"The Lion King" choreographer Garth Fagan
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Main Theatre, Performing Arts Center, University at Albany uptown campus
Free and open to the public

Garth Fagan, the Tony and Olivier award-winning choreographer of "The Lion King" and founder, artistic director and president of Garth Fagan Dance, will visit the University at Albany for an evening of conversation with WAMC's Joe Donahue as part of "The Creative Life: A Conversation Series" on Wednesday, March 28 at 7 p.m. at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus.

Garth Fagan received his Tony Award in 1998 for Best Choreography and also the 2000 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer (London, UK) and the 2004 Helpmann Award (Australia) for best choreography in a musical as well as the Drama Desk Award, the Astaire Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award, all for his work with "The Lion King."

Born in Jamaica, Fagan has toured the world for nearly 50 years with his contemporary dance company. He forged his own dance language and technique which 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. On television, his company has appeared on "Great Performances," "The Tonight Show" and the Academy Awards®.

Fagan has choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Limón Dance Company and New York City Ballet. In addition, he choreographed Joseph Papp's A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as directed and choreographed the Duke Ellington street opera, "Queenie Pie," at the Kennedy Center. A Chancellor's Award-winning Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York, Fagan has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, Bessie Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Fulbright 50th Anniversary Distinguished Fellow.

He was selected in 2012 as an "Irreplaceable Dance Treasure" by The Dance Heritage Coalition. He has also been inducted into the American Academy of Achievement. In 2017, Fagan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Dance Guild. The Creative Life series, a major arts initiative of the New York State Writers Institute, UAlbany Performing Arts Center and University Art Museum in conjunction with regional public radio station WAMC, brings leading figures from writing, music, dance, choreography, visual arts, architecture, theatre, and filmmaking to the University for conversation with Donahue about their creative inspiration, craft, and careers.

The Creative Life series continues next month with two-time Tony and Grammy winner Patti LuPone on Thursday, April 26 prior to her performance the next evening at Proctors in Schenectady. Previous guests in The Creative Life Series have included fiction writer Joyce Carol Oates, tap dancer-choreographer Savion Glover, jazz violinist Regina Carter, painter David Salle, and author Lois Lowry.

Events in the Creative Life series are free of charge and open to the public. Major support for The Creative Life is provided by The University at Albany Foundation with additional support from the UAlbany Alumni Association, College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost and University Auxiliary Services.

For additional information, call the UAlbany Performing Art Center box office at 518-442-3997.