‘Garth Fagan Dance’

By Alix Cohen

Tony Award-winning choreographer of Disney’s The Lion King and 2025 Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement, Jamaican-born Garth Fagan fuses dance forms that include Afro-Caribbean, modern, and ballet. The company’s 55th Anniversary season features signature contrast between grounded, fluid movement and sudden, explosive progressions.

Prelude: Discipline is Freedom 1981 revised 1983
Choreography- Garth Fagan
Music – Abdullah Ibrahim and Max Roach

This brief piece, often used to open a Fagan program, is like watching a company warm-up. The choreographer’s vocabulary is presented in exercises, leaps, stretches, and changes of speed. Strength, control, and flexibility rule. The title comes from Fagan’s father, whose motto was “Discipline is freedom.”

Never Top 40 (Jukebox) 1985
Choreography – Garth Fagan
A suite of 5 contrasting dance episodes, Never Top 40 is, in fact, a departure from commercial Top 40 hits. Choreography ignores both rhythm and, for the most part, mood of accompaniment, refusing to be confined.

Court Dance Contemporary (to Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma”) contrasts operatic vocals with spinning, rolling and modern torso movement.

Dance Psalmody 137 (to “Rivers of Babylon” by B. Dowe/T. McNaughton – performed by The Melodians) and Dance Psalmody 69 (to “Exaudi Me Domine” by Viadana performed by Alfred Deller) showcase precision and focus. Air seems to be pushed away.
Fast/slow patterns emerge.

Dance Rainbow Revisited (to Keith Jarrett’s piano version of Harold Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow”) disregards wistfulness. Arm, elbow and hand gestures often resemble hieroglyphics. Freezing of positions is highly skilled. There’s an island feel here.

Rainbow Ballroom Romp (to “Walking by Moonlight” by Roscoe Mitchell performed by Art Ensemble of Chicago) creates a dance hall atmosphere. Haunches and bent knees, swivels in place, running, flexed feet and hops are manifest.

The company shows nothing on their faces, a missed opportunity for sharing intention.

Priestess Hill 2026
Choreography – Norwood “PJ” Pennewell
Music – Phillip Glass

Priestess Hill is inspired by Brazilian favelas and preparations for Carnival. Though most of what we’ve seen includes Afro-Caribbean influence, here it blossoms in full. Rhythmic propulsion puppets movement. Exuberance is collective. Groups form and dissolve, often arm over arm. Floor work comes to fore. Whirling is fast and tight. There are somersaults. Leaps include bent knees, forward and back. Arms rotate.

Messages To The Storm 2026
Choreography – Natalie Rogers-Cropper
Music – Bobby McFerrin, Meshell Ndegeocello, Sons of Kemet

Messages To The Storm is inspired by Maya Angelou’s thought that every storm eventually runs out of rain. It explores resilience in the face of adversity. “Movement conveys struggle, recovery, and renewal. A pivotal duet underscores the importance of human connection.” I can’t say I was aware of this during performance.

Exchange of weight and balance are evident. Fingers wiggle. Bending forward continues to a head-driven rotation that might brush the stage floor. Jumps occur backwards and forwards. Figure eight arms and off balance turns describe a company approach.

Overall, technique evinces virtuosity, energy is palpable, but I admit to missing storytelling.

Photos by Jim Dolan
Opening: Messages To The Storm

Garth Fagan Dance
Garth Fagan – Founder & Distinguished Artistic Director Emeritus
Norwood “PJ” Pennewell – Artistic Director
Natalie Rogers-Cropper – President & CEO
November 5, 2026
Joyce Theater 175 Eighth Avenue
Garth Fagan Dance https://www.garthfagan-dance.org/