ERT presents a virtual performance

Garth Fagan Dance

Well, the pandemic has kept us apart for over one year! While we hoped to present dance live on our stage this summer, it is obvious that is not going to happen. So, while we prepare to reopen in the fall, Ebony Repertory Theartre is pleased to present a virtual performance by Garth Fagan Dance company. We extend our appreciation to Garth Fagan for his generosity in allowing us to share this virtual performance that was presented for the Governor of New York, during the pandemic. This virtual performance will run from June 23 through July 31, 2021. Please enjoy this presentation and be sure to check our website, www.ebonyrep.org to purchase tickets for the live performance of Garth Fagan Dance this coming spring, April 8-10, 2022.

Choreographer's Statement:

In late January 2021, while the insecurity of Covid 19 was forefront in everyone’s mind and performance artists around the world were temporarily transitioning to digital platforms , I received a call from Zack Winokur asking if Garth Fagan Dance could perform on Feb. 13 for Governor Cuomo’s new initiative to revitalize the performing arts with live performances in New York State.

We investigated a number of venues and considering that GFD and RIT/NTID had been in conversation about working together, I suggested the sound stage at the Magic spell studio on RIT campus. Zach thought this venue would be a great place to present Garth Fagan Dance in an innovative space and it happened to also be a great way to begin our Multidisciplinary Collaboration.

“We’re extremely excited about the Garth Fagan Dance-RIT/NTID Cooperative-Creative-Connection, an innovative, interactive academic and artistic partnership to enhance and expand the educational experience through the intersections of technology, science, design, and performing arts,” said Thomas Warfield, RIT’s director of dance. “Through the abstraction of movement, modern dance translates how we see the world and our place in it, what we think and how we feel.”

“The opportunity to traverse the nexus of technology and the arts will help demonstrate how the creativity that has produced 50 years of world class dance can affect dance and technology for years to come,” said William J. Ferguson II, acting executive director for Garth Fagan Dance.”

I developed the logistics for the event with Zach, the production companies enlisted by Governor Cuomo and Hamilton AV led by Bets Quakenbush. Bessie award winners Norwood (PJ) Pennewell, Rehearsal Director and Natalie Rogers-Cropper, Assistant Rehearsal Director, mindful of social distancing, quickly determined which dances we could perform under the limitations of the Covid Restrictions of RIT/NTID. The dancers, on furlough and hadn’t had a class together since May of 2020, were primed to get back in the studio and perform. We got tested weekly and worked hard to regain the prowess, intelligence and vigor expected of Fagan Dancers. Enjoy!

This virtual presentation is made possible in part with funding from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.