Newport Contemporary Ballet will present the Newport Dance Festival from July 15 to 19, welcoming visiting companies from near and far for five evenings of dance at the Great Friends Meeting House Lawn.
Each evening will feature a diverse lineup of works, including a world premiere by NCB’s own Emily Baker. As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, this year’s festival carries a deeper focus, with an overarching theme of “Freedom” inspired by “The Four Freedoms,” the landmark speech delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Roosevelt’s speech articulated four fundamental human rights: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. Each work in the festival will connect in some way — directly, loosely or abstractly — to those freedoms, with some pieces reflecting the joy and struggle of pursuing liberty, others exploring injustices caused by prejudice and oppression, and still others expressing the experience of living with freedom and dignity.
Along with Newport Contemporary Ballet, this year’s roster includes Alison Cook Beatty Dance of New York, Artistic Ventures in Dance of Colorado, Breathing Art Company of Italy, DaYoungJung Choreography of Oklahoma and East Coast Contemporary Ballet of Connecticut.
Each evening will begin with either a live musical performance or an interactive dance class, featuring a lineup that includes Ben Shaw; Bill Scavotto and Daniel Hill; Sue Young leading Zumba; Elizabeth Beisel and Jack Nichting; and Greg Tyndall. Guests are encouraged to bring their own picnics, blankets and lawn chairs.
The festival is funded in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. nightly at the Great Friends Meeting House Lawn. Tickets are $40 for lawn seating and $50 for reserved seating, with discounted pricing for children under 12 and flex passes available. More information is available at newportcontemporaryballet.org.
