The Fire Island Dance Festival, the signature event of Dancers Responding to AIDS (a program of the beloved aid organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS), sees its 12th edition this year — with 12 dances by 12 different choreographers, all performed on an outdoor stage in the Fire Island Pines with the evening sky and Great South Bay as a backdrop.

Nine of these dozen dances are world premieres prepared especially for this event — works by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Axis Danz, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Julian Barnett Project, Verb Ballets, Kevin Wynn Collection, and choreographers Timothy Bish, Peter Quanz and Christopher Davis. Also featured will be repertory works by American Repertory Ballet, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and MOMIX. Singer/actress Ana Gasteyer, who just completed a Broadway as Mrs. Peachum in The Threepenny Opera, is the emcee, and each performance begins with the DRA Fanfare, composed for the Festival by Philip Glass.

Performances are Saturday, July 15 at 5 pm and 7 pm and Sunday, July 16th at 5 pm — and, this being the Pines and all, there are parties attached, too (at 4 pm and 8 pm). Tickets range from $100 general admission to $300 for benefactor-level seats; all proceeds benefit Dancers Responding to AIDS. For tickets, directions and more information, visit www.dradance.org or call 212-840-0770.