October 6, 2016

Hudson Valley Dance Festival Benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS

EDGE READ TIME: 3 MIN.

Hudson Valley Dance Festival, a world-class dance experience in the heart of Catskill, NY, has added Kyle Abraham of Abraham.In.Motion and Emily LeCrone Dance to the already impressive list of accomplished troupes performing at this year's festival. The festival, produced by and benefiting Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, returns Saturday, October 8, to the Historic Catskill Point.

To meet growing demand, this year's Hudson Valley Dance Festival (#hvdance) will feature performances at 2 p.m. and at 5 p.m. The fourth edition of the festival will again transform the 115-year-old wooden warehouse at Catskill Point into a modern-day dance venue, complete with a stage and raised seating for 300. Sponsorship opportunities also are available. The program is subject to change.

Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, led by MacArthur Fellow Kyle Abraham, will showcase a solo from "Dearest Home," an interactive dance work created through conversation and collaboration with a variety of age groups and self-identified subcultures.

Emily LeCrone Dance, led by wunderkind choreographer Emery LeCrone, will premiere a new work that seeks to challenge the boundaries of traditional ballet with an ambitious and emotional approach to the art form.

These works will join a previously announced lineup of highly sought-after dance companies including:

  • Caleb Teicher & Company, a troupe led by Bessie Award winner Caleb Teicher, presenting an excerpt from Variations, a tap number that creates a new playground for interpreting Johann Sebastian Bach's clever "Goldberg Variations."
  • Jennifer Muller/The Works, an international contemporary dance company, performing an excerpt from "Alchemy," a four-movement piece about transformation, drawing inspiration from the concept of the four elements: air, fire, earth and water.
  • Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a world-renowned company of professional male dancers presenting a playful, entertaining view of traditional, classical ballet in parody form with the pas de deux from Le Corsaire, one of classical ballet's most famous and performed excerpts.
  • MADBOOTS DANCE, an all-male contemporary dance company, presenting a gripping piece by artistic directors Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz about love and created in response to the mass shooting in Orlando earlier this summer
  • The premiere of a duet created by Nick Kenkel, an acclaimed Broadway choreographer, director and actor who's created work for Fire Island Dance Festival, Saturday Night Live, numerous Broadway shows and the Brooklyn Nets' dance team.

    In its first three years, Hudson Valley Dance Festival has raised an impressive $323,630 for the most vulnerable among us. The money raised helps Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS provide grants to AIDS and family service organizations nationwide, including nine based in the Hudson Valley.

    Area organizations receiving grants in 2016 were Albany Damien Center and Alliance for Positive Health in Albany, Animalkind and Columbia-Greene Community Foundation in Hudson, Matthew 25 Food Pantry and Community Hospice in Catskill, Hudson Valley Community Services in Hawthorne, Hudson Valley LGBTQ Community Center in Kingston and TOUCH (Together Our Unity Can Heal) in Congers. Hudson Valley Dance Festival is sponsored by The New York Times, United Airlines and City National Bank.

    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, Dancers Responding to AIDS 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 in all 50 states.

    Ticket prices range from $40-250. VIP tickets include a cocktail reception at Catskill Point and an intimate evening reception with the artists at the recently restored Joe's Garage, an elegant event venue in downtown Catskill.

    by EDGE

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