Audiences will gain a glimpse into the personal world of Garth Fagan - Tony Award winner, modern dance icon, and Rochesterian - with the local premiere of his revealing new work, "Phone Tag, Thanks & Other Things," this weekend. The dramatic action and emotional content of the piece evolves from actual messages left for Fagan on his cell phone and replayed on stage.

Jazz great Wynton Marsalis tries to reach his friend, and the exasperation in his voice strikes a humorous chord. It's a sharp contrast to the poignancy of hearing Fagan's adult son contacting him from abroad after months of silence, identifying himself as Fagan's "prodigal son."

"Thank you for all the time you took in making me a man," the son's message says.

The messages are varied; their range and selection alone underscore Fagan's genius for creating works of art that illuminate the human need for making connections, a theme he touches on frequently in his large body of work. Again and again his choreography brings dancers together in profound connection before releasing them back to their individual pathways, allowing them to saunter off in disparate directions, just as people do in real life. 

"Garth likes strong women who go after what they want without fear," says dancer Nicolette Depass, 35, who has been with Garth Fagan Dance for 14 years. "I want to be strong.  I want to be independent. I'm married, but I still have my own identity."

Motherhood is rapidly becoming part of Depass' identity. She is due to give birth in late March or early April. This life change is highlighted by Fagan in the new piece. Unchecked joy reverberates from the message left by Depass and her husband, Bill Ferguson, Fagan's personal assistant after 19 years of dancing in the company.

"Bill and I had just had our first trimester screening and we called Garth and left him a message saying, ‘All is well. We're official now. You don't have to hold your tongue anymore,'" Depass recalls.

Depass, now six months pregnant, is still performing her role in this piece, a rare happening in the dance world where a person's body is her instrument. The weight gain and other physical changes of pregnancy challenge a dancer to continually reclaim her "center" or "core," that elusive place where a dancer's balance and strength originates. But Depass is confident in her deep connection with her growing body, and glad to be performing with her unborn child inside of her.

"I represent modern womanhood," Depass says. "Garth has always believed that he has a community on stage, a community of people who just happen to dance, and now it just happens that one of them is pregnant. Usually with dancers, they go away, have the baby, and come back so you miss the progression. I'm grateful to Garth for openly celebrating me and my unborn child this way."

Pregnancy doesn't phase Fagan. His own wife, he says, left dance class to give birth.

"There's a joy in seeing Nikki dance pregnant," Fagan says. "It gives her a different aesthetic. Of course, we make sure that everything she does is safe. She'll be doing less here than she did in New York in September, because she's bigger than she was in September."

Which isn't very big compared to most pregnant women. "Tiny" might be a more apt word.

"Phone Tag, Thanks & Things" first premiered at the Joyce Theater in New York City in November. Besides Depass, the piece features Annique Roberts, Guy Thorne, Lynet' Rochelle, Khama Phillips, and Norwood Pennewell. The music is composed by Bongani Ndodana (South Africa), Florence Price (USA), Ludovic Lamothe (Haiti), and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (USA), and recorded on piano by William Chapman Hyaho.

Other pieces to be performed include "Time After Before Place," "Edge/Joy," "Prelude," and excerpts from "Translation" and other works.

Garth Fagan Dance

Calkins Road Middle School, 1899 Calkins Rd

Thursday, December 4-Sunday, December 7

Thu 7:30 p.m., Fri 8 p.m., Sat 2 & 8 p.m., Sun 2 & 7:30 p.m.

$20-$40 | garthfagandance.org