Our History
660 Cities. 24 Countries. 6 Continents. We are Garth Fagan Dance!
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Garth Fagan Dance is an internationally acclaimed contemporary American dance company, a bustling school of dance with an enrollment of 400 students, and a community-based resource of broad and growing influence, whose home has remained in Rochester for almost five decades.
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The company’s start began in the ‘70s when the country was just beginning to emerge from a tumultuous decade of riots and widespread unrest. As part of his recent appointment to the faculty at the State University of New York in Brockport, Garth Fagan began teaching dance classes at the SUNY Educational Opportunity Center in downtown Rochester.
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Many of his students had no previous training. Most came from inner city, economically disadvantaged backgrounds. But Fagan was so inspired by their raw talent and tenacity that he decided to transform this highly unconventional group of dancers into a professional company, based not in one of the world’s cultural capitals but in upstate New York.
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From this early start, the organization has continued to evolve, shaped by the values that first prompted its formation, Garth Fagan Dance is still dedicated to the sentiments expressed in its founding mission…
Our Mission
To advance, nurture, and sustain
Garth Fagan’s pioneering vision of contemporary dance through…
Creation, performance, and preservation of his choreography
and the commissioning of works by company dancers.
Dance training that encourages young people, regardless of their
race, gender, or financial resources to develop their full potential.
Educational programs, performances, and activities
that enrich communities and engage audiences.
Garth Fagan Dance has been acclaimed as “unfailingly original” by The New York Times, which also named the Company’s piece Mudan 175/39 third of the top six dance watching moments of 2009. Tony award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan’s dancers communicate with unbridled energy the depth, precision, and grace of Fagan’s work. The Company’s “fearless” dancers are “able to sustain long adagio balances, to change direction in mid-air, to vary the dynamic of a turn, to stop on a dime,” wrote David Vaughan in Ballet Review. Fagan’s ever-evolving dance language draws on many sources: sense of weight in modern dance, torso-centered movement and energy of Afro-Caribbean, speed and precision of ballet, and the rule breaking experimentation of the post-moderns.
The Company has been cited for its excellence and originality with a New York Governor’s Arts Award and has claimed five winners of “Bessie” Awards (New York Performance Awards): Garth Fagan (1990), Steve Humphrey (1984), Norwood Pennewell (1988), Natalie Rogers (1992), and Sharon Skepple (1999).
Photo of Bessie Award Winners
Photograhy by: Steve Labuzetta
Company Timeline
Garth's Parents
Louise Walker
Garth - age 8
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Fagan at the Wand Theatre, Kingston, Jamaica
Garth Fagan was born in Jamaica in 1940, to achievement-minded parents who were not thrilled when their son, at 16, began to dance and tour with Ivy Baxter's Jamaica National Dance Theater. "Hell, no!" Mr. Fagan says, laughing. "The dancers were world-traveled, they were racy, they wore beautiful clothes, and not only did they look fast, they were fast, in the old-fashioned way." Mr. Fagan did not mind his parents' skepticism too much; back then, he said, he did not want to be a dancer: "I wanted to be an artist -- a painter." Still, he dutifully went to college, at Wayne State University in Detroit, intending to study psychology. "My dad would say, 'Garth, discipline is freedom.' I used to hate it!" he says. But somehow he choreographed countless college productions, and attended dance festivals around the country, and took classes with Martha Graham. Dance beat out art as Mr. Fagan's primary creative calling, and today his father's credo lives on in the subtitle of the company's signature work. "Prelude: Discipline Is Freedom."
S.W. Fagan
Fagan - circa 1960
Fagan - circa 1968
1950s
At 16, Fagan began to dance and tour Latin America with Ivy Baxter and the Jamaica National Dance Company. The dancers were world-traveled, they were racy, they wore beautiful clothes, and not only did they look fast, they were fast, in the old-fashioned way.
In 1959, Fagan, as part of the Jamaica National Dance Company, performed at the inauguration of Cuban President Fidel Castro. Early major influences from Caribbean dance teachers include Ivy Baxter, Pearl Primus, and Lavinia Williams.
