FAGAN’S BUCKET: CONGO IN A MODERNIST CURRENT

“Imagine standing on the banks of the Congo, looking across the river,” recounts Garth Fagan almost incantatorially. “There’s an awesome emotional connection. My work has its roots there.”

Fagan is director and choreographer of the Bucket Dance Theatre, a predominantly black modern dance troupe he led on a five-nation U.S. State Department tour of Africa in 1985. That tour was a promise fulfilled for the 12-member ensemble.

Founded by Fagan in 1970 in Rochester in Upstate New York, the company appears at Cal State Long Beach today, followed by visits to La Jolla on Friday, Costa Mesa on Saturday and the Wadsworth Theater in Westwood on Sunday.

Fagan describes himself as “an artist who happens to be black. That’s how I like it said--as opposed to ‘black’ before ‘artist.’ ” And while there are non-black dancers on the Bucket roster, the director stresses a commitment to maintaining opportunities for black performers.

He recalls, “As a young black dancer, there were not that many options open to me.” Now, as a choreographer in his mid-40s, Fagan is kept busy--and not only by his own company.

Signed to choreograph last fall’s production of the Duke Ellington street opera “Queenie Pie” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Fagan ended up taking over direction of the musical. This month also sees the American premiere of his new ballet for Dance Theatre of Harlem, a company that--like his own, he says--”didn’t get into the ‘black dance’ syndrome.”

He elaborates: “My roots are black, but it’s a cultural thing, not a racial thing. The way I really see the world is as a cross-reference of cultures. Dance is a testament to people.”

Fagan’s dance work reflects various cultural influences but his story properly begins in Jamaica, where he grew up, the son of an Oxford-educated government official. His father wanted him to follow in his academic footsteps, but Fagan started stepping out as a teen-ager with the Jamaican National Dance Theatre.

At 20, he left for college in the United States and subsequent studies with American modern dance masters Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Jose Limon and others.

Jamaica remains dear to Fagan’s spirit and to his dance technique. “There’s a certain energy almost rampant in Caribbean dance,” he notes, “tensile underpinnings that are kinetically inherent.” The dances of the islands, he states, “have these hints of Africa, too.”

The choreographer insists, however, that much of his creation is “in obeisance to American modern dance,” which has provided him with “the tools to explore African movement. Nor do I want to neglect,” he rushes to add, “the impact of (Merce) Cunningham or the post-modern group.”

In Bucket’s signature work, “From Before,” set to steel band music by Trinidad composer Ralph MacDonald, this cultural melange is displayed and celebrated. The dance will be performed in Long Beach and Los Angeles this week.

Another celebration, Fagan suggests, is his more recent “Mask Mix Masque,” a tribute to fellow Jamaican pop singer and film star Grace Jones.

“Despite the lip gloss and haircut, there’s a thriving primal woman,” he says of Jones. “Outrageous, au courant and chic, there are still African roots.” Employing songs by Jones as well as taped interview material, this dance is being presented in La Jolla and Costa Mesa.

“I’m an artist creating in the ‘80s,” Fagan concludes. “The work should reflect some of the affirmations and tensions of our time.”

Fagan thus takes a distinctively contemporary approach to gender roles in dance. Instead of “little dainty leaps” for women, Fagan asks for broad, high jumps, and from the men he seeks “simplicity and gentleness.”

“I want virile grace from both men and women,” he says, “but I’m not trying to create a hybrid that sacrifices maleness or femaleness.”

He reaffirms a previous interview in which he declared, “I want no ‘ladies’ in my company. I’m tired of women who can’t dance without being carried around by men. They don’t live like that, so why should they dance like that?”

With male dancers, Fagan has had to overcome conventional stereotypes, too. He cites two senior company members, Steve Humphrey and A. Roger Smith, as exemplars. “They’re great role models: so male, so virile, so vulnerable.” Humphrey received a 1984 New York Dance and Performance Award (a. k. a. a “Bessie”) for his performance in Fagan’s “Oatka Trail,” to be repeated here in Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Will success further transform the Bucket Dance Theatre?

“I’ve got more ideas than time and money can afford,” its director muses. “I could do 10 rote dances a day to keep the premiere madness going,” he dryly claimed, “but I’m not going to let expansion mean deterioration. There’s an aesthetic I want to work on, and I will do it at my own pace and in my own time.”