Fire Island Dance Festival Wraps Up 14th Year With Record Breaking Crowds

The Fire Island Dance Festival, Dancers Responding to AIDS' (DRA) signature event, celebrated its fourteenth year in Fire Island Pines with an undisputed artistic and financial success.  This year's festival, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg and Caroline Rhea presented eleven dances by world renowned, established, and emerging dance companies and choreographers.  The event, twice hailed by The New York Times as "the charity event of the season" was held on the weekend of July 18th in Fire Island Pines at the home of Jon Biondo and Tim Horman, outdoors against a backdrop of the sun setting over the Great South Bay.  The three sold out performances drew record breaking crowds and raised over $307,000 for Dancers Responding to AIDS.

Emcee duties for Fire Island Dance Festival Fourteen were split by multi award winning actresses Whoopi Goldberg and comedienne / television personality Caroline Rhea.  The program for this year's festival featured the innovative work of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, Jermaine Browne, Ellis Wood Dance, Vernard J. Gilmore, Jacoby & Pronk, Jennifer Muller | The Works,  Parsons Dance, Jason Samuels Smith, and Rasta Thomas and the Bad Boys of Dance (choreographed by Tony Award® winning choreographer Jerry Mitchell) .  Continuing a program started in 2006, DRA offered Choreographic Sponsorships to foster the creation of new dance works, an effort that yielded seven world premiere dances created especially to debut at Fire Island Dance Festival Fourteen.

Since its inception twelve years ago, The Fire Island Dance Festival has raised a total of $1,696,393 for Dancers Responding to AIDS a fundraising program of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.

For more information on Dancers Responding to AIDS and Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS' programs and events, visit the web at www.dradance.org and www.broadwaycares.org

Photo Courtest of Retna Digital