One of the strongest attractions of the free Battery Dance Festival is its setting at the bottom tip of Manhattan, with a glorious sunset backdrop of water, sky and the Statue of Liberty. But the sun and moon switching places aren’t the only moving objects in the vista at Robert F. Wagner Park. When a tall-masted schooner looms in nearly close enough to board or a Jet Ski races full speed as if to ram the audience, it can be hard for a dancer to command complete attention.

In recent years, programs of Indian dance have met the challenge, the single-region focus encompassing more than enough diversity and beauty to match the background. On Wednesday, Indian Independence Day, the focus narrowed further onto a single form of classical Indian dance: kathak. The idea, as the narrator, Rajika Puri, explained, was to show the range within the form, the different schools and approaches. But the two-hour event proved too much of a good thing. (The same lineup of performers appears in the Drive East festival at La MaMa on Friday night.)

It began with neatness and craft, as the New York dancers Parul Shah joined Mohip Joarder in Kumudini Lakhia’s 1978 duet “Yugal.” Most of the signature elements of kathak, a North Indian form that combines elements of Hindu and Mughal dance, were clear: the rhythmic footwork with bells attached at ankles; the arms and hands spiraling upward like flames; the tornado-like turns. The work arranged these elements with a careful attention to stage space, and the changing distance between the dancers acquired power from the setting; the negative space was far from blank.