Garth Fagan Dance

It’s always a joy to watch Garth Fagan Dance (GFD), and this year I had the treat of introducing two of my neighbors, Molly and Kathy, and their young daughters, and Molly’s mom, to the Company.  They were all aware of the musical The Lion King, but it wasn’t on their radar that the choreographer, Garth Fagan, lives and works right here in Rochester.  And they’d never seen the Company dance.

The first time I saw GFD, at Nazareth College two years ago, I attended a matinee, and I found the performance by the Garth Fagan Dance School Ensemble especially moving.  It’s so important to get our city’s youth engaged in the arts, not just for their own sake, but as a potential alternative to other more destructive activities.  Last year, in addition to attending the opening night performance and a matinee (and journeying to Brooklyn for the premiere of Fagan’s “Lighthouse/Lighting Rod,” with incredible live music by Wynton Marsalis), I also had the opportunity to watch a daytime performance for several classes of lower school children (part of GFD’s community outreach program).

This 43^rd “season” (and they call it their “Home Season” because oddly, GFD only performs one week a year in its hometown – it considers itself to be more of a traveling company, even though national and worldwide bookings have been scarcer in recent years) offered two new works, “No Evidence of Failure,” by Garth Fagan, and “Gin,” by his protégée, Norwood (P.J.) Pennewell.  We went to the Sunday matinee, which also included two older dances, and a piece choreographed by Bill Ferguson for an ensemble of 20+ members of the Dance School.  It was so inspiring to watch the kids perform, and to see them executing some of Garth’s signature moves so well at such young ages (particularly a very young boy who had some wonderful solos that elicited cheers).  The small but enthusiastic audience roared at their curtain call, and the applause volume just escalated from there, with hoots and screams for the soloists in the two new dances – responses you normally associate with rock stars or sports teams. 

The first piece on the program was “Discipline is Freedom,” one of my favorites. I love the music, and the feeling of watching a warmup that evolves into an ensemble dance.  It introduces all of the signature moves of the Fagan Technique – the fluidity alternating with very controlled angular movement, the athleticism, the deer-like leaps, the arms that fly so fast they become a blur.  And it is particularly suited to the matinee performances, whose audiences include children (and adults) who may be unfamiliar with the Company. “No Evidence of Failure,” a duet for the incredible Natalie Rogers and Vitolio Jeune, was lovely and romantic.  “Gin” alternated ensemble with solos, and while Pennewell’s choreography draws on Fagan’s vocabulary, he definitely infuses it with his own accent.

My companions and I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon (and one of the young girls found herself moved to dance during intermission – who knows, maybe she’ll take classes at some point?), and we got to chat a bit with Garth and P.J. and others from the Company on our way out.  The girls were impressed and excited that they could get so ‘up close and personal’ with the people they’d just seen perform, and it’s a wonderful gift that the dancers give the audience, when they could be relaxing backstage or on their way home instead.

If you missed seeing Garth Fagan Dance this past week, unless they open their doors again for the Fringe Festival, you probably won’t get the chance to see them perform until this time next year. And I think that’s a shame, for both them and Rochester.