IMC''s "Nuit Blanche", A Midsummer Night's Dream in Newport

IMC''s "Nuit Blanche",  A Midsummer Night's Dream  in Newport

Imaginative and mystical, Island Moving Company's "Nuit Blanche", an evening of vignette performances, was held  at Newport's Bellevue House, once the home of Jane Pickens and Walter Hoving, and was an exuberant celebration of the arts.  Modeled after its Parisian counterpart, the evening came together like a mystical art circus, with gongs and a marching Dixieland-style  band of jesters leading the 450 guests from one performance area to another.

The gardens themselves are magical and mysterious,  and the dance sequences included a pas de deux with a dive into the pool, while an opera singer was warming up in another part of the gardens, and an oil painter was capturing the gazebo.  The entire event was an exquisite interplay between purposefulness and whimsy, luring  people to what was just around the  corner, and where would the Tin Pan Band lead them next. Opera sung near a garden house, a dancer with lights within a gazebo, a jazz band marching through to the next event, and a mysterious gong signaling a "happening."

The gigantic tent was magnificently decorated by John Sawicki, with help from designer Peggy Mulholland.  Emlen Drayton served as auction MC, and dancers gyrated to the Tin Pand Band from New York (previously, the jesters), and tout Newport was there. A "Nuit Blanche Shoe" competition, judged on appropriateness for the event and its  terrain, encouraged best feet forward, and was won by Janine Atamian.

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Seen were Island Moving Company Director Dominique Alfandre, Chairman of the Board John Brooks, Board members Ellen Barnes, Brenda Calkins, Joan Martin, and Congressman David Cicilline.  The consensus the morning after (e mail and Facebook flurries attested) was that "Nuit Blanche" was one of the "best events we'd ever been to"

For information aout the Great Friends Dance Festival, go to www.IslandMovingCo.org.