Dance Fest Raises Million for AIDS
By Nicole Pressly Wolf
Photos by Benjamin Wolf

Celebrating a dozen years of the Fire Island Dance Festival was especially exciting this year, as the announcement was made at the last performance that the festival has raised over a million dollars for Dancers Responding to AIDS.

The ten remarkable dance companies who unveiled world premieres of their performances gave the audience even more to cheer about. Generous Pines sponsors underwrote the premieres to bring the total contributions raised this weekend to over $213,000.

“Twelve years in any kind of relationship—personal, professional or otherwise—is reason to celebrate, making the success of longevity with a nostalgic look to the past, as well as an eye to the future,” commented Executive Director at Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Tom Viola in the festival program.

From the founding of the Fire Island Dance Festival in 1995 as a series of performances at the Pines home of Stan Howard and Filoteo Maningat, it has become one of the world’s premiere dance festivals and a fundraising tour de force hosted this year again by Jon Biondo, Sean Peggs and Tim Horman. DRA was established with the goal of making a difference in the lives of dancers living with AIDS. Since its inception in 1991, DRA has merged with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, an alliance that funds the social service work of the Actor’s Fund and raises money for AIDS service organizations across the country.

The weekend celebration began Friday night with a “Twelfth Night” cocktail party at the beautiful bayfront home of Ron Perkov and William Hayden, where the event’s benefactors and patrons were able to socialize before the kickoff of the dance performances the following afternoon.

Sassy and down-to-earth singer, comedian and actress Ana Gasteyer hosted the shows with hilarious off- the-cuff remarks, even as she clutched cards that occasionally blew in the wind. (“I’m so unprofessional!” she quipped.) Perhaps best known for her hilarious Saturday Night Live characters such as Martha Stewart and NPR’s Margaret Jo, she was just in from Studio 54 where she played Mrs. Peachum in “The Threepenny Opera” and the Chicago production of “Wicked.”

The program started off with “DRA Fanfare,” performed by the world’s only professional flag dance company, Axis Danz. The music, created especially for DRA in 1999 by Philip Glass, was a welcome and familiar starting point to the evening. The dancers, four women in vertical striped dresses with red flags and two men in black with red flags, danced while whipping the flags with a skill that would make any late-night dancer in the Pavilion envious.

Hernando Cortez, a co-founder of the festival in 1995, returned to the Pines this year to choreograph the world premiere of the dance “Prelude” for his company, Verb Ballets. The piece, with performers Deanne Petruschke on point and Mark Tomasic, was a beautiful and fluid take on classical ballet.

Especially poignant was Timothy Bish’s return to premier “Crag,” performed by Timothy and Aaron Hamilton. It was a “spicy” and emotional performance of the “ Brokeback Mountain” theme, including western style jeans, bare chests and longing.

Other performances included the American Repertory Ballet’s “Vista;” Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet returned for their third year with Benoit-Swan Pouffer’s “Seed;” and Julian Barnett danced in his own company’s “For a Very Long Time,” created for the festival. Dancing a duet with his real-life partner Jocelyn Tobias, the balance of humor, grief and love was unique.

Merce Cunningham’s “MinEvent” is created “to allow not so much an evening of dances as the experience of dance.” Relying on chance procedures that are always changing, company rookie Emma Desjardins was powerful as the playful yet strong woman to the male dancers John Bokaer and Koji Minato. The music, not designed to go with the dance, was spacey and surreal. “And they were not too cool to include a whoopee cushion in the song!” commented Ana after.

Always a highlight of the event, MOMIX delighted the crowds with four dancers in space-age inspired fezzes dancing on large blue exercise balls with glee. Ana, admitting she “can’t even blow one of those up!”, had the audience in tears following with, “It’s so hot. I feel like I’m in a Bikram yoga class.”

Peter Quanz created “Duo,” a duet for two men, for his company. It was a classy and sensitive dance for two men in the “Balanchine mode” and “appropriate for the Pines audience at hand,” according to Quanz.

“Weight and balance are different. Equally to how they are relating is different. The power is constantly shifting. So you have to give the movement an illusion of balance.” It was their personal emotional response to the piece that made it their own, Quanz said.

The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company’s “Little Rhapsodies,” performed by Rasta Thomas, was a hit the first night. Unfortunately, Rasta injured his ankle falling off the boardwalk later that evening and was unable to perform on Sunday.

Crayton Roby’s documentary about the Pines, “When Ocean Meets Sky” (which is now airing on the LOGO channel), was the inspiration for Christopher Davis’ fun piece, danced to another resident’s song “Live, Love, Dance,” by Ron Perkov.

Ending the evening’s event was “The Stonewave Sextet”— an energetic dance from the Kevin Wynn Collection. Six dancers challenged even those with A.D.D. as they all simultaneously and individually danced.

Dancer David Zurack, from The Peter Quanz company, summed up the overall feeling of the dancers: “It’s so wonderful to see everyone, to see others’ disciplines. You can’t see that anywhere else. And we are treated so well, too. You know, dancers aren’t always treated so nicely,” he said.

Pines visitor and dance instructor Orlando Pena said that he comes to see dances he can’t see on the regular stage. “It’s surreal. Because the cause is tragic and then the beauty of the people and place—it’s quite heavenly.”

Quick Q&A with Ana Gasteyer

“Quit your bitchin!” Was the first thing Ana said when her greeting of “How are you?” was met with a Pines man yelling out in response to the 90 degree plus heat, “We’re dying!” We caught up with Ana, and asked her a few questions for the News.

You are a local, right?

We bought in Saltaire three years ago. We were really lucky to buy a home right behind our friends. We resisted for a while, renting in Fair Harbor and Saltaire.

What do you think of last year’s lifting of the long-standing and controversial BBQ ban?

Fantastic! We actually resisted buying in Saltaire because of that. We are a meat family.

Are you aware of the recent lawsuit to unseat the mayor and board of trustees?

Oh my god! My husband follows all that, not me.

What is special about FI?

Time slows down here. That sameness. That small town feeling.

Have you been to the Pines before?

No! I love it! It has such a festive spirit here—unlike Saltaire. You know with FI, you get sucked into your own orbit. You rarely visit another town.

You and my husband know each other through family in DC. Your professions share a life lived mostly on the road.

Yes, it’s part of our life—always in transition. That’s why I love Fire Island. We just really needed a home base. Especially for my daughter.

Are you in Saltaire now?

No, I just came back from Studio 54, playing Mrs. Peachum in “The Threepenny Opera,” and before that I was in Chicago with “Wicked.” So I haven’t had a vacation in a long time. I’m looking forward to getting on that ferry in August and not returning for a month.

How do you feel about being at the festival?

I’m lucky to do the Dance Festival this year. It is so intimate and brings with it a savvy audience. I’m honored