Famed choreographer Faison transforms Harlem theater into opportunity, employment for kids
George Faison wants black Harlem to share its story with the world – and possibly save its youth and make some money in the telling.
The celebrated dancer and award-winning Broadway choreographer is using his Faison Firehouse Theater in Harlem to explore new ways to tell life stories, as well as give students an insight into job opportunities on and around the stage.
“This theater is not so much a school, it’s an incubator,” Faison said. “We experiment here, try new things, new voices and methods. We’re trying new things, new ways of saying things.
“We’re trying to open these kids’ minds to the possibilities of working in the theater, whether they work behind the scenes, sing, dance or write,” he said. “Most of us never get the chance to play with all the things the theater offers.”
Faison is a former Alvin Ailey American Dance company member and choreographer for Broadway plays “The Wiz” (for which he won a Tony Award) and “Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope.” He won an Emmy award for his choreography on the HBO film “The Josephine Baker Story.”
In 1999, Faison bought an abandoned firehouse on Hancock Place off 125th St., renovated it over time and opened the theater, which features a 350-seat auditorium, a café, dance and rehearsal space, and a recording studio.
Faison said he’s in talks with NYC & Co. to make the theater a stop on city tours in Harlem. He has commissioned a five-minute, multiscreen film presentation on Harlem history, covering everything from its early settlement to legendary venues like the Apollo and the Cotton Club to iconic figures like Malcolm X, that would be shown with the tour.
“I’m trying to get this to be a tourist destination, so we can tell Harlem stories and showcase some of the art forms of that time, the singing, the music, the dancing,” he said. “We also want to show what is going on now.”
Telling that history, he said, could be a revenue generator for a community where “our kids are unemployed, actors are unemployed, everybody is unemployed.”
The trouble, he said – besides a general lack of funding for the arts – is a serious disconnect between young and old Harlem thespians.
“They don’t talk,” Faison said. “The attitude is, ‘you’re the kid, and I’m the adult. Shut up and get on the bus.’ But if our kids don’t have anything to say it’s because we’re not putting anything into them. We’re not talking to them and listening to them. You have to put something in to get something out.”
That’s one reason Faison, 65, speaks at local schools four or five times a month. Last Friday he was one of more than 500 notable African-Americans, including CNN‘s Roland Martin and poet Nikki Giovanni, who visited schools in 37 cities nationwide as part of the annual “Back to School with the Historymakers” program.
“Our kids are born into this new age, they have all of these things available to them, but they don’t have access to these new things,” Faison said. “It’s about helping them get access, bringing the things that they should be looking at to them.
“People are our greatest resource. We are suffering from not communicating among ourselves.”
The Faison Firehouse Theater has several programs for young adults of all races between ages 14 and 23. For more information, call (212) 665-7716 or email Faison at georgefaison@faisonfirehouse.org.
crichardson@nydailynews.com