Garth Fagan’s musical choices are ever eclectic and surprising. The acclaimed choreographer has collaborated with Wynton Marsalis on several occasions, and has been known to turn to other jazz composers as well. But he is just as likely to turn to Brahms or Dvorak, or composers of various nationalities, past and present.  When his Rochester-based troupe returns to the Joyce next week, he will unveil his newest work, set to selections by various Chinese-American composers.

The impetus for the premiere, Mudan 175/39, came from his interest in collaborating with the Ying Quartet. They share a Rochester base, since the Quartet is in residence at (and made up of faculty members from) the Eastman School of Music. Fagan was drawn to the 2008 recording Dim Sum, which features a dozen compositions—several of them never recorded before—that exemplify a conscious blending of sounds, techniques and ideas from traditional Chinese music with the string quartet of the Western classical tradition. They range in length from just over a minute to 11 minutes long.

“I listened to it and just loved it,” Fagan said by phone recently of the CD, from which he chose five tracks, including works by Tan Dun and Bright Sheng. “And I listen a lot before I choose music. When I go into the studio and give the dancers the movement in silence, because the music is going on in my head. I have to know the score that way. Then I put on the music, and it all fits.”

Fagan tends to give his work intriguing, deeply meaningful titles. He decoded this latest one: “Mudan, the tree peony, was the traditional national flower of China, until it was changed in the twentieth century. This year is the 175th anniversary of the city of Rochester. And my company is 39 years old.”

He noted that these scores offered him, and the dancers, new challenges. “It’s very difficult for the dancers, because lots of it you can’t count. The meter is not like ours. You have to really listen to the music and phrase with it. And the way the melodies and the harmonies change or begin—that’s also foreign to western ears.”

The dance, which has a cast of nine, is in four sections, titled “Nowhere,” “Here,” “Now Here” and “Now.” Along with an energetic opening section, and a solo (for Khama Kgari), there are a series of duets, each evoking a couple at a different stage of life, that Fagan describes as “brief but chock full of flavor—like dim sum.”

The company is notable for the range of ages within its roster. Dancers tend to remain with Fagan for many years, and along with young newcomers, such as Vitolio Jeune, who appeared on “So You Think You Can Dance,” there are those such as Steve Humphrey and Norwood Pennewell, whose tenure goes back three decades. Those two veterans are featured in Oatka Trial, a Fagan classic for three men from 1979 that has been revived this season. Dancing alongside them is 21-year-old Travis St. Denny.

Having dancers representing such different generations “keeps us fresh,” Fagan finds. He enjoys showcasing the vibrant abilities of his younger dancers, but “It’s good to see dancers who are more mature. You don’t expect them to do what the kids can do. But they know a lot of subtle things—musicianship and phrasing—that the kids don’t know yet. Nor should they, or could they. I designed my technique because I wanted to keep dancers dancing longer. Of all the art forms, dance is the one where after age thirty, they throw you away. And nobody knows much about life at 30. What you learn after 30, that you can bring to the dance—matters of subtlety, matters of nuance, of stamina—are all the things that it takes time to develop.”

Garth Fagan Dance