The event, which is performed outdoors against the backdrop of the Great South Bay, will showcase a pièce d'occasion by Tony Award-winning choreographer and director Rob Ashford — a Tony Award nominee for his work on the Broadway revival of Evita.

Fire Island Dance Festival 18 will also include performances from The Australian Ballet, celebrating its 50th anniversary with a solo danced by principal Yosvani Ramos; Ballet Hispanico, collaborating with choreographer Edwaard Liang in a world-premiere piece; MOMIX, with an encore performance of "Aqua Flora," featuring Nicole Loizides; Rennie Harris Puremovement, a hip-hop company performing "mind-blowing stunts and gravity-defying poses"; and Sidra Bell Dance New York, performing an unconventional male duet from "ReVUE" that explores gender roles and the empowerment of sexy, red stilettos.

Parsons Dance, an internationally acclaimed contemporary dance company, and The Bang Group, a theatrical dance troupe with a vaudeville style that mixes musical comedy with classical ballet, are set to perform at the festival's Leadership Event.

Humorist, actor and writer Mo Rocca, who was seen on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, hosts.

Dancers Responding to AIDS, founded in 1991 by former Paul Taylor Dance Company members Denise Roberts Hurlin and Hernando Cortez, is a program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, one of the nation's leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. For more information and tickets, call (212) 840-0770 ext. 268 or visit DRADance.org.