Jeff Hiller To Host Fire Island Dance Festival in July
The festival returns July 18 and 19, 2026.
Fire Island Dance Festival will welcome Emmy Award-winning actor and comedian Jeff Hiller as host of the 2026 festival. The festival returns July 18 and 19, 2026, to its waterfront stage in Fire Island Pines, where world premieres and acclaimed works from leading dance companies unfold against the sweeping backdrop of the Great South Bay. This year's lineup includes Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Leggybones Physical Theater, Miami City Ballet and new works from Broadway's Robbie Fairchild and Ricky Ubeda.
Produced by and benefiting Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the annual performances celebrate extraordinary dance while raising funds for lifesaving programs across the country.
Also available in person at the Fire Island Pines harbor on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Hiller is best known for his Emmy-winning performance as Joel on HBO's Somebody Somewhere. Across a career spanning more than two decades, he has become one of comedy's most distinctive character actors, appearing in the current Apple TV+ series Widow's Bay as well as 30 Rock, Community, Ghosts, Pluribus and Stumble. His stage credits include Broadway's Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, Disney's Hercules, Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Silence!. He's also the bestselling author of Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty-Year Trail to Overnight Success.
Fire Island Dance Festival features three identical performances: an opening performance at 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 18, a Leadership Supporter sunset performance on Saturday at 7 p.m., and a closing performance at 5 p.m. on Sunday, July 19.
Just added to the Fire Island Dance Festival lineup is Complexions Contemporary Ballet sharing the vibrant contemporary duet "First Comes Love." The work captures the highs and lows of an instant spark between two strangers.
They join the previously announced lineup, including:
Tony Award nominee Robbie Fairchild (An American in Paris) sharing a first preview of his new pas de deux with Vincenzo DiPrimo exploring the tortured beauty of something forbidden. The work will premiere this fall at New York City Center's Fall for Dance.
Broadway and film's Chris Jarosz (Wicked) opening the festival with a high-voltage world premiere, brought to life by a powerhouse lineup of Broadway dancers.
Leggybones Physical Theater performing an athletic contemporary work in their signature witty style, operating at the intersection of human vulnerability and high-stakes movement.
Miami City Ballet presenting an excerpt from Roses from the South: Three Waltzes for Toby, a stirring work by Alexei Ratmansky, one of the world's preeminent ballet choreographers. The performance marks Ratmansky's Fire Island Dance Festival debut.
New Chamber Ballet presenting the elegant and intimate Mandragore, which was featured at last fall's Hudson Valley Dance Festival.
Smuin Ballet delivering an excerpt from The Singer and the Song, which marries classical ballet technique with the syncopation and theatricality of other dance forms.
Broadway favorite Ricky Ubeda (Illinoise), who also won So You Think You Can Dance, sharing a world premiere shaped by his signature, zeitgeist-savvy sensibility and electric style.
Jake Vincent, previously of Paul Taylor Dance Company, bringing a world premiere group work pulsing with bold energy, where sweeping movement and quiet intimacy converge
Leadership Supporters begin their festival weekend at the Leadership Event on Friday, July 17, at Whyte Hall. This exclusive evening will feature celebrated tap dancer Luke Hickey, named to Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," with a performance set to live jazz music that sets the tone for a weekend of dance and community.
Leadership Supporters also enjoy access to highly coveted tickets to the sunset performance on Saturday or priority seating at either 5 p.m. performance, as well as recognition on printed materials in the harbor and throughout the Pines.
Leadership tickets start at $395. Individual tickets for the 5 p.m. performances start at $85.
Slip away to Fire Island Dance Festival on an effortless, all-inclusive day trip, featuring round-trip transportation from New York City, a champagne luncheon in the Pines and tickets to the 5 p.m. performance on Sunday, July 19.
A Sunday VIP option is also available, including the champagne luncheon and tickets to the Sunday performance. The day trip package is $450; the Sunday VIP option is $325.
Since its debut in 1995, Fire Island Dance Festival has raised more than $10 million to help provide lifesaving medication, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance to those in need in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
