George William Faison

George William Faison was born in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1945. He attended Dunbar High School and studied at Howard University before committing to dance, his formation rooted in Washington's Black cultural institutions and New York training.

Faison joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1967 and danced with the company through 1970, a period that grounded him in modern-dance craft joined to African American experience and theatrical directness. He made his Broadway debut as a dancer in *Purlie* in 1970.

In the early 1970s he founded the George Faison Universal Dance Experience and created works including *Suite Otis* and *Gazelle* (1971) and *Slaves*. On Broadway he choreographed *Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope* in 1972 and supplied ensemble movement for *Via Galactica* that same year, establishing himself as a choreographer able to move fluidly between concert and musical-theatre contexts.

His definitive Broadway breakthrough came with *The Wiz*, which opened in January 1975. Faison choreographed the production and won both the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for choreography, becoming the first African American choreographer to win a Tony Award. His subsequent Broadway work included co-direction and co-choreography of *1600 Pennsylvania Avenue* in 1976, musical staging for *The Moony Shapiro Songbook* in 1981, choreography for the 1983 revival of *Porgy and Bess* (which earned him a Tony nomination), direction and choreography of touring and revival productions of *The Wiz*, and choreography for *Timon of Athens* in 1993.

From the 1980s onward, Faison's work expanded to include writing, directing, and television, alongside institution-building. He co-produced and wrote the NBC special *Cosby Salutes Ailey*. He became co-founder and producing artistic director of the Faison Firehouse Theatre, a Harlem performing-arts and youth-outreach project housed in a former firehouse—a civic commitment that extends his theatrical career into sustained access and training work for young people.