Hudson Valley Dance Festival Raises Record $170,629 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS

Against a backdrop of radiant fall leaves and the beauty of the Hudson River, world-class dance and the artistic spirit of the region converged at the Hudson Valley Dance Festival on October 13, 2024. Two sold-out performances of diverse, dynamic dance inside a converted 19th century warehouse raised a record-breaking $170,629.  The generosity of festival supporters helps ensure those in the Hudson Valley and across the country living with HIV/AIDS and other debilitating illnesses have access to lifesaving medications, counseling, healthy meals, housing and more. 

Hudson Valley Dance Festival is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Broadway Cares is the largest single financial supporter of the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund), ensuring a safety net of social services for all in the entertainment industry and performing arts. Through its National Grants Program, Broadway Cares also supports more than 450 social service organizations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., including 16 life-affirming organizations in the Hudson Valley.

The 11th annual edition of the festival welcomed audiences to Historic Catskill Point in Catskill, NY, with a varied program spanning styles from contemporary and ballet to Broadway and ballroom culture. This year's Hudson Valley Dance Festivalincluded world premieres created by Broadway's Billy Griffin, dance collective Masterz At Work Dance Family and Hudson Valley-based MorDance.

The full lineup featured:

MorDance delved into the erosion of women's freedoms with the world premiere of Eroded Silhouettes. The piece began with one dancer magnifying her isolation and pain through lyrical movement, when she is then joined by another dancer to expand the narrative to a collective experience. Lilit Hogtanian and Laura Perich Villasmil's arms were covered in rust and ash pigment, which visually marked the dancers with the scars they shared through their stirring movements.

An excerpt from kNoname Artist/Roderick George's Venom explored the lasting impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic while exposing the silencing and isolation that permeates the LGBTQ+ community. With a stage set aglow by a shimmering disco ball to honor the sanctuary that nightlife has played for the queer community, Nazear Brown and Nouhoum Koita's tender balletic moments and supportive physicality shared their emotional connection and vulnerability.

Robert Battle's legendary Takademe was brought to new heights by Parsons Dance's Zoey Anderson. Anderson delivered gravity-defying jumps, dynamic bursts of movement and charmingly subtle humor to the celebrated work as she explored and deconstructed Kathak, one of the nine major forms of Indian classical dance.

Masterz At Work Dance Family shared a world premiere excerpt of Untitled, which was created during a residency at nearby Modern Accord Depot and will premiere in full next spring. The work, choreographed by Courtney Washingtonand the piece's dancers, found DeAndré Cousley, Bryce Farris, Jay Parel, Brian Starke and Jaylen Wallace blending elements of voguing and ballroom with the cornerstones of contemporary dance as they fiercely strutted and bounded across the stage.

Queer the Ballet shared Overlook, a piece created by choreographer Adriana Pierce during a residency at Bridge Street Theatre, down the road from the festival's Historic Catskill Point home. American Ballet Theater corps de ballet members Sierra Armstrong and Remy Young effortlessly moved, on pointe, in and out of synchronicity as they balletically shared the lovingness and gentle complexities of a queer relationship.

A classical performance exploded into a genre-defying exploration of the different pathways to freedom in Keerati Jinakunwiphat's Interstate. Set to a Led Zeppelin classic, dancers Jourdan Epstein, Claude “CJ” Johnson and Joseph Markey gave traditional ballet movement a rock-and-roll edge, with Epstein expertly on pointe, in the piece which premiered at this summer's Fire Island Dance Festival.

American Ballet Theatre corps de ballet member Aleisha Walker shared Scattered, performed by fellow American Ballet Theatre soloist Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzalez countered fluid motion with angular, frenetic energy in a marathon of athletic leaps, gentle jumps and a seemingly endless string of masterful pirouettes.

The world premiere of Griffin's On Broadway explored the contrast between the glamor of a career in theater and the disillusionment that can seep in when the curtain falls. Khori Petinaud, last seen in Broadway's Lempicka, seamlessly moved from exuberant and bombastic high kicks and spins in the spotlight to raw and introspective movements as she examined the stark, lonely truths of a life on the Great Bright Way. 

Balanchine's iconic Tarantella got a delightful drag twist at the hands of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male ballet troupe that parodies conventional ballet. Dancers Jake Speakman and Takaomi Yoshino shared a dazzling display of artistry and athleticism as they brought high-flying hijinks and impressive technical precision to the beloved work.

Parsons Dance closed the show with an excerpt from the joyous Whirlaway, an uplifting ode to New Orleans created by David Parsons. The dynamic piece found nine dancers - Anderson, Luke Biddinger, Megan Leigh Ziminski, Téa Pérez, Joseph Cyranski, Justine Delius, Joanne Hwang, Emerson Earnshaw and Odin Brock - enveloping the audience in play and spontaneity as they explored the delight and exaltation of movement.

In celebration of the festival's 11th year in the heart of the Hudson Valley, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will provide additional discretionary grants of $2,500 to each of the 16 Hudson Valley organizations that are part of Broadway Cares' National Grants Program.  Those 16, which are among more than 450 organizations supported nationwide by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, are: Albany Damien Center in Albany; Alliance for Positive Health in Albany; Animalkind in Hudson; Catskill Food Pantry in Catskill; Broadway Education Alliance in Rhinebeck; Columbia County Recovery Kitchen in Hudson; Columbia-Greene Humane Society/SPCA in Hudson; The Community Hospice in Albany; Dutchess Outreach in Poughkeepsie; Greenport Rescue Squad in Hudson; Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston; Matthew 25 Food Pantry in Catskill; Rock Steady Farm in Millerton; Roe Jan Food Pantry in Hillsdale; TOUCH (Together Our Unity Can Heal) in Congers; and Troy Area United Ministries in Troy.

Hudson Valley Dance Festival began in 2013 as a single performance at Historic Catskill Point. It has since grown into a beloved annual dance experience for Hudson Valley residents and visitors, raising more than $1.5 million through 11 iterations.  Hudson Valley Dance Festival is made possible, in part, by generous support from corporate sponsor The New York Times. 

Photo credit: Elyse Mertz

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