1940
G. Garth Fagan was born May 3rd in Kingston, Jamaica.
His parents were Louise Walker and S.W. Fagan, an Oxford man and the chief education officer of Jamaica. His father lived by the credo, "Discipline is Freedom."
1960s
Fagan was educated at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. He was director of Detroit's All-City Eastside Dance Company and principal soloist and choreographer for Detroit Contemporary Dance Company and Dance Theater of Detroit.
In New York City, Fagan studied with Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Mary Hinkson, and Alvin Ailey.
1970
Recruited by the State University of New York at Brockport, Garth Fagan moves to Rochester and joins its dance faculty.
Bottom of the Bucket BUT... Dance Theater gives its first public performance on November 15, 1970 in Buffalo, NY.
circa 1970
1973
The company tours in Jamaica.
1974
In June, the Company appears for the first time at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
1977
The Company is one of six selected to represent the U.S. at the World Festival of Black Arts, in Lagos, Nigeria. With over 17,000 participants from over 50 countries, it is the largest cultural event ever held on the African continent.
circa 1979
1978 - 1979
circa 1987
1983
Selected as one of the 11 modern dance companies to perform at "Dance Black America" festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in April.
1984
GFD premieres, for the first time, its New York City Season at The Joyce Theater in March. Steve Humphrey receives the Bessie Award in the same year.
1986 - 1987
GFD receives the New York State Governor's Arts Award in March, 1986 and tours in The Netherlands, Turkey, and France.
1988
Norwood Pennewell receives the Bessie Award the same year.
1981
The Company's home season moves to Nazareth College Arts Center in September.
1990 - 1995
Garth Fagan Dance embarks on international tours to Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Israel.
1991
"Griot New York," Fagan's collaboration with composer Wynton Marsalis and sculptor Martin Puryear premieres at the 10th anniversary of the BAM Next Wave Festival in October.
1994
GFD opens the newly renovated American Center in Paris with four performances of "Griot New York" in June.
1995
GFD receives the first of five grants totalling $655,000 from The Andrew H. Mellon Foundation. PBS "Great Performances" airs "Griot New York" in the same year.
1996
Fagan named a Fulbright 50th Anniversary Distinguished Fellow.
1997
The Lion King opens at the New Amsterdam Theater in NYC. The Company appears for the first time at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
"WOZA" circa 19
1990
GFD performs for the first time at Lincoln Center and Garth Fagan Dance School officially opens in September. Fagan receives the Bessie Award in the same year.
1998
Fagan receives the Tony Award for Best Choreography for The Lion King.
"Two Pieces of One: Green" premieres.
1992
Natalie Rogers-Cropper receives the Bessie Award.
1999
Sharon Skepple-Mayfield receives the Bessie Award.
2001
Fagan receives the 2001 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award honoring choreographers who have made a significant contribution to the field of American modern dance.
The Company appears for the 10th time at Jacob's Pillow.
2002 - 2003
Garth Fagan Dance tours in Germany and France. Fagan's tribute to Romare Bearden "DanceCollageForRomie", premieres in 2003.
2004
The Company performs at City Center's "Fall for Dance."
Summer Movement Institute begins.
Garth Fagan Dance appoints its first ever Executive Director, Ruby P. Lockhart.
GFD performs at the Grand Opening Festival of Jazz at Lincoln Cneter's new home, Fredrick P. Rose Hall.
2005
GFD premieres its NYC Season at Jazz at Lincoln Center, reviving "Griot New York," including one live performance with Wynton Marsalis and performs at The Kennedy Center America Dancing presents "Masters of African American Choreography".
2007
Bill Ferguson becomes Director and Resident Choreographer of the GFD Student Ensemble.
Gleason Works provides $500,000 investment in the Company.
2008
GFD performs "From Before" at New York City Center Fall for Dance Festival.
2009
"Mudan 175/39" was named by the New York Times as the third of the top six dance watching moments of 2009.