Video: Tony-Nominee Robbie Fairchild Shares First Look at Solo Ahead of Waterfront Festival in Fire Island Pines
The Tony Award nominee previews a new work that will receive its world premiere at New York City Center's Fall for Dance this fall.
Limited tickets remain for Fire Island Dance Festival’s return July 18 & 19, 2026, a weekend of bold premieres, acclaimed dance companies and performances on a waterfront stage overlooking the Great South Bay in Fire Island Pines, NY. New blocks of select $85 tickets have just been released for the 5 pm Saturday and 5 pm Sunday performances. Tickets are available now. The coveted Saturday sunset performance is sold out.
Among the diverse and dynamic performances, this year's festival will feature an exclusive first look at a piece by Tony Award nominee Robbie Fairchild (An American in Paris). Fairchild will share a sneak solo peak of a full work set to debut at New York City Center's Fall for Dance this fall. Check out rehearsal video of Fairchild previewing the piece below.
"I've been fortunate to perform at Fire Island Dance Festival several times, and every visit reminds me why it's such a beloved tradition," Fairchild said. "There’s something remarkable for an artist of my generation to get to perform on an island that holds so many of the souls of artists from the generation before me. Everytime I come here I feel I’m back in the motherland and by dancing at this festival I feel like I’m honoring their trailblazing bravery. I'm excited to preview this new work with this extraordinary audience before it continues on to its world premiere at Fall for Dance."
Produced by and benefiting Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Fire Island Dance Festival helps provide lifesaving meals, medication, health care, emergency financial assistance and hope for people in need in New York and across the country. FIDFI features three identical performances: an opening performance at 5 pm on Saturday, July 18, a Leadership Supporter sunset performance on Saturday at 7 pm, and a closing performance at 5 pm on Sunday, July 19. Tickets may also be purchased in person in the Fire Island Pines harbor on Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm and 4 pm to 7 pm, and Sundays from 10 am to 1 pm.
Newly announced Emmy Award nominee and 2025 Emmy winner Jeff Hiller (Apple TV’s Pluribus and Widow’s Bay, HBO’s Somebody Somewhere) joins as host of the 2026 festival, bringing his signature witty one-liners, deadpan delivery and vulnerable warmth to one of the LGBTQ+ community's most beloved summer traditions. Across a career spanning more than two decades, Hiller has become one of comedy's most distinctive character actors, appearing in the current Apple TV+ hit series Widow's Bay as well as Pluribus, 30 Rock, Community, Ghostsand 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.
The lineup is set to include
Performers are subject to change.
- Complexions Contemporary Ballet sharing the contemporary duet “First Comes Love.” The work captures the highs and lows of an instant spark between two strangers.
- Tony Award nominee Robbie Fairchild (An American in Paris) sharing a first preview of his solo 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 priority seating at either 5 pm 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 pm 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 pm 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.
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