Download garth fagan dance “geoffrey holder life fete… bacchanal”

Presents
CONTACTS:
Gayle Hooks 323.964.9768 or [email protected]
Linda Chiavaroli, 323 810-9240 or [email protected]
Fagan page on ERT site with downloadable photos:
http://www.ebonyrep.org/garth-fagan-photos.htm
Categories: Dance, Theatre, Jazz, Visual Arts
Tags: Garth Fagan, Geoffrey Holder, Carmen de Lavallade, LA Dance History, Wynton
Marsalis, Martin Puryear, Arvo Part, Lebo M
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
EBONY REPERTORY THEATRE
TO PRESENT
GARTH FAGAN DANCE
in
THE WEST COAST PREMIERE OF
“GEOFFREY HOLDER LIFE FETE… BACCHANAL”
A TRIBUTE TO GEOFFREY HOLDER
CHOREOGRAPHED BY GARTH FAGAN
4 PERFORMANCES
February 26-28, 2016
AT THE
NATE HOLDEN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
LOS ANGELES, CA (February 2, 2016) Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT Founder/Producer Wren T. Brown) announced today that Garth Fagan Dance will bring
to Los Angeles Fagan’s tribute to the late Geoffrey Holder, “Geoffrey Holder Life Fete…
Bacchanal.” Performances at the 400-seat Nate Holden Performing Arts Center (4718
W. Washington Blvd.) in Los Angeles will run February 26-28, 2016, www.ebonyrep.org
Trinidad-born Geoffrey Holder, who passed in 2014, was a dancer, choreographer,
director, designer, actor and painter. Holder is perhaps best known for “The Wiz,” a
retelling of Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in the context of AfricanAmerican culture; he won Tony Awards for direction and costume design for the show.
The Jamaican-born Fagan credits Holder with paving the way for his own work on “The
Lion King” (for which Fagan won Tony and Olivier awards).
Fagan’s Geoffrey work celebrates Holder’s creative genius as well as his partnership
with his wife, Carmen de Lavallade. Carmen started her career in Los Angeles with
Lester Horton’s dance company (inviting her neighbor Alvin Ailey to study with Horton
too) and went on to work in dance, film and theatre.
Ebony Repertory Theatre Founder/Producer Wren T. Brown comments, "Ebony
Repertory Theatre (ERT) is thrilled to welcome Garth Fagan Dance, for the second time,
to the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center. We are especially proud to present Garth
Fagan Dance as it celebrates its 45th year as an international dance institution. During
their 2014 engagement, Mr. Fagan announced the passing of the seminal Renaissance
man, Mr. Geoffrey Holder. Now, one year later, Los Angeles will be treated to the West
Coast premiere of his tribute and homage to his beloved colleague: ‘Geoffrey Holder
Life Fete… Bacchanal.’ It is truly a tremendous honor for ERT to again present this
distinctly brilliant company to the City of Angels."
Lewis Segal writing in the Los Angeles Times placed the Fagan Company’s appearance
at ERT at the pinnacle of LA dance in 2014:
“…But it was American master Garth Fagan who best fused technical virtuosity with
conceptual depth. The soul-deep conviction and spectacular flair of his 1983 [Prelude]
"Discipline Is Freedom" at the Holden may have been the indispensable dance
experience of the year.”
“Prelude” will open the Fagan company’s performances at ERT.
Norwood Pennewell’s “So You See,” which traces a woman’s journeys through her life,
receives its West Coast premiere as well. Pennewell, who joined the company in 1978
and is Fagan’s rehearsal director/assistant, has memorably danced many lead roles in
Fagan works and has begun to choreograph himself in the last few years.
The program also includes excerpts from Garth Fagan’s “Passion Distanced” (1987),
“Griot New York” (1991) and “Woza” (1999).
Fagan says “Passion Distanced,” set to music of Arvo Part (whose 80th birthday year is
being celebrated), is "a very important dance for me, and any artist in any field.” It is art
that reflects "all the trials and tribulations that you have to go through to achieve
success."
The “Spring Yaounde” duet from “Griot New York” features a commissioned jazz score
by Wynton Marsalis and sculpture by Martin Puryear.
When Fagan was working on “The Lion King,” he discovered the expression “woza,” the
Zulu word for “come” which is used in many different ways. The “Come Celebrate”
section is set to music of Lebo M, composer of the African-influenced music for “Lion
King,” and costumes by Mary Nemecek-Peterson, who worked with Julie Taymor on the
musical’s costumes.
Ebony Repertory Theatre, now in its eighth year, is the resident company and operator
of the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, 4718 West Washington Boulevard, Los
Angeles, CA 90016. Performances by Garth Fagan Dance are at 8:00 p.m., Friday,
February 26 and Saturday, February 27 with matinees at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, February
27 and 3:00 p.m., Sunday, February 28. Seats are $35.00 and $25.00. Student tickets
are $20.00. Tickets are available online at ebonyrep.org or by phone at 323-9649766. Groups of 10 or more are available via email at [email protected] or 323964-9766.
Members of the Fagan Company will also teach a master class at 7:00 p.m.,
Wednesday, February 24 in the Rehearsal Room at Nate Holden. Fee is $20; those
who purchase can also buy a ticket to any Fagan performance at $20. Master class and
performance tickets must be purchased at the same time. For reservations call 323964-9766.
# # #
BIOGRAPHIES:
GARTH FAGAN (choreographer) Critics have called Garth Fagan “a true original,” “a
genuine leader,” and “one of the great reformers of modern dance.” Fagan is the
founder and artistic director of the award-winning and internationally acclaimed Garth
Fagan Dance, now celebrating its 45th anniversary season. A Tony and Olivier Award
winner, Fagan continually renews his own distinctive dance vocabulary, which draws on
many sources: a sense of weight in modern dance, torso-centered movement and
energy of Afro-Caribbean, the speed and precision of ballet, and the rule breaking
experimentation of the postmoderns.
“Originality has always been Mr. Fagan’s strong suit, not least in his transformation of
recognizable idioms into a dance language that looks not only fresh but even
idiosyncratic,” writes Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times. In 2014, Lewis Segal of
the Los Angeles Times wrote “it was American master Garth Fagan who best fused
technical virtuosity with conceptual depth. The soul-deep conviction and spectacular
flair of his 1983 (Prelude) “Discipline Is Freedom" ... may have been the indispensable
dance experience of the year."
For his path-breaking choreography for Walt Disney’s “The Lion King, “Fagan was
awarded the prestigious 1998 Tony Award for Best Choreography. He also received the
1998 Drama Desk Award, 1998 Outer Critics Circle Award, 1998 Astaire Award, 2000
Laurence Olivier Award, 2001 Ovation Award, and the 2004 Helpmann Award for his
work on the Broadway musical, which opened in fall 1997 to extraordinary critical
praise. ”The Lion King” stage musical has now achieved the most successful box office
total of any work in any media in entertainment history. Fagan’s distinguished work in
the theater also includes the first fully staged production of the Duke Ellington street
opera, “Queenie Pie,” at the Kennedy Center in 1986 and the opening production of
Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival’s Shakespeare Marathon: “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream “(1988), set in Brazil and directed by A.J. Antoon.
In the world of concert dance Fagan choreographs primarily for Garth Fagan Dance. His
work, “Mudan 175/39,” was named by The New York Times as the third of the top six
dance watching moments of 2009. Fagan has also produced commissions for a number
of leading companies, including his first work on pointe, “Footprints Dressed in Red,” for
Dance Theatre of Harlem; a solo for Judith Jamison, “Scene Seen,” for the debut of the
Jamison Project; “Jukebox” for Alvin for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; “Never No
Lament” for the José Limon Company; and “Ellington Elation,” part of a triad of pieces
commissioned by New York City Ballet in honor of Duke Ellington’s centenary and New
York City Ballet’s 50th anniversary.
