SUNY Brockport's dance faculty can boast some top names --- Garth Fagan taught at the school for 30 years --- but, according to chair of the department Darwin Prioleau, talented potential students are lost every year due to lack of scholarship funds.

"Students are attracted to Brockport because of our acclaimed teachers, but we can have trouble competing with other top dance programs because we don't have scholarship money to offer," Prioleau says of the program, which serves almost 100 undergraduate dance majors, 25 to 30 full-time graduate students, and about 800 other students every year. "The excellent students usually have choices."

The Best of Brockport Dance performance is an attempt to remedy this. In addition to raising funds for freshman scholarships, it's also a way for Brockport's dance program to reach out to the greater community.

"Frankly, we decided to let people know how good we are," Prioleau says, her laughter warm and confident. "Brockport is only 25 minutes away. The arts contribute to the economic growth of a city by attracting the best and the brightest in every field. Rochester has the potential to be considered a city where dance not only exists, but flourishes."

Prioleau herself will perform Saturday, April 14, when Brockport faculty, alumni, and students converge upon Hochstein School of Music and Dance in downtown Rochester to showcase their talents. Modern and tap as well as African and Irish dancing are all part of the eclectic program.

Prioleau's piece touches on the golden age of jazz in the ‘40s. Like other Brockport dance faculty, Prioleau danced professionally in New York City before taking the helm of the program in 2004. Throughout her career she's worked with modern dance master Alvin Ailey, performed as a soloist with The Nat Horne Company, and was the featured dancer in several off-Broadway musicals. 

James Hansen is an assistant professor, and artistic director of the Best of Brockport event. He performed with New York City's well-known Sean Curran Dance Co. as well as with the Eglevsky Ballet before moving to Rochester three years ago to join the dance faculty at Brockport. "Fade to Snow and Gray," the piece he will perform in Best of Brockport, is inspired by time he spent in Prague's Jewish Cemetery. He says that in the cemetery the tombstones --- some centuries old --- had to be squeezed in almost on top of each other to fit space constrictions in what was once the city's Jewish ghetto; visitors continue to commemorate the dead by placing small stones on the crumbling tombstones. 

"I was struck by the beauty of people remembering.  The stones are all on the verge of collapsing, but they're still standing," Hansen says.

These haunting images drove the creation of Hansen's choreography. "There's a lot of jagged crumbling techniques in the piece," he says. "A tragic hopelessness."

Hansen's dance premiered at the prestigious Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival in 2005 and was selected in 2006 by the American College Dance Festival Association to be performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington., D.C.

Bill Evan's "Suite Rhythm" is another Best of Brockport selection that the audience should be excited about. Along with work by Garth Fagan Dance and Dance Theater of Harlem, "Suite Rhythm" was performed as part of the festivities at Governor Elliott Spitzer's 2007 inauguration. Evans has been the guest artist at Brockport since 2004. A Dance Magazine reader's poll recently named him one of the nation's three favorite tap artists.

Evans describes his dance as rhythm tap, a style of tap with its roots in African drumming rhythms. He will perform "Suite Rhythm" with seven of his students to the live accompaniment of African music specialist Khalid Saleen on drums and James Kaufman on piano.

Another gifted dancer slated for the upcoming performance is Eddie Murphy, founder and director of the award-winning Drumcliff Irish Dance Co. Murphy, adjunct professor of Irish dance at Brockport, performs his step dances around the world. He will present his newest piece, "Calico Garden," for Best of Brockport.

"Mouth Hidden," choreographed by Maura Keefe, resident historian at Jacob's Pillow, will be performed to the percussion and live electronic accompaniment of Brockport faculty member Greg Ketchum's original music. A piece choreographed by MFA student Jenny Showalter will be showcased at the event, as will choreography by Clyde Alafiju Morgan, artistic director of Sankofa African Dance and Drum Ensemble.

The choice to perform Best of Brockport in a downtown Rochester theater rather than on campus was a deliberate one, according to Evans. 

"We want to enter the consciousness of the dance-going public," he says. "This concert will show the scope of what is going on at Brockport."

Best of Brockport will be performed Saturday, April 14, at Hochstein School of Music and Dance, 50 North Plymouth Avenue, 395-ARTS, at 8 p.m., $35/general public, $8/Brockport students. A pre-concert reception starts at 6:30 p.m. for an additional $15 donation.