Garth Fagan, WSU alumnus and arts achievement award recipient, will be in residence in the dance department from Feb 22-28. In addition to teaching master classes, Fagan will choreograph a dance piece for the WSU Dance Company to perform in Rebounding, the upcoming spring dance concert at the Bonstelle Theatre.

Choreographer of the current hit Broadway musical "The Lion King", Fagan is a professor at the State University of New York, Brockport. He is also the director of the internationally renowned "Garth Fagan Dance". A former Detroit resident, Fagan played a strong role in the formation of Detroit's dance community, including serving briefly as the director of the Detroit Contemporary Dance Company and the Dance Theatre of Detroit.

Fagan formed the "Garth Fagan Dance" in 1970 with untrained dancers since he felt that they could be more easily trained in his unique style, a fusion of modern dance, Afro-Caribbean dance and ballet. The stories he weaves in his ballets are universal to city life. Though, unlike other modern dance forms portraying city life, his works are devoid of violence; he believes that the rampant usage of violence in dance works will limit the learning experience of his audience, the youth. Fagan continues to explore the realms to widen the dance vocabulary.

The WSU Dance Company will perform Fagan's special choreographic piece in the spring dance concert, Rebounding, at the Bonstelle Theatre, March 27-28. The WSU Graduate School, the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts and the Maggie Allesee Endowed Dance Program Support Fund have made Fagan's residency possible.

For more information regarding Fagan's residency, master classes or the spring concert, call Wayne State University's Department of Dance at 313-577-4273.