The Fire Island Dance Festival
Every year, Eric Winterling designs and creates original costumes for the renowned Fire Island Dance Festival. The annual summer event is produced by Dancers Responding to AIDS, a program of the charitable organization Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
The weekend-long outdoor festival presents a series of performances by world-renowned and emerging dancers, dance companies and choreographers against the backdrop of the Great South Bay. Since 2013, Eric has collaborated with choreographers to bring their vision to life on stage, creating costumes for multiple performances and dancers each year, which he gifts to the performers, alongside a financial contribution to the festival.
Eric's involvement with the event is personal. Having lost loved ones to AIDS, he knew he could make a difference by contributing his time and talent in support of the event. "Creating costumes for the festival," says Eric, is "one of the most rewarding things I've ever done."
