Outside it was a cold, snowy Rochester night. But
inside a quiet Chestnut Street building, the Garth Fagan Dance studio was warm and
bustling. A week before the start of its Rochester season, the award-winning
company was in the midst of an intense rehearsal schedule. As the dancers
trickled in and out of the studio, they alternated between comfortable chatter
and physical preparation for their rehearsal under the watchful eye of Garth
Fagan.
Now in its 35th anniversary season, a milestone for
any modern dance company, Garth Fagan Dance will be offering its hometown
audience a mixed bill of three rich programs.
“I wonder how I did it, and I’m very happy and proud
that I did it,” Fagan says. “It’s just a moment of great pride that we made it
to 35 years, that we have rave reviews from around the world, and we’re doing a
great job here at home in our community.”
Senior dancer Nicolette Depass, who also teaches at
the Garth Fagan Dance School, says, “We are ambassadors for Rochester.” The
company has toured and performed all over Europe, Asia, and Africa, and gained
international attention and critical acclaim.
Success, however, does not come without its
struggles, and Garth Fagan Dance has had its share of the problems that
consistently plague the arts: lack of funding and the rising cost of tours, for
example. But the dancers all foresee Fagan moving strongly into the future.
While the troupe’s staying power is a rarity in the
modern dance world, it’s even more surprising to realize the longevity of Garth
Fagan’s dancers. With an age range of 21 to 53 years, Fagan shows that he cares
not only about expressing his artistic vision but also about his dancers’ well
being.
“Dancers are incredible,” Fagan says, “the
thoroughbreds of the performing arts. And they have to be handled like
thoroughbreds.”
Norwood Pennewell, a senior dancer and rehearsal
director, has been with the company for 27 years. “It’s really awesome to say I
represented one company for that long,” he says. “I owe everything, as far as
the longevity, to the Fagan technique and how Garth actually nurtures us.”
“I got so tired of seeing dance companies with the
30-and-under crowd,” Fagan says. “With age you get that maturity, that
subtlety, that nuance of movement, that you can’t possibly have when you are
young. I wanted the same thing in dance, I wanted a community on stage.”
The vision of a dance community parallels Fagan’s
overall artistic philosophy, which he says has only become stronger as the
years have passed. Part of this ideal is keeping dancers accessible to the
audience. “I wanted the notion of people dancing,” he says, “of human beings dancing as opposed to dancers portraying
human beings.”
Fagan’s newest work, Life: Dark/Light, will have its Rochester premier this week. The
piece was choreographed to music by virtuosic violinist Billy Bang. Fagan and
Bang met at a lecture Fagan gave in Maine, when Bang visited him after the
lecture and handed him his CD.
“I put it in my car one day,” Fagan says, “and it
just hit a nerve.”
Bang’s music, “Vietnam: The Aftermath,” states its
theme pretty clearly. Fagan, however, didn’t want to focus only on Vietnam or
war. He instead created a piece that looks at life more generally.
The piece is broken into three sections. The first
section is “just life, pedestrian stuff,” Fagan says, “stuff we have to do to
live.” It features an emotional duet between two young lovers, danced by Guy
Thorne and Jihan Palmer, as they gently explore life and love.
The second section is another powerful duet that
focuses, this time, on war.
“I wanted to do something that says war is tacky,
and I thought I’d look at it from the perspective of a soldier,” Fagan says.
Pennewell and dancer Bill Ferguson perform in this section. The men dance at
opposite ends of the stage, in turn expressing the ecstasies and tragedies a
soldier might experience in war.
The third section, by contrast, is a “positive spin
on life, just all the positive, beautiful things,” Fagan says.
“I wanted it to be ultimately a healing, celebratory
piece, but one that was looking at some of the problems, the negatives of
life,” he says. “I’m very happy with the piece, and proud of it.”
Along with Life:
Dark/Light, audiences can expect to see a mixture of Fagan’s award-winning
repertory, including excerpts from his most widely recognized work, Griot New York.
Select students from the Garth Fagan Dance School
will perform at the weekend matinees. They will dance in a piece choreographed
by Depass and Ferguson, bringing the Fagan style to life in a new generation of
dancers.
Garth Fagan Danceperforms through Sunday, December 4 | Nazareth
College Arts Center, 4245 East Avenue | Wednesday through Friday 8 p.m.,
Saturday 2 and 8 p.m., Sunday 2 and 7:30 p.m. | $30-$40 | 389-2170, www.naz.edu
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2005.
