If summer is sleepy for New York dance, then the Battery Dance Festival is a caffeine boost to help tide it over until the fall.

Formerly known as the Downtown Dance Festival, the series runs Aug. 15 to 21 and comes as the Battery Dance Company celebrates its 40th anniversary. Each performance is free, with the New York Harbor at dusk as the backdrop. The finale is at Pace University’s Schimmel Center for the Arts.

The program covers a broad range of styles, including ballet and contemporary dance from New York and around the world. It’s “dance, writ large, in all of its forms,” Jonathan Hollander, the founder and artistic director of Battery Dance Company, said.

Because Aug. 15 is India’s Independence Day, performances begin with the Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance, organized by the Indo-American Arts Council. Other highlights include a premiere by the Battery Dance Company, as well as New York debuts for Polish Dance Theater, Sankofa Danzafro of Colombia and Ingun Bjornsgaard Prosjekt of Norway.

The festival’s schedule, and more information about performers, is at Battery Dance Company’s website.

Mr. Hollander founded the company in 1976, with performances at Lower Manhattan’s parks, plazas and piers. The festival moved to Robert F. Wagner Park last year, after damage from Hurricane Sandy and renovations at Battery Park rendered many of the regular venues unavailable.

Having the festival on the waterfront has brought in some unexpected audience members, Mr. Hollander said. “Bike riders and joggers stop in their tracks and pull over,” he said. “There’s a serendipity I love as a New Yorker.”