Limited Number of Tickets Available for This Weekend's Fire Island Dance Festival

Only a few prime tickets remain for this weekend's Fire Island Dance Festival, featuring three world premieres, a Tony Award-winning choreographer, a Tony-nominated dancer and performers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet and Paul Taylor Dance Company. Fire Island Dance Festival (#fidance) brings acclaimed dance from an array of styles to a picturesque waterfront stage on the Great South Bay in Fire Island Pines. The festival kicks off with an exclusive Leadership Event this Friday, July 20, and continues with three performances Saturday and Sunday, July 21-22. The event is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Leadership tickets start at $375. Individual tickets for the 5 pm performances are $175. A hassle-free daytrip package features round-trip luxury transportation from New York City, a champagne luncheon and tickets to the 5 pm performance on Sunday, July 22. A Sunday VIP option, which includes the champagne luncheon and tickets to the Sunday show, is also available. The daytrip package is $275 per person; the Sunday VIP option is $225. Tickets for Fire Island Dance Festival are on sale now at dradance.org or by phone at 212.840.0770, ext. 229.

Stage and screen favorite Nathan Lee Graham hosts this year's festival. Graham appeared on Broadway in Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Wild Party and, most recently, in the acclaimed Off-Broadway hit The View UpStairs. He's well-known as Todd from both Zoolander movies with Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller. And he earned a Best Classical Album Grammy Award for Songs of Innocence and of Experience as a soloist. Graham is graciously stepping in as host for the previously announced Carrie Ann Inaba, who regrettably is unable to attend this year.

Graham will host a lineup that includes:

Performers are subject to change. --- Choreographer Gemma Bond, presenting Depuis le Jour, a pas de deux performed by American Ballet Theatre principals Devon Teuscher and Cory Stearns.

- Caleb Teicher & Company, performing Hullabaloo, an energetic piece that premiered at Broadway Cares' Easter Bonnet Competition this spring.

- Camille A. Brown & Dancers, sharing New Second Line, a celebration of the spirit and culture of the people of New Orleans and their resilience after Hurricane Katrina.

- The Chase Brock Experience, sharing Splendor we only partially imagined, a celebratory piece that first premiered at Hudson Valley Dance Festival in 2015.

- Cirio Collective, premiering a new work performed by Boston Ballet principal Paul Craig and American Ballet Theatre soloist Blaine Hoven.

- Celebrated theatre choreographer James Kinney, premiering a new work performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre's Michael Francis McBride and Samuel Lee Roberts.

- Paul Taylor Dance Company, sharing an excerpt of Aureole, a lighthearted and romantic piece that has become a signature solo work of Taylor's.

- Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre's Jamar Roberts, choreographing a premiere featuring four fellow Ailey dancers.

- Acclaimed British choreographer and Tony Award winner Christopher Wheeldon, sharing a duet performed by Tony nominee and former New York City Ballet principal Robert Fairchild and American Ballet Theatre soloist Calvin Royal III.

Josh Prince, choreographer of Broadway's Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, will kick off the festival Friday night with his Broadway Dance Lab, a choreography incubator for theatre artists. Broadway Dance Lab will present a suite of overtures at the Leadership Event at Whyte Hall, which is reserved exclusively for Leadership Supporters.

Last year's Fire Island Dance Festival raised a record-breaking $585,045, bring the event's total to more than $5.5 million raised since it began in 1995. Through their generous support,Fire Island Dance Festival attendees have helped ensure that those in need throughout the New York area and in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. receive lifesaving medications, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.

Fire Island Dance Festival includes the opening performance on Saturday, July 20, at 5 pm (cocktails starting at 4 pm); the sunset performance on Saturday, July 21, at 7 pm (cocktails following); and the closing performance on Sunday, July 22 at 5 pm (cocktails following). Fire Island Dance Festival is generously sponsored by The New York Times, United Airlines, DIRECTV, Sayville Ferry and Tony's Barge, Inc.

Dancers Responding to AIDS 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 the essential programs of The Actors Fund, including the HIV/AIDS Initiative and The Dancers' Resource, as well as more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide. For more information, please visit Dancers Responding to AIDS at dradance.org, at facebook.com/DRAdance, at instagram.com/DRAdance, at twitter.com/DRAdance and at youtube.com/DRAdance.