Newport Dance Festival

Island Moving Company presents Newport Dance Festival July 19-24, 2022 on an outdoor stage at Great Friends Meeting House in Newport, RI. Each evening performance will feature a unique lineup of dances drawn on the talent, artistry, and unique styles of the festival’s five visiting dance companies, and Newport’s resident Island Moving Company. 

Visit the Newport Dance Festival event page to learn more about the Festival and purchase tickets!

Festival Lineup: 

• Khambatta Dance Company
• Boston Dance Theater 
• Breathing Art Company 
• East Coast Contemporary Ballet 
• Janusphere Dance Company 
• Tristian Griffin Dance Company

Island Moving Co.’s Great Friends Touring Project is designed to bring IMC to new audiences and to bring new audiences to dance. Each year, for the Newport Dance Festival (formerly the Great Friends Dance Festival) in July, we invite a resident company to Newport for two weeks of studio time and performance; in return for a reciprocal performance in their home venue. 

The Festival features mixed bills of IMC and guest artists. Dancers take class together; directors teach master classes; a commissioned choreographer creates a piece for all Festival dancers.  Each night, a Festival choreographer opens the program with an Etude, a work that has been created that day on dancers who elect to participate.  Besides the Etudes, at least a dozen new works have been created, as companies take advantage of the focused time together, away from the distractions of other jobs and obligations. Artistic Director Miki Ohlsen invites diverse companies doing excellent work from around the globe, using a network of “great friends” — previous residency partners, choreographers and presenters. Since 2010, we have presented 30+ companies from New York, Texas, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Missouri, Virginia, California, Italy and Almaty, Kazakhstan.

For more information about the Great Friends Touring Project, click here.