Nimbus Dance returns to the1932 Criterion Theatre on July 27 for the debut of the Acadia Dance Festival. The Acadia Dance Festival brings world-class dance to Mount Desert Island: performances, workshops, artist talks, and opportunities for the MDI community members and visitors to the Downeast Region to engage closely with dance. Named among “Best Dance Performances of 2016” by The Huffington Post and called “gorgeous [and] exquisite” by Broadway World, Nimbus anchors the festival with an evening of superbly rendered, highly physical, and emotionally gripping dance, including works recently premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The Festival’s 8pm evening program includes Nimbus Artistic Director Samuel Pott’s Hollow Square, a rumination on unseen bonds: dancer to dancer and dancer to audience created in collaboration with Grammy-nominated musician Tim Eriksen, “one of the best singers in music” according to T Bone Burnett. Additionally, Dawn Marie Bazemore's vibrant new work, The After Party, pays tribute to jazz greats Nina Simone and Nancy Wilson. And Patch of Turf, Pott’s 2015 tour-de-force for four women who manipulate a 12’ x 8’ piece of artificial grass, underscores the tenuous and fraught relationship of humankind to earth.

Also, Don’t Miss: Prelude: 7/27, 5pm.  This early evening performance features select performing groups from the MDI-area including talented youth performers, adult companies and other movement artists invited to perform in the inaugural season of the Acadia Dance Festival.