FACES FOR THE NINETIES : ...

Founder and artistic director of the virtuosic Bucket Dance Theatre, Garth Fagan, 49, has also choreographed for Dance Theatre of Harlem and is so well-regarded that he was among the first choreographers Judith Jamison named when she was appointed director of the Alvin Ailey company on Dec. 20 and asked about future repertory.

As a teen-ager, Fagan danced in his native Jamaica and, at 20, he left for college in the U.S.--plus modern dance studies with Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Jose Limon and others. In 1970, Fagan was a professor at the State University of New York and began teaching dance at an inner-city center in Rochester. He named his student group the Bottom of the Bucket BUT . . . Dance Theatre.

In 1981, Fagan shortened the name. Bucket has danced in Europe, Africa, the Near East and the Caribbean, at major U.S. arts festivals, and on PBS’ “Great Performances” series. In 1986, it was honored with the New York State Governor’s Arts Award. Fagan’s specialty: the fusion of Third World rhythms and vocabularies with the formal priorities of postmodernism.