Celebrating Dance Magazine Award Honoree George Faison
This week we’re sharing tributes to all of the 2024 Dance Magazine Award honorees. For tickets to the awards ceremony on December 2, visit store.dancemedia.com.
For choreographer George Faison, it all started when a high school friend took him to a performance of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations. Reflecting on the iconic wedge formation from the opening section, Faison says, “that was how I wanted to live. With abandon. Without restrictions. Without holding back. So focused. So purposeful.”
That’s precisely what Faison did—first as a leading dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where his spirited presence, long lines, and spitfire turns were unforgettable, and then as a performer and choreographer in musical theater and beyond.
Broadway shows like Purlie (1970), in which he danced, and the critically acclaimed Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope (1972), which he choreographed, were works that captured the spirit of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements that nurtured them. “We were born in a revolutionary time,” Faison says.
That spirit was also reflected in the dances he created for the George Faison Universal Dance Experience, which he founded in 1971 after leaving AAADT. The company of 12 charismatic performers—including Debbie Allen—had a repertory that embodied the powerful stories of a people who were, as Faison likes to say, “just three minutes out of slavery” and demanding social and economic justice with a passionate determination.
Faison had another side reflected in his work with major recording artists, like Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Ashford & Simpson, and Earth, Wind & Fire. Some dismissed it as “commercial,” but Faison simply shrugs: “I was a Black artist following my roots.”
Allen recalls those early days dancing with Faison, before her own name appeared on Broadway marquees. “All that wonderful work he was doing—it was really breathtaking,” she says. “Everybody came to see it. I remember meeting Miles Davis backstage.” Faison was not only choreographing and training his dancers, she says, but even making their costumes. “He was like the true Renaissance man,” she says. “It was the best of times.”
And it got better. In 1975, Faison was awarded Tony and Drama Desk Awards for choreographing the Broadway show The Wiz. He was the first Black choreographer to win a Tony.
In 1999, Faison and his life partner Tadeusz Schnugg bought a decommissioned Harlem firehouse, which they converted into a complex that included a theater, rehearsal studios, and living space. For more than two decades Faison Firehouse Inc. offered a space where younger dancers could learn, grow and hone their skills, and follow in Faison’s footsteps.
“I’ve had a wonderful life,” Faison says.