Fagan began his career when he toured Latin America with Ivy Baxter and her national
dance company from Jamaica. Baxter and two other famed dance teachers from the
Caribbean, Pearl Primus and Lavinia Williams, were major influences on Fagan. In New
York City, Fagan studied with Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Mary Hinkson, and Alvin
Ailey, who were all central to his development. Fagan was director of Detroit’s All-City
Dance Company and principal soloist and choreographer for Detroit Contemporary
Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Detroit.
GARTH FAGAN DANCE
Now celebrating its 45th anniversary season, 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, Steve Humphrey, Norwood Pennewell, Natalie Rogers, and
Sharon Skepple.
The troupe has performed throughout the US, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Near and Middle
East, North and South America, New Zealand, Australia, and the West Indies. Foreign
tours have included a 13-city tour of the Netherlands; appearances at France’s Maison
de la Danse and Chateauvallon Festival; Turkey’s Istanbul Festival; the New Zealand
International Arts Festi- val; Germany’s Internationales Tanzfest N.R.W.; Switzerland’s
Basel Tanz; the Israel Festival in Jerusalem; the Vienna Festival-Tanz; Harare,
Zimbabwe, with the United States Information Agency; and the Festival of Two Worlds
in Spoleto, Italy. In 1994, the company opened the then-newly renovated American
Center in Paris, France. In 1996, principal dancers were invited by the Federation
Caledonienne de Danse to perform in La Nuit des Etoiles along with members from the
New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, and the Kirov Ballet.
Domestically, the company has performed at such venues as Jacob’s Pillow, Spoleto
USA, Dance/Aspen, and the first National Black Arts Festival. Performances in New
York City venues include BAM (The Brooklyn Academy of Music), City Center, and
frequent seasons at The Joyce Theater. In 1993, Garth Fagan Dance went on a
national tour with the Wynton Marsalis Septet performing Fagan’s critically acclaimed
evening-length work “Griot New York.” The company was seen nationally on “The
Tonight Show With Jay Leno” in that same piece; “Griot New York” aired worldwide on
the PBS “Great Performances—Dance in America” series in the spring of 1995, marking
the company’s third appearance on that series. Principal dancers Norwood Pennewell
and Natalie Rogers participated in The 66th Annual Academy Awards broadcast, joined
by principal dancers from seven other major international dance companies. In 2004,
the company performed at the historic opening of the National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center in Cincinnati, OH, and participated in the grand opening celebration of
Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center; it returned in fall 2005 for its 35th
anniversary season in New York City. In 2012, the company returned to BAM for the
world premiere of “Lighthouse/ Lightning Rod” with original music composed and
arranged by Wynton Marsalis and scenic design by Alison Saar.
EBONY REPERTORY THEATRE (Producer).
Award winning Ebony Repertory Theatre (ERT), Los Angeles’ only African American
professional theatre company, (Actors Equity Contract) now in its eighth year, is the
Resident Company and Operator of the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, located
at 4718 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90016. Since 2008, ERT productions
have established the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center as a hub for quality
performances. ERT has produced an amazing array of plays including CROWNS,
August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, A Raisin In The Sun (Lorraine Hansberry),
Fraternity (Jeff Stetson), and presented well known dance such as Complexions Ballet,
in an intimate evening paying tribute to dance pioneer Donald McKayle, and Rafael
Amargo & Compañia de Flamenco, performing Tiempo Muerto. Ebony Repertory
Theatre’s stage production of Phillip Hayes Dean’s Paul Robeson, starring Keith David,
was welcomed by loyal patrons and new theatre goers alike, receiving rave reviews by
many of Los Angeles’ theatre critics. ERT’s most recent production of “The Gospel At
Colonus” was a LA Times “Critic’s Choice” and a “… must attend performance.”
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebonyrepertorytheatre
Twitter: @EbonyRep