Tickets to Fire Island Dance Festival On Sale this Weekend

Tickets go on sale in the Fire Island Pines Harbor this Memorial Day weekend for the much-anticipated 20th anniversary of Fire Island Dance Festival, which is set for July 18-20, 2014. Some of the most-talked-about dancers and dance companies in the country will offer an exciting mix of Broadway, ballet, Hawaiian and modern dance. The festival, performed outdoors on the beautiful Great South Bay, is produced by and benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Since its humble beginnings in 1995, the festival has grown to become the cultural and charitable event of the summer in Fire Island Pines, raising more than $3.3 million.

Starting this Memorial Day weekend, tickets for Fire Island Dance Festival (#fidance) will be on sale in the Fire Island Pines Harbor on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am - 1 pm. Tickets also are available at dradance.org or by phone at 212.840.0770, ext. 268. Leadership Supporter tickets start at $325. Individual tickets for the 5 pm shows are $125.

Leadership Supporters enjoy an enhanced festival experience including a Friday night Leadership Event with cocktails, highly coveted tickets to Saturday's sunset performance or priority seating at either 5 pm performance and prominent recognition in the harbor and throughout the Pines. The 20th anniversary celebration kicks off Friday, July 18, with the Leadership Event sponsored by Movmnt Magazine. A grand evening of live music, dance and theatricality will feature 14 dancers, 4 vocalists and a 6-piece band as Mark Stuart Dance Theatre takes you on a journey through the 1930s, 1960s and 2000s with excerpts from the Broadway-bound dance musical Standard Time.

The excitement continues through the weekend with three Fire Island Dance Festival performances: the opening performance on Saturday, July 19, at 5 pm (open bar starting at 4 pm); sunset performance on Saturday, July 19, at 7 pm (open bar following); and closing performance on Sunday, July 20, at 5 pm (open bar following).

This year's lineup of performers features
· Ailey II
· BalletCollective
· Kristine Bendul, Waldemar Quiñones-Villanueva & Ryan Worsing
· Complexions Contemporary Ballet
· Marcelo Gomes
· Nick Kenkel
· Sara Mearns
· MOMIX
· N? Lei Hulu I Ka W?kiu

Learn more about the performers at dradance.org. Additional performers and this year's host will be announced later this spring. Fire Island Dance Festival is generously sponsored by The New York Times, United Airlines, DIRECTV, Movmnt Magazine and Tony's Barge, Inc.

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.

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