OVER the years – 37 and counting – Garth Fagan’s Garth Fagan Dance has developed a unique dialect of dance based on rhythmic runs, off-center balances, wild curvetting spins and explosive, asymmetric leaps. And, oh yes, stillness.
Best known these days for choreographing Broadway’s “The Lion King,” Fagan just brought in his Rochester-based company for its perennially popular New York season.
Fagan favorites, as well as last year’s fascinating premiere “Senku” and a fresh revival of his exquisitely rippling African ceremonial “From Before,” were joined Tuesday by the world premiere of “Edge/Joy.”
Set to a knotty, atonal score by young Mexican composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon – performed live by the Eastman Music Ensemble – the dancing in this full-company work is mostly set on the peripherals of the stage.
It starts in silence, and the dancers invade each other’s space, even obscure each other’s movement. After the initial edginess of “Edge/Joy,” the joy comes in recognizing the simple complexity (or complex simplicity) of the dancers’ sophisticated choreographic response to the music.
This is a brilliant company – but even here, 48-year-old Norwood Pennewell stands out as total grandmaster of the 67-year-old Fagan’s method.
GARTH FAGAN DANCE
Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th Street; (212) 242-0800. Through Sunday.