Legendary choreographer Garth Fagan was surprised when he was told the Walt Disney Co. was interested in working with him.

He had recently completed a project that involved topless dancers, which didn’t seem to fit with Disney’s wholesome image. "In my youth, when I saw Disney, it was ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty,’" Fagan said. "I thought, ‘What was this they want with me?’"

He learned it was a musical production of "The Lion King." He hadn’t seen the Oscar-winning 1994 animated movie, so he borrowed a copy of it and "fell madly in love with it."

"I thought, ‘Yeah! I can really make those animals move,’" said Fagan, 73, who founded his New York-based Garth Fagan Dance company 40 years ago.

He was right. Fagan’s energetic, athletic choreography proved to be perfect for "The Lion King," winning virtually all of the major theater awards for choreography: a Tony, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award from British critics. His blend of modern, jazz, hip-hop and ballet created an array of wild yet natural movement.

"Certainly, nowhere before on Broadway has a stampede of wildebeests or a herd of veldt-skimming gazelles been rendered with such eye-popping conviction," wrote a critic of the production.

In developing his choreography, Fagan realized the production would have wide appeal. Not only was there the popularity of the film, telling the universal coming-of-age story in Simba, the young lion who overcomes obstacles to claim his title as king of beasts, there was director Julie Taymor’s inventive puppetry and Elton John’s pop music. That encouraged Fagan to use a broad palette of dance styles.

"I set a rule for me that I wanted to include all the types of dancing, including hip-hop, which was very big in ’97," Fagan said. "I wanted all the kids who came in there to see hip-hop, to see modern, to see African, to see ballet, to see the rich tapestry of dance to pull from."

There were, as expected, challenges to the production. Taymor’s nearly life-