Photo Flash: Keigwin + Company, Paul Taylor Dance and More Perform at 2014 Hudson Valley Dance Festival

A sold-out audience, captivated by performances from five world-class dance companies, filled the Historic Catskill Point on October 11, 2014, for the second annual edition of Hudson Valley Dance Festival. Transforming the 19th century warehouse on the banks of theHudson River into a one-of-a-kind performance space, Hudson Valley Dance Festival (#hvdance) raised $121,125 for Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The evening featured memorable performances by Dorrance Dance, Gallim Dance, KEIGWIN + COMPANY, Paul Taylor Dance Company and Pontus Lidberg Dance. Scroll down for photos!

"We continue to be overwhelmed by the generous support of the Hudson Valley community and their appreciation for the extraordinarily talented dancers and dance companies at our second Hudson Valley Dance Festival," said Denise Roberts Hurlin, founding director of Dancers Responding to AIDS. "The warm embrace we felt during last year's inaugural edition grew exponentially this year, which is especially meaningful because of the increased difference that support will make for men, women and children in Hudson Valley and across the country who are battling HIV/AIDS and other critical issues."

The money raised at Hudson Valley Dance Festival will help Broadway Cares provide grants to more than 450 AIDS and family service organizations nationwide, including several based in the Hudson Valley. Among the area organizations awarded grants in 2014 were AIDS Council of Northeastern New York, TOUCH (Together Our Unity Can Heal), Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center, Animalkind and Matthew 25 Food Pantry.

Pontus Lidberg Dance opened this year's performance with Faune, a piece about identity set to a sensuous score by Claude Debussy. Five dancers explored isolation and belonging, flowing in and out of the group, fluidly exchanging clothes, leaving one always "exposed" until the final dancer is accepted for whom he is.

Gallim Dance showcased its vivid imagination and hyperkinetic physicality in Pupil Suite, choreographed by Artistic Director Andrea Miller, a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. Eight Gallim dancers discovered their inner child as they frolicked, leapt and, in one section, even crawled across the stage on elbows and knees, in the humorous romp. Steeped in theatricality, the dancers used every muscle - from exaggerated facial expressions to subtlest of finger movements - to engage the enthralled audience.

KEIGWIN + COMPANY presented an excerpt from one of founder Larry Keigwin's signature dances, Mattress Suite. With a queen-size mattress as their prop, dancers Kile Hotchkiss and Emily Schoen explored the delight and despair of a couple's entanglements. Using the mattress as a wall, a springboard and a romantic escape for their remarkable pas de deux, Hotchkiss and Schoen deftly leaped and embraced through the reality of a couple's ultimate inability to connect.

Four members of Dorrance Dance treated the audience to an energizing tap number, excerpted from the company's recently premiered ETM: The Initial Approach. The tappers, each on their own wooden platform, became, as founder Michelle Dorrance described, "musicians with their bodies, head to toe." Pushing the boundaries of tap rhythmically, aesthetically and conceptually, Dorrance showed whyThe New York Times called her "the brightest choreographer in tap today."

Closing the evening, the venerable Paul Taylor Dance Company presented one of Taylor's best dances of the 21st century.Promethean Fire featured 16 dancers weaving themselves through intricate patterns, often doubling-back and twisting around each other in what some have called "building blocks in the human cathedral." The central duet, performed majestically by James Samson and ParisaKhobdeh, ultimately rose to deliver the piece's message of inspiration and renewal.

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. Through these organizations and programs, DRA and Broadway Cares help to ensure that those in need have access to lifesaving medication, health care, counseling, nutritious meals and emergency financial assistance. For more information, visit Dancers Responding to AIDS at dradance.org.

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