Fire Island Dance Festival Announces 20th Anniversary Performances, 7/18-7/20

Fire Island Dance Festival, the most anticipated event of the season on Fire Island, returns July 18-20, 2014, for its stunning 20th anniversary edition, featuring some of the most exciting and talked-about dance companies in the industry. The festival, produced by and benefiting Dancers Responding to AIDS, is performed outdoors against the dazzling backdrop of the Great South Bay.

Since the summer of 1995, Fire Island Dance Festival has grown to become the cultural and charitable event of the summer in Fire Island Pines, raising more than $3.3 million. Tickets for Fire Island Dance Festival are on sale now at dradance.org or by phone at 212.840.0770, ext. 268.

This year's performers, choreographers and host will be announced this spring. Past festivals have welcomed dancers from the country's top modern and ballet companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Pilobolus and MOMIX, and featured iconic choreography by Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Lar Lubovitch and Tony Award winners Rob Ashford and Jerry Mitchell. Celebrity hosts have included Alan Cumming, Ana Gasteyer, Whoopi Goldberg, Bebe Neuwirth, Phylicia Rashad, Caroline Rhea, Mo Rocca and Bruce Vilanch.

"It's humbling to think about the growth we've had over the past 20 years thanks to the support of the Fire Island Pines community, our generous donors and sponsors, the talented dancers and choreographers and our tireless volunteers," said Denise Roberts Hurlin, founding director of Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. "Although the face of HIV/AIDS has changed in the last two decades, the fight is far from over. This summer we'll celebrate our collective achievements knowing that our expanded mission has allowed us to grow, while ensuring that those we originally set out to help, those living with HIV/AIDS, continue to receive the lifesaving assistance they need."

Through their generous support, Fire Island Dance Festival attendees have helped ensure that the most vulnerable among us receive lifesaving medications and health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.

The 20th anniversary celebration kicks off with the Friday night Leadership Event, an intimate evening reserved for Leadership Supporters. The excitement continues throughout the weekend with three Fire Island Dance Festival performances: the opening performance on Saturday, July 19 at 5 pm (open bar starting at 4 pm); sunset performance on Saturday, July 19 at 7 pm (open bar following); and closing performance on Sunday, July 20 at 5 pm (open bar following). Each performance features acclaimed and emerging dancers and dance companies.

Leadership Supporters enjoy an elevated festival experience including the Leadership Event with cocktails on Friday, highly coveted tickets to the sunset performance on Saturday or priority seating at either 5 pm performance and prominent recognition in the harbor and throughout the Pines.

Beginning May 24, tickets also will be available in person on weekends in the Fire Island Pines Harbor. Leadership tickets start at $325. Individual tickets for the 5 pm performances are $125.

Dancers Responding to AIDS, founded in 1991 by former Paul Taylor Dance Company members Denise Roberts Hurlin and Hernando Cortez, relies on the extraordinary compassion and efforts of the performing arts community to fund a safety net of social services for those in need. As a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, DRA supports more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide as well as the essential programs of The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative and The Dancers' Resource.

For more information, please visit Dancers Responding to AIDS at dradance.org, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/DRAdance, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/DRAdance and watch us on YouTube at youtube.com/DRAdance.