LEWISTON — The Bates Dance Festival, northern New England’s leading training and presenting program in contemporary dance, announces its 33rd season, June 24-Aug. 7, 2016.

The festival includes the renowned professional training program for dancers 18 years and older (July 16-Aug. 7), offering 31 classes a day in a wide range of disciplines; and the Young Dancers Workshop, a three-week intensive training program for pre-professional dancers ages 14-18 (June 24-July 15).

Complementing these programs, the festival hosts creative residencies for accomplished companies and choreographers, as well as lectures, panels and showings by more than 60 internationally recognized dance artists from around the globe.

Known throughout the dance world for its noncompetitive environment and emphasis on experimentation, the Bates Dance Festival each summer brings more than 320 students to the Bates College campus from across the United States and overseas to study, create and perform.

Highlighting the festival’s 2016 season are workshops, residencies and performances by the acclaimed New York companies Dorrance Dance, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Kate Weare Company. Performances also include the annual DanceNOW, Different Voices and Festival Finale events, all showcasing BDF faculty. Dance writer Debra Cash will lead Inside Dance, a series of audience-enrichment presentations held in conjunction with the mainstage concert series.

Daily classes in the three-week professional training program include modern, jazz, ballet, Afro-fusion, contact improvisation, repertory, choreo lab, creative process, yoga, Pilates, Teacher’s Toolkit, Body & Earth, Moving & Writing, DanceFilm & Media, the business of dance and more.

Among the festival’s extensive roster of artists are both new and frequently requested veteran teachers Marianela Boán, Andrea Olsen, Paul Matteson, Shonach Mirk-Robles, Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser, Mary Carbonara and many more.

The Young Dancers Workshop, a structured, noncompetitive program designed for pre-professional dance students, features intensive study with a gifted faculty that includes modern teachers Garfield Lemonius and Tristan Koepke; veteran ballet instructors Mirk-Robles and Martha Tornay; jazz teacher Courtney B. Jones; hip hop phenomenon Shakia Johnson; improvisation teacher Heidi Henderson; and repertory with choreographer and teacher Danté Brown.

Known for its emphasis on the integral relationship between dance and music, the festival features a roster of acclaimed musicians who accompany classes and present an annual concert. In residence this summer will be accompanists Adam Crawley, Glen Fittin, Peter Jones, Carl Landa, Jesse Manno and Shamou.

More information about the Bates Dance Festival is available at www.batesdancefestival.org/; by emailing Meredith Lyons, admission director, at dancefest@bates.edu; or by calling 207-786-6381.

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