Bebe Neuwirth to Host Fire Island Dance Festival 17

BroadwayWorld.com has learned that two-time Tony Award-winner Bebe Neuwirth will host Fire Island Dance Festival 17, the most-anticipated cultural event of the Fire Island season as Dancers Responding to AIDS welcomes the country's most exhilarating dance companies.

Scheduled to perform are Brian Brooks Moving Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, Dontee Kiehn, Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, New York City Ballet's Wendy Whelan & Craig Hall and Brandon Bryant from So You Think You Can Dance.

Leadership Supporters enjoy an exclusive Friday night Leadership Event featuring Complexions Contemporary Ballet, plus priority seating for the weekend performances.

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Since its founding in 1995, the annual Fire Island Dance Festival has become the Island's premier entertainment event. It has twice been hailed by Sunday Styles of The New York Times as "One of the 12 best parties of the year" and celebrated by Out Magazine as "Summer's hottest charity event."

The weekend-long festival is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS (DRA), a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). Each year, scores of famed and fast-rising dance artists perform on a waterfront stage specially built for the festival, with the Great South Bay as a backdrop. Festival events include performances with pre or post performance cocktail receptions as well as a private party for leadership supporters.

FIDF has presented some of the biggest names in American dance, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Doug Varone and Dancers, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group, MOMIX, Parsons Dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Pilobolus, Peter Quanz, Rob K. Brown's Evidence, Sean Curran Dance Company and many more.

Since its debut in 1995 Fire Island Dance Festival has raised cumulatively more than $1.9 million in the fight against AIDS.

Founded in 1991 by former Paul Taylor dancers Denise Roberts Hurlin and Hernando Cortez, DRA is a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA)one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization.

By drawing upon the talents, resources and generosity of the American theatre and dance communities, since 1988, BC/EFA has raised over $175 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States. BC/EFA is the major supporter of seven programs of The Actors Fund including The AIDS Initiative, The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative, the Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic, The Dancers' Resource and three supportive housing residences.

BC/EFA also awards annual grants to over 400 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski