The Traveling ‘Fairfield County Dance Festival’ Comes to Darien on July 23

Now in its fifth year, the Ted Thomas Dance Foundation and East Coast Contemporary Ballet will come to Darien on Tuesday evening, July 23 as part of a series of free dance performances and presentations in Fairfield County this summer.

— an announcement from the foundation

This series, called the Fairfield County Dance Festival, goes beyond outdoor dance performances on its mobile outdoor stage. It includes programs such as master classes, lecture demonstrations and workshops.

These are the venues for this year’s traveling festival:

• Milford Green, Milford — July 16, 6:30 p.m.
• Calf Pasture Beach, Norwalk — July 17, 6:30 p.m. (Rain Date July 18)
• Weed Beach, Darien — July 23, 7 p.m. (rain date July 24)
• Museum of Contemporary Arts, Westport — July 25, 6:30 p.m.
• New Canaan Library, New Canaan — July 30, 6:30 p.m.
• Fairfield Museum and Historical Center, Fairfield — July 31, 6:30 p.m. (rain date Aug. 1)
• Middletown Green, Middletown — Aug. 2, 6:30 p.m.
• Mill River Park, Stamford — Aug. 7, 7 p.m.

Alison Cook Beatty Dance, Garet & Company, Lydia Johnson Dance Company, Neville Dance Company, Thomas/Ortiz Dance and East Coast Contemporary Ballet will present the series of shows.

This year in our 2024 season we will invite campers, ages 7 to 9, from The Carver Foundation Community Center Norwalk, an organization whose mission is to close opportunity gaps for all children and to ensure they graduate high school on time and are ready for college and careers, to take stage and perform outdoors.

About the Ted Thomas Dance Foundation

The mission of the Ted Thomas Dance Foundation is to  perform the art of contemporary dance across the country and around the world, especially to socio-economically disadvantaged communities throughout the Tri-State area, including Southern Fairfield, and New Haven Counties.

Commonly known as Thomas/Ortiz Dance, the foundation presents choreographic works of Ted Thomas and Frances Ortiz. Through the educational portion of the presentations, Thomas and Ortiz, endeavor to inspire younger generations to participate in dance as an outlet for creative expression,developing poise and self-esteem, health, and physical agility, while promoting a healthy lifestyle through the arts.

Thomas/Ortiz conducts a variety of community-based outreach programs and activities, including master classes, lecture demonstrations and workshops in schools, social service organizations and to Individuals in hospitals, mental health facilities and nursing homes.

This is not from the Fairfield County Dance Festival, but it’s from Thomas/Ortiz Dance and it works better than short clips or any written description to give a sense of a dance performance (the icon next to the “Vimeo” name in the lower right-hand corner will increase the size of the screen):