Captivating world premieres and celebrated works shined within the awe-inspiring beauty of the Great South Bay’s expanse of sea and sky at this year’s record-breaking edition of Fire Island Dance Festival.

The longest-running charitable and cultural event in Fire Island Pines raised a record $767,712 for Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. 

The festival, held July 19-21, 2024, helps ensure performing artists as well as those across the country living with HIV/AIDS and other debilitating illnesses have access to lifesaving medications, counseling, healthy meals and emergency assistance. The professional dance community has access to this vital safety net of essential services through Broadway Cares’ annual support of the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund).

Tony Award winner Beth Leavel, most recently seen in Broadway’s Lempicka, hosted the festival’s three performances with effervescent charm and bawdy humor. Leavel expressed her reverence for dance through the lens of her zany misadventures in movement across her prolific career on Broadway.

This year’s captivating performances included seven world premieres by choreographers Gilbert Bolden III, Billy Griffin, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, Pontus Lidberg, Chalvar Monteiro, Ingrid Silva and Akira Uchida.

The festival featured nine diverse performances:

Ingrid Silva, a company member with Dance Theater of Harlem and pioneering advocate for Black ballet dancers as co-founder of Blacks in Ballet, presented the world premiere of The Future is Now. Pacific Northwest Ballet principal Jonathan Batista, Philadelphia Ballet principal Nayara Lopes, Dylan Santos and Amanda Smith brought the duality of the world we live in now and the diversity we wish to see to the stage, seamlessly teetering between elegant and explosive movement that mirrored the ever-changing tides of the bay behind them.

Visionary choreographer Pontus Lidberg explored the trust, vulnerability and sensuality of human connection in his new duet, A Delicate Balance. Joined by celebrated Kurdish dancer Hussein Smko, the pair balanced and exchanged a glass of water in a series of coquettish, often tender and frequently acrobatic movements. The duo seemingly defied gravity as they suspended the glass between them, buoyed by their infinite connection.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer and choreographer Chalver Monteiro presented the world premiere of Into Me, See, a new work that examined community and closeness through the lens of personal growth. An ensemble of Ailey dancers – Patrick Coker, Shawn Cusseaux, Ashley Green, Jacquelin Harris and Hannah Richardson – balanced grace and softness with Ailey’s signature athleticism in a flowing piece that echoed the brush of the Fire Island breeze and the sigh of the sea.

The Dying Swan, a work that has been presented by some of the world’s most legendary ballerinas for more than a century, was stunningly brought to life by American Ballet Theatre principal Catherine Hurlin. The quiet desperation of the swan’s final moments were honored by Hurlin’s elegance and poise, as the crowd swelled in unison with the swan’s last breath. She was adorned in feathers with a breathtaking heirloom costume that has been passed down through American Ballet Theatre for decades.

Lauded New York City Ballet principal Gilbert Bolden III shared the world premiere of his Refraction, a celebration of the versatility and complexity of dancers. Bolden was joined by New York City Ballet’s India Bradley, Jules Mabie and Mira Nadon – the first Asian American principal dancer in the company’s history – in an expansive and elegantly energetic ballet, performed on pointe by Bradley and Nadon. The group was draped in mesmerizing jewel-toned costumes, designed and created by Bolden, which glistened against the endless blue backdrop of sky and sea.

The bounds of ballet expanded on the Fire Island stage in the world premiere of buzzworthy choreographer Keerati Jinakunwiphat’s Interstate. What began as a traditional balletic trio transformed into a genre-defying exploration of the different pathways to freedom, set to music by Led Zeppelin. A movement language of lifts, jumps and leaps were given a rock-and-roll edge by Mario Gonzalez, Chalvar Monteiro and Amanda Smith, the duality of the piece punctuated by Smith on pointe.

Beloved theater dancer and choreographer Billy Griffin shared his intimate and joyful journey of self-discovery in his new work Get Happy, set to a version of the song by Debbie Gravitte that acted as the soundtrack for his personal exploration in his coming-of-age. The profound piece was embodied by Wicked’s Aydin Eyikan, who both metaphorically and literally stripped himself down to bare essentials. In a joyful exploration of pirouettes and flips, exquisite lines and extensions, Eyikan personified the exultant celebration that only comes with accepting your truest self.

Acclaimed contemporary choreographer Akira Uchida explored the intrinsic connection between music and feeling deeply alive in the world premiere of Throb. With an ever-present undercurrent of techno club beats, a spirited ensemble – Lavy Cavaliere, DaMond LeMonte Garner, Kristalyn Gill, Ashley Green, Gabe Katz, Andrew Mulet, Daniel Santiago, Keanu Uchida and Lucy Vallely – playfully experimented with speed and tempo as group tableaus broke into intimate and energetic pairings. A pulsating heartbeat motif reverberated across the group through staccato movement that highlighted their kinship and vitality.

Paul Taylor Dance Company closed each performance with an excerpt from resident choreographer Lauren Lovette’s lauded Echo. The piece, performed by Lee Duveneck, Alex Clayton, Devon Louis, John Harnage, Shawn Lesniak, Jake Vincent, Austin Kelly and Kenny Corrigan, excavated the vulnerability, mischievousness and play that bubbles beneath male bravado through movement that spanned dynamic and athletic to soft and sincere.

In addition to her hilarious hosting efforts, Leavel delighted the audience with a performance from the role that earned her a Tony Award with “As We Stumble Along” from The Drowsy Chaperone. The powerhouse performance, with Phil Reno providing live accompaniment, was peppered with Leavel’s enchanting Broadway anecdotes.

Leadership Supporters kicked off the festival weekend at the Albert Lepage Outdoor Pavilion at Whyte Hall. Fire Island Dance Festival favorite Caleb Teicher put a festive twist on his New York Times’ critics pick SW!NG OUT with its special holiday revival, A Very SW!NG OUT Holiday. The audience reveled in the joy of social dance and festive cheer, as romantic pairings, joyful group explorations and rapturous swing dance brought the unbridled joy of the holidays to the heart of July. The work in full will premiere at The Joyce in New York City December 3-15, 2024. The Leadership Event was generously sponsored by Paul Austin and Dalip Girdhar.

On display throughout the weekend were three panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt honoring loved ones who passed away from complications with the virus. The panels included tributes to legendary choreographers Alvin Ailey and Arnie Zane, as well as a panel created by the Broadway Cares staff in 1997 and signed by hundreds of members of the Broadway community in memory of those they loved and lost. The heartfelt exhibition was made possible by NAMES Project Co-Founder and Fire Island resident Mike Smith.

Since its premiere in 1995, Fire Island Dance Festival has raised more than $9.2 million to help support the safety net of social services for those in the performing arts and 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.

Dancers Responding to AIDS and Broadway Cares continued their commitment to health care in the Fire Island Pines community with Broadway Cares’ annual $25,000 grant to the Pines Care Center. The grant will help provide access to essential medication and resources for the Fire Island Pines community.

Fire Island Dance Festival is generously supported by corporate sponsors The New York Times and United, the official airline of Broadway Cares, with additional support from the P. Austin Family Foundation and The Charles and Lucille King Family Foundation in memory of Diana King.

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Photos by Elyse Mertz and Scott Shaw
Video by Bardo Arts, Josh Drake and Víctor Rodríguez; Edited by Josh Drake

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