George Faison

George W. Faison, born December 21, 1945, in Washington, D.C., is an American dancer, choreographer, teacher, and theater producer. He attended Dunbar High School and enrolled at Howard University in 1964, where he initially intended to study dentistry. During his time at Howard, he worked with director Owen Dodson and attended a production by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, experiences that redirected him toward a career in dance. He subsequently relocated to New York City, where he studied under James Truitte, Dudley Williams, Arthur Mitchell, June Taylor, Claude Thompson, and Charles Moore, including training at the School of American Ballet. He had also studied earlier with the Jones-Haywood Capitol Ballet and Carolyn Tate of Howard University, and as a student performed with the American Light Opera Company in Show Boat.

Faison danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 1967 to 1969. In 1970 he appeared as a performer in the original Broadway production of Purlie. The following year, he founded the George Faison Universal Dance Experience with a budget of six hundred dollars. The company's roster included Renee Rose, Al Perryman, Gary DeLoatch, and Debbie Allen, with Faison serving as choreographer and Artistic Director. Among the works he created during this period was "Suite Otis" in 1971, a piece set to the music of Otis Redding for five couples that combined elements of ballet and contemporary styles.

His Broadway debut as a choreographer came in 1972 with Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope. He went on to choreograph additional Broadway productions, including Via Galactica, Tilt, and The Wiz, the latter of which brought him into collaboration with Stephanie Mills and Geoffrey Holder. For his choreography, Faison received the Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1975 and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography the same year. Over the course of his career he choreographed more than two dozen musicals, among them 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with music by Leonard Bernstein, a Radio City Music Hall production of Porgy and Bess in 1983, and Sing, Mahalia, Sing at the Shubert Theater in Philadelphia in 1985. He also choreographed the world premiere of Harry Partch's Revelation in the Courthouse Park, staged by Jiri Zizka, for the American Music Theater Festival in 1987.

Beyond the stage, Faison directed and choreographed The Apollo - Just Like Magic in 1981 at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., a production that re-created the golden age of the Apollo Theater. In 1989 he conceived and produced the television special Cosby Salutes Ailey, marking the thirtieth anniversary of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He won an Emmy Award for his choreography in the HBO special The Josephine Baker Story in 1991, having been nominated for the Emmy that same year. In 1997 he directed and choreographed King, a musical performed at Bill Clinton's inauguration. He also worked as a choreographer for entertainers including Ashford and Simpson, Earth, Wind and Fire, Patti LaBelle, and Dionne Warwick.

In 1997 Faison founded the American Performing Arts Collaborative, an organization using the arts to engage and inspire young people. Two years later he purchased an abandoned firehouse on Hancock Place, one block south of 125th Street, and renovated it over the following decade. The building was originally designed by Howard Constable in 1908 as the home of the Hook and Ladder No. 40 Company. The completed Faison Firehouse Theater features a 350-seat auditorium, a café, dance and rehearsal space, and a recording studio. Its official inaugural performance in Fall 2007 included guest speaker Maya Angelou alongside professional musical theater and dance performances and a performance by youth from the American Performing Arts Collaborative. Faison is also the co-founder and producing artistic director of the Faison Firehouse Theater.