Members of the Bebe Miller Company. Photograph by Julieta Cervantes.

Award-winning dancer-choreographer Bebe Miller and her company return to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival to celebrate 25 years of dancemaking with the retrospective performance installation “A History” in performances at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 26 and 27, in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

The following week brings the annual “Musicians’ Concert,” an evening of eclectic international sounds performed by composer-accompanists affiliated with the festival, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31, in the Franco-American Heritage Center, 46 Cedar St.

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Miller tickets are $25 for the general public, $18 for seniors and $12 for students. “Musicians’ Concert” admission is $15 for adults and $7 for seniors and students.

Tickets may be purchased online; by phone at 207-786-6161 from 1-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday; or by mail or in person. .

The Miller company holds a free Show & Tell lecture-demonstration at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 23, in Schaeffer. A discussion with the company immediately follows the Friday concert. Dance writer Hannah Kosstrin offers a pre-performance Inside Dance lecture at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27, also in Schaeffer.

Finally, in a special Show & Tell, Stephan Koplowitz, an award-winning artist known for creating multimedia works for architecturally significant sites, discusses site-specific choreography at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28, in Room 301, Pettigrew Hall, 305 College St.

Bebe Miller Company and ‘A History’

Miller’s newest work, the evening-length “A History” centers on the nuanced, decade-long dancing relationship between company veterans Angie Hauser and Darrell Jones. Incorporating video by Lily Skove and an accompanying installation by Maya Ciarrocchi, “A History” shifts the focus from performance to process, sharing with audiences what dancemaking feels like, sounds like and thinks like.

A New York Times reviewer wrote of Miller, “Her movement is infused with a spirit that clings to the audience even after she and her dancers have left the stage.” Exploring the unruly edges of heart and mind, she has created a unique physical language that fully expresses the complexities of the human condition.

Collaboration being fundamental to her process, she has worked with such notables as choreographer Ralph Lemon; composers Fred Frith and Don Byron; filmmaker Isaac Julien; writer-director Ain Gordon; and visual artist Caroline Beasley-Baker.

Composer-percussionist Shamou performs in the 2009 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival Musicians’ Concert. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

has toured throughout the United States and eight other countries. The company has been commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, City Center Theater, The Joyce Theater, Wexner Center for the Arts, Walker Art Center, On The Boards, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Dance Place, Dance Theater Workshop, Dancing in the Streets and The Danspace Project, among others.

Musicians’ Concert

Thoughtful, playful and profound music takes center stage when these extraordinary composers, known for their collaborations with dancers, perform original and improvised works that blend musical styles from around the globe.

The evening features multi-instrumentalists Jesse Manno, Terrence Karn and Shamou, whose collective musical repertory spans Africa, Asia and the Middle East; composer-pianists Peter Jones, Carl Landa and Mike Vargas; electronic music wizard Albert Mathias; and violin prodigy, Rob Flax.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival, a summer series of renowned contemporary dance, is in its fourth decade as a leading American dance center. The festival is an important laboratory for artists noted for important contributions to the contemporary dance lexicon. In addition to presenting these dancemakers who have experienced significant artistic growth through the festival, the BDF continues to welcome emerging choreographers.

Members of the Bebe Miller Company. Photograph by Julieta Cervantes.

A renowned summer series of contemporary dance, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival takes place July 12 through Aug. 10 at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, presenting masterworks and Maine premieres by four renowned contemporary dance companies:

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Performance times, locations and ticket costs . For more information, please contact 207-786-6381 or dancefest@bates.edu.

Dancer-choreographer Nejla Y. Yatkin. Photograph by Astrid Riecken/The Washington Times.

Opening the 2013 season, perform the Maine premiere of Oasis. This evening-length multimedia work is based on the allegorical story of Layla and Majnoon, regarded as a Middle Eastern predecessor to Romeo and Juliet.

Featuring a score by Maine-based Persian composer Shamou, performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 12 and 13, at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Yatkin, artistic director of NY2Dance, was born in Turkey and grew up in Berlin, Germany. Integrating diverse traditions, her work plumbs the beauty and complexity of memory, migration, transformation, identity and multiculturalism. One of Dance Magazine’s 2005 “Top 25 to Watch,” Yatkin was described by The New York Times as “a magician, telling tales and creating worlds with understated images and movement.”

One of America’s most gifted dancemakers, returns to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival for his seventh creative residency since 1992. Celebrating its 25th season, Varone’s exceptional company performs the stunning new works Carrugi and Able to Leap Tall Buildings, as well as the company’s signature work Rise.

Doug Varone and Dancers return to the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival in 2013. Photograph by Cylla von Tiedemann.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, July 18 and 20, in Schaeffer Theatre.

Since its founding in 1986, Varone’s company has commanded attention for expansive vision, versatility and technique. On stage and on the screen, Varone’s kinetically thrilling dances make essential connections and mine the complexity of the human spirit.

The Village Voice wrote that the company comprises “superb dancers. Varone’s choreography — with its hesitations, awkward tenderness, bravery and belligerence — emphasizes their humanity.”

A longtime BDF favorite, the returns to Lewiston with the retrospective performance installation A History. Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 26 and 27, in Schaeffer Theatre.

Miller’s newest work, the evening-length A History centers on the nuanced, decade-long dancing relationship between company veterans Angie Hauser and Darrell Jones. Incorporating video by Lily Skove and an accompanying installation by Maya Ciarrocchi, the duet shares what dancemaking feels like, sounds like and thinks like.

Award-winning dancer and choreographer Miller has been making dances for more than 25 years. A New York Times reviewer wrote, “Her movement is infused with a spirit that clings to the audience even after she and her dancers have left the stage.”

A scene from “Voyeur,” a multimedia work created by Bridgman | Packer Dance and inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper. Photograph by Arthur Fink.

Together for more than 30 years, has developed a unique approach to integrating video into dance — making it, in effect, a third partner for artistic directors Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer. Voyeur, their latest work and ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ festival offering, invites audiences into this evocative world.

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2 and 3, in Schaeffer Theatre.

In Voyeur, Bridgman and Packer push into new territory choreographically, thematically and technologically. Inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, the piece presents fragments of private lives played out on a set whose windows and doorways allow the audience to be, like Hopper, “one who looks.”

Recipients of numerous grants and awards, including the first Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to two individuals for collaborative work, Packer and Bridgman have toured throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Central America.

Other festival events

The festival offers a series of events in addition to the mainstage performances:

The annual , a global mix of music by 10 remarkable composers and players, takes place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 31, in the Franco-American Heritage Center, 46 Cedar St., Lewiston.

Choreographer Kendra Portier.

 concerts, showcasing diverse styles and perspectives by visiting choreographers from across the U.S. and around the globe, take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Aug. 8 and 9, in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s air-conditioned Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

The , presenting dancers of all ages and abilities performing modern, hip hop and contemporary works by festival artists, and also representing the festival’s Youth Arts Program, takes place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, in Alumni Gymnasium, 130 Central Ave.

Show & Tell lecture-demonstrations offer a glimpse of the creative process at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays in Schaeffer Theatre, featuring Nejla Yatkin on July 9; Doug Varone, July 16; Bebe Miller, July 23; and Bridgman | Packer, July 30.

The festival offers a special Show & Tell about site-specific choreography by Stephan Koplowitz, an award-winning artist known for creating multimedia works for architecturally significant sites, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 28, in Room 301, Pettigrew Hall, 305 College St.

Inside Dance: Understanding Contemporary Dance, a series of pre-performance lectures and post-performance talks, offers insight into the artists and their work. Saturday lectures precede the Varone performance at 7 p.m. July 20; Miller at 7 p.m. July 27; and Bridgman | Packer at 7 p.m. Aug. 3, all in Schaeffer Theatre. Talkbacks follow most Friday evening performances.

Information about tickets and locations for all festival events, as well as additional performance details, appears on the festival website:

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The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival presents BESSIE Award-winning choreographer Bebe Miller’s Landing/Place, a highly kinetic, visually captivating work for five dancers using dance for the camera, interactive digital media and performance, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, July 29 and 30, at Schaeffer Theatre. Tickets are $18/$12 (students and seniors) and may be purchased by calling 207-786-6161 after July 9. (This production is appropriate for an audience of all ages.)

Inspired by Miller’s travel in Eritrea, North Africa, the evening-length work Landing/Place explores memory, landscape, cultural dislocation and the search for a communal sense of place. A seasoned collaborator and fearless pioneer, Miller joins forces with five extraordinary dancers to explore the advanced technology of “motion capture” with stunning results: live music by Albert Mathias, lighting design by Michael Mazzola, dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks, digital animation by Vita Berezina-Blackburn and media by Maya Ciarrocchi.

The production has, says the Columbus Dispatch, “the qualities of visual artmovement, balance, a sense of rightness and of magic.â€�

Miller has been making dances for more than 25 years. Her work has been performed internationally in Europe, Asia and the African continent, and nationally in venues ranging from New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music to numerous colleges and universities around the country. Her vision of dance resides in her faith in the moving body as a record of thought, experience and beauty. Her work explores the visceral, unruly edges of the heart and psyche to find a physical language for the human condition. The New York Times calls Miller’s movement “infused with a spirit that clings to the audience even after she and her dancers have left the stage. It’s not uncommon to leave a Miller performance feeling transformed.”

In addition to main stage performances, the festival offers a selection of free and low-cost events. Complete information is available at the website: /dancefest.

In addition to its critically acclaimed mainstage performance series of 13 concerts, the festival offers two intensive training programs, one for adults and one for younger dancers. For more information, or to request a brochure, call the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival at 207-786-6381.

As part of a four-week residency, JAZZDANCE by Danny Buraczeski, known as one of the most original voices in jazz, will present an evening of new repertory July 25 at the Lewiston Middle School Auditorium. Since 1989, this eight-member company has performed at leading concert halls in more than 30 states, in Europe and the Caribbean presenting its profoundly musical and accessible choreography to enthusiastic audiences. As the concert’s highlight, JAZZDANCE will preview Ezekiel’s Wheel, a 35- minute work by Buraczeski and jazz composer Philip Hamilton. Inspired by the writings of James Baldwin, the work for eight dancers is set to a suite of original songs for vocal quartet and instrumental quintet. “Sensuously lyrical, handsome and sexy work . . . danced with beautiful clarity, dynamism and infectious gusto,” The Minneapolis Star Tribune said.

Among the festival’s extensive roster of artists, Bebe Miller, in residence at the festival for three-weeks, is one of its most popular performers. The festival presents Bebe Miller Company in concert Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 at Schaeffer Theatre, featuring a preview of Miller’s newest collaboration, Going to the Wall, an aesthetic examination of cultural identity with an original score by award-winning composer-clarinetist Don Byron. The concert also will include Blessed, set to gospel music by an Australian a cappella group, and The Hendrix Project, set to the heat of Hendrix’s music and the moods of his days. “Vibrant, quirky dancing . . . Miller and her dancers are terrific,” The New York Times said.

One of the country’s most eclectic choreographers, Doug Elkins Dance Company, is a New York-based company known for combining diverse dance styles in works that offer hilarious comment on contemporary culture. The company will perform its acclaimed 1996 work, Center My Heart, an energetic ensemble piece set to devotional music by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, as well as two Maine premieres. This troupe of six dancers will perform Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 at Schaeffer Theatre. “He surprises and seduces. Doug Elkins is an authentic creator who knows how to hustle and translate traditional choreographic language into new forms,” The Paris Le Figaro said.

Highlighting the festival season is HOT FEET, an evening of American jazz, French Canadian step, Afro-fusion, jazz tap and more, July 31 at the Lewiston Middle School Auditorium. This lively concert will feature works by award-winning South African dancer Vincent Mantsoe; acclaimed French- Canadian step dancer Benoit Bourque of Montreal; jazz tapper Herbin Van Cayseele, fresh from his tour with the Jazz Tap Hip Hip Festival and Riverdance, and jazz master Danny Buraczeski. The concert will include live music by festival musicians.

Showcasing emerging artists from around the globe, the Different Voices concert at Schaeffer Theatre Aug. 13 features new works by choreographers Kota Yamazaki of Japan, Sukarji Sriman of Java, Antonio Tavares of Cape Verde, Vincent Mantsoe of South Africa and Simon Ellis of Australia, all in residence as part of the festival’s International Visiting Artists Program.

In conjunction with performances, the festival will present a series of pre-and post performance discussions and lectures, “Inside Dance: Understanding Contemporary Dance,” that will offer audiences insight into the artists and contemporary dance. The lectures will be held to accompany performances by JAZZDANCE July 25, Doug Elkins Dance Company Aug. 2 and Bebe Miller Company Aug. 8, all at 7:15 p.m. at the performance site. Historian and dance critic Suzanne Carbonneau, will lead these engaging talks.

In addition to mainstage performances, the festival will offer a wide range of free, public events. On Aug. 3 in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, choreographer Tamar Rogoff will present, The Ivye Project, a “live” documentary with slides, video and readings from her site-specific work in the Holocaust memorial in the forest of Belarus. On Aug. 6 in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, the Composer’s Concert features an eclectic mix of original works by musicians Philip Hamilton, Peter Jones, Gilles Obermayer, Shamou, John Clark Stiefel and Mike Vargas. A diverse group of festival dancers and musicians, led by contact-improvisers Nancy Stark Smith, perform in the annual and highly popular Moving In The Moment Concert Aug. 11 in Alumni Gymnasium. Rounding out the festival’s five-week season will be the Young Choreographer’s/New Works Concert Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 at Schaeffer Theatre, and the Student Finale Aug. 15 in Alumni Gymnasium, featuring faculty works performed by local youth and festival students, as well as panel discussions and workshops led by distinguished artists.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dance Festival receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, Maine Arts Commission, Africa Exchange, the Bingham Betterment Fund, Harkness Foundations for Dance, Capezio Ballet Makers Dance Foundation, Lewiston Auburn Children’s Foundation, the Shapiro Family Foundation, the Sequoia Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cole Haan, Androscoggin Savings Bank, Mechanics Savings Bank, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Northern Utilities and Peoples Heritage Bank.