from the rich spectrum of immigrant communities that built New York City. Battery Dance Festival draws a combined audience of over 12,000 in-person and over 35,000 virtual viewers.

Q: What inspired your piece ‘Frontiers’ for Battery Dance?

Rutkay Özpinar: “For this piece I took inspiration from various sources including both Dutch and Native American histories and Battery Dance’s own history, having been founded on one of New Amsterdam’s earliest streets. Several overlapping themes are at play in my imagination: I was attracted to the wolf as a totem within the Native American culture, the symbolic animal of Türkiye, the country of my ancestors, and the metaphor of an animal that is constantly on the move. Given the Dutch concern with reclaiming land and the Native American’s own sacred respect for land, protection of land as society industrializes is a topic of shared and profound significance. In the creation of ‘Frontiers’, I will explore the tension between our nature as humans and the industrialization of the Earth.”

Q: Can you share a bit about the creative process of ‘Frontiers’?

Rutkay Özpinar: “The inspiration and my imaginations started working the moment I got to hear that I would create a piece for Battery Dance. The technical and delicately articulated movements cannot be camouflaged by too much fabric. Starting my ideas with literal references is part of the artistic process, because we get inspired by the familiar things we see, feel, and experience in life. From that reference on it evolves into the unknown, where creativity finds its freedom and art comes alive.”

Q: How did you handle the challenge of a limited rehearsal time for ‘Frontiers’ in New York City?

Rutkay Özpinar: ” Preparations! Right! This had to be done thoroughly because I got only twelve rehearsal days to bring ‘Frontiers’, a twenty minutes piece, alive with the six gorgeous dancers of Battery Dance. I knew that once I arrived in New York time would pass in the blink of an eye. So I had to be prepared to work as efficiently as possible. Thus, the process had started back in The Netherlands. The development of choreographic materials, costume design, and music were as of last May in full swing. The inspiration and my imaginations started working the moment I got to hear that I would create a piece for Battery Dance.”

Q: What did you choose this specific music for ‘Frontiers’?

Rutkay Özpinar: “Elisa Batti created incredible music for ‘Frontiers’ that will make the dancers as well as the audience rock back and forth. For this creation, electronic music finds a metaphorical connection with the industrialization of the world. The bass will create earthy and grounded sounds, and the Middle Eastern sounds find its connection with our nature as human beings.”

Q: What are your expectations for the performance at Battery Dance Festival?

Rutkay Özpinar: I have presented my work abroad before, but this was going to be different. For the first time in my life I would create a new piece abroad in New York City! There I was, at Schiphol Amsterdam airport with my art, my baby, packed in my suitcase awaiting to be brought alive in the city that never sleeps. Something so adventurous, but yet so nerve wracking at the same time. I am utterly excited to share my work with the audience here. I have given all my love and care for this piece. Every single step of this journey has been blissful and exhilarating at the same.”

Read more about Battery Dance Festival.