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The Vail Dance Festival is an 11-day run of ballet, modern, tap and street dance performances at the turn of July and August, staged mostly at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater in Ford Park. The 2026 festival ran July 31 to August 10. For 2027 the festival has announced only opening night, Friday, July 30, 2027; the rest of the schedule, the artists and the on-sale date were not yet published when we checked. Our Vail Dance Festival calendar entry tracks the dates; this guide explains the programs, tickets, venues and logistics so you can plan around them.
How a festival season is built
The festival is produced by the nonprofit Vail Valley Foundation and led by artistic director Damian Woetzel, a former New York City Ballet principal dancer who took over in the fall of 2006. Rather than booking one company for a week, it brings dancers from companies such as New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and Alonzo King LINES Ballet together with invited companies and live musicians, and commissions new work for them each summer. The 2026 season had 11 performances and more than 30 events in Vail, Beaver Creek and Avon, with Alexei Ratmansky as artist-in-residence and composer Caroline Shaw in her 10th year as the Leonard Bernstein Composer-in-Residence.
The 2026 lineup shows the usual shape of a season:
| 2026 date | Program | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Fri, July 31, 7 p.m. | Opening Night | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
| Sat, Aug. 1, 7 p.m. | Martha Graham Dance Company: GRAHAM100 | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
| Sun, Aug. 2, 6 p.m. | UpClose with Damian Woetzel | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
| Mon, Aug. 3, 7 p.m. | State of Grace | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
| Tue, Aug. 4, 6 p.m. | Dance for $20.26 | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
| Wed, Aug. 5, 11 a.m. | Watching Dance with Heather Watts | Vail Mountain School, Vail |
| Wed, Aug. 5, 6 p.m. | Rennie Harris Puremovement | Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek |
| Thu, Aug. 6, 5:30 p.m. | Dancing in the Park (free) | Performance Pavilion, Nottingham Park, Avon |
| Fri, Aug. 7, 7 p.m.; Sat, Aug. 8, 5 and 8 p.m. | International Evenings of Dance I, II and III | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
| Sun, Aug. 9, 6 p.m. | Colorado Dances | Vilar Performing Arts Center, Beaver Creek |
| Mon, Aug. 10, 7 p.m. | Closing Night: NOW: Premieres | Ford Amphitheater, Vail |
Programs and casting change every year, and the festival notes that its schedule is subject to change.
The signature programs
International Evenings of Dance have been part of the festival since 1993: mixed-bill galas pairing dancers from different companies, often in roles they have not danced together elsewhere. In 2026 there were three, across one Friday and two Saturday performances. NOW: Premieres, first staged in 2011, is the closing-night program made up entirely of works commissioned for the festival; in 2026 its choreographers included Ratmansky, Tiler Peck, Pam Tanowitz and Larry Keigwin. UpClose is Woetzel's behind-the-scenes evening on how the festival's work is made, and Opening Night previews the companies and stars of the season.
Dance for $20.XX is the festival's accessibility night, priced after the year. In 2026 pavilion seats were $20.26 and lawn tickets $10.26, and the festival's programs page gives the 2027 caps as $20.27 and $10.27. It is excluded from most other discounts, so it is the simplest way to see a full evening cheaply.
The free events are smaller but easy to fit in. Dancing in the Streets puts festival artists on pop-up stages in Vail Village during the festival, and Dancing in the Park is a free evening performance at the lakeside Performance Pavilion in Avon's Nottingham Park, where the festival suggests bringing a picnic, a blanket or lawn chairs. Master classes, Conversations on Dance recordings and other ticketed events are announced closer to each season.
Venues: Vail, Beaver Creek and Avon
Most performances are at the Ford Park amphitheater in Vail, a short walk east of Vail Village beside Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. It has a covered pavilion of reserved seats (1,326 by the venue's count) and an open lawn behind it that is general admission and first come, first served. Gates open one hour before showtime.
Two other venues are outside Vail. The Vilar Performing Arts Center is a 530-seat indoor theater in Beaver Creek Village, beneath the ice rink; Beaver Creek is a separate resort above Avon, west of Vail (see how far Beaver Creek is from Vail). The Performance Pavilion in Nottingham Park is in the town of Avon. If you are staying in Vail, a Beaver Creek or Avon performance means a drive or a bus ride; our Avon to Vail guide covers the options.
Tickets and discounts
For the 2026 season, donors had presale access from February 26 and tickets went on sale to the public on March 12, a little over two weeks after the season was announced. Buy through vaildance.org or the festival's ticketing site, vaildancetickets.org, or at the box offices: the one at the Ford Amphitheater, open in summer, or the year-round box office at the Vilar Performing Arts Center (970-845-8497). The festival warns that tickets bought from other sellers may cost more, may be invalid and may not be eligible for box office help. All sales are final.
Per-show prices are set when each season goes on sale and were not published for 2027. The standing discounts on the festival's ticket page were:
| Offer | How it works |
|---|---|
| Children 12 and under | Free lawn admission at the Ford Amphitheater with an adult ticket (not at the Vilar) |
| Students and faculty | Discounted lawn tickets at the Ford Amphitheater (excludes Dance for $20.XX) |
| Encore Club Pass | One lawn ticket to each of nine Ford Amphitheater performances plus three discounted guest lawn vouchers; $247.50 including fees in the latest listing |
| Lawn 4-pack | Four lawn tickets for the price of three at select performances |
| Pay Your Age | Ages 18 to 30 pay their age for reserved seating, bought in person with ID; excludes Opening Night, the first two International Evenings and Dance for $20.XX |
Donors at higher levels get first access to the premium pavilion sections, so the best covered seats can be scarce by public on-sale day. If a pavilion seat matters to you, buy as soon as public sales open.
At the amphitheater: weather and what to bring
The stage and pavilion sit under a large roof, but the lawn is open, and the venue notes that the valley is known for afternoon and evening showers. Its rules allow picnic food, commercially sealed non-alcoholic drinks, personal coolers up to 18 quarts, blankets or tarps up to 5 by 7 feet, umbrellas, and lawn chairs no more than 5 inches off the ground. Outside alcohol, pets other than service animals, smoking and vaping, taller chairs, bikes and scooters are not allowed, and bags are subject to search. Strollers cannot go to your seat; there is limited stroller parking near the main restrooms. Concessions sell food and drinks, including alcohol, and are cashless. Evenings cool quickly at this elevation, so pack a layer (see how to dress for Vail).
Getting there and parking
For Ford Amphitheater shows, the Vail Village and Lionshead parking structures are free in summer if you enter after 3 p.m. From the Vail Village structure, walk east toward the softball fields and follow the paved path down into Ford Park; golf carts run between the top of the path and the venue before and after shows, and the free town buses also serve the area. Limited paid parking is at the Ford Park lot ($20 for amphitheater events, card only) and the soccer field lot on Vail Valley Drive, and cars with four or more people park free in those lots under the FOUR + FOR FREE carpool program. Once both structures fill, overflow parking is allowed on the north side of the South Frontage Road, never the south side. Our Vail parking guide has the garage details.
At the Vilar, parking in Beaver Creek Village's Villa Montane and Ford Hall garages is free with a valid show ticket that night, subject to availability. For Dancing in the Park, the festival points to parking around Nottingham Lake, on Lake Street and West Beaver Creek Boulevard, and at the Avon Recreation Center, and recommends carpooling, walking or the bus because spaces are limited.
Where to stay
If most of your tickets are at the amphitheater, stay in Vail Village or near Golden Peak. Manor Vail Lodge describes itself as the closest lodging to the amphitheater, and the festival's lodging partners have included Sonnenalp Vail and Four Seasons Resort and Residences Vail along with several Lionshead properties; partner offers change each season, so check the festival's plan-your-visit page for the current year. Lionshead is a bus ride from Ford Park. If your plans lean toward the Beaver Creek and Avon performances, staying down-valley can make sense, but most of the program is in Vail. For more, see where to stay in Vail in summer and hotels in Vail Village.
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How it started: the Bolshoi in the rain
The festival traces its start to 1989, when a U.S. tour by the Bolshoi Ballet Academy of Moscow lost a Houston date. The Vail Valley Foundation, with backing from President and Mrs. Gerald R. Ford and local patrons, brought the students to the Ford Amphitheater for three sold-out performances, the first of them in a downpour. Sophia Golovkina, who led the students, returned in 1990 to open the Bolshoi Ballet Academy at Vail as a summer school for American students. Under managing director Katherine Kersten, the International Evenings of Dance began in 1993, the summer President Bill Clinton and his family attended, and in 1994 the event took the name Vail International Dance Festival. The name was later shortened to Vail Dance Festival.
Woetzel's first full season was 2007. Since then the festival has added UpClose, NOW: Premieres and the free Celebrate the Beat education program for local children, marked its 100th world-premiere commission in 2022, and passed 130 new works by its 2026 season, the 20th under his direction. In 2020 it cancelled in-person performances and ran a digital festival instead.
Pairing it with Bravo! Vail
The Bravo! Vail Music Festival fills the same amphitheater from late June, and in 2026 its season overlapped the dance festival's first week. With both festivals and daytime hiking and mountain rides, a late-July trip can mix music, dance and the outdoors; our summer activities guide has ideas for the days.
