Vail Dance Festival announces 2024 season schedule
Christopher Duggan/Courtesy photo
The Vail Dance Festival, a project of the nonprofit Vail Valley Foundation, officially announced plans for its 36th season scheduled to take place July 26-Aug. 5.
Under the artistic direction of Damian Woetzel, the 2024 summer season will bring together renowned and emerging dancers, musicians, composers, and choreographers for 13 performances and numerous events throughout Vail and the surrounding communities.
“Honoring tradition and spurring innovation is at the heart of what we do each summer in the Rockies,” Woetzel said in a news release.
2024 festival highlights
Opening Night kicks off the season with a program featuring artists and companies making appearances throughout the festival including Dance Theatre of Harlem, Limón Dance Company, Artist-In-Residence Sara Mearns, Michelle Dorrance, and ballroom duo Denys Drozdyuk and Antonina Skobina. In the second half of the evening, guest stars from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre will join Colorado Ballet in a special performance of George Balanchine’s landmark ballet, “Serenade,” with Tschaikovsky’s score performed live by the National Repertory Orchestra conducted by Michael Stern.
Since its founding in 1969, the globally acclaimed Dance Theatre of Harlem has been celebrated for its powerful vision of multi-ethnic diversity for ballet in the 21st century with a repertory that celebrates both classicism and contemporary innovation. The company returns to the festival in a headlining performance at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater with a special program featuring George Balanchine’s thrilling “Allego Brillante” and Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Robert Garland’s recent work “Nyman String Quartet #2” which was hailed by the Associated Press as “highly athletic and infectiously joyous.”
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Dance as an art form evolves through innovations and changes of direction both sudden and gradual. “UpClose with Damian Woetzel” features dramatic swerves in the history of dance as shown through the works that have led dance forward. The program features festival stars in rehearsal and performance modes as they take on groundbreaking choreography from across centuries, in dance styles from ballet and modern dance to tap and ballroom.
In “Myths by Legends,” stories come to life with today’s extraordinary dancers performing works themed to myths ancient and contemporary, as choreographed by legends of the dance world George Balanchine, Martha Graham, José Limón, and Jerome Robbins. The program will include Limón Dance Company in their founder’s classic “Orfeo,” artist-in-residence and New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns in the “Cassandra” solo from Martha Graham’s masterwork “Clytemnestra,” Jerome Robbins’ moving ballet studio encounter “Afternoon of a Faun” with debut performances by American Ballet Theatre’s Catherine Hurlin and Aran Bell, and New York City Ballet’s Roman Mejia making his debut in George Balanchine’s “Apollo” as the young Greek god.
Celebrating affordable pricing and access for all, Dance for $20.24 and the free Dancing in the Park both feature a cast of festival stars and companies.
In “Watching Dance with Heather Watts,” the legendary “Balanchine Ballerina” shares an interactive exploration of dance repertory and history through live demonstrations with festival artists.
A made-for-Vail tap dance experience, “Dorrance Dances: An Evening with Michelle Dorrance and Friends” follows the unique journey of this vital American art form.
“International Evenings of Dance” are legendary for their glittery celebration of artistic collaboration with unique “only in Vail” partnerships and role debuts by a selection of today’s dance stars from around the world.
Colorado Dances celebrates the dynamic state of dance in Colorado, in a unique program featuring three Rocky Mountain powerhouse dance companies: Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Colorado Ballet, and DanceAspen.
“NOW: PREMIERES” is the festival’s annual showcase of commissioned new dances, featuring an astonishing cast of dancers and musicians. 2024 choreographers will include Kyle Abraham, Michelle Dorrance, Lauren Lovette, Justin Peck, Tiler Peck, Pam Tanowitz and Artist-In-Residence Jamar Roberts.
Festival dancers
Joining Artist-in-Residence and New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns, individual festival dancers for 2024 will include New York City Ballet’s Chun Wai Chan, Jovani Furlan, Mira Nadon, Roman Mejia, Tiler Peck, Unity Phelan, Gilbert Bolden III, Harrison Coll, KJ Takahashi, Olivia Bell, and India Bradley; American Ballet Theatre’s Aran Bell, Isabella Boylston, Catherine Hurlin, Calvin Royal III, and James Whiteside; former New York City Ballet dancers Robbie Fairchild and Lauren Lovette; Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Adji Cissoko; tap dancers Michelle Dorrance and Dario Natarelli; modern dancemuse Melissa Toogood; former Miami City Ballet principal Patricia Delgado; Royal Danish Ballet’s Philip Duclos; National Ballet of Canada’s Ben Rudisin; BalletX’s Savannah Green and Jerard Palazo; Philadelphia Ballet’s Mayfield Myers; ballroom duo Denys Drozdyuk and Antonina Skobina; and independent dancers Lil Buck, Daisy Kate Jacobson, Stephanie Terasaki and Spencer Lenain, with others to be announced. Kayla Mak, a current third-year BFA dance student at The Juilliard School, will be this year’s Scholar-In-Residence.
Music and musicians
Live music and the commissioning of new music are essential parts of the Vail Dance Festival’s artistic mission. This year, the festival welcomes the National Repertory Orchestra under the baton of Michael Stern for the first time. Brooklyn Rider (violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Michael Nicolas) will return as Quartet-In-Residence, and Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning Leonard Bernstein Composer-In-Residence Caroline Shaw will return to create new music compositions. The 2024 season will also feature performances by bass-baritone Davóne Tines, pianists Jacek Mysinski, Michael Scales, Joel Wenhardt, and Tony Yun, and kora player Youba Cissokho, among a roster of multi-genre musicians. Shelbie Rassler will serve as music director.
Community programs
YouthPower365’s Celebrate the Beat Pop Hop Camp is a free dance and music education program for local children. Registration opens March 1.
Details on additional festival events including the popular “Conversations on Dance” podcast series, Master Classes, free Dancing in the Streets performances, the Tiny Dancer Tea Party, and other educational events will be announced in June.
To learn more and see the full schedule, visit VailDance.org.
