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.
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.
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.
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: 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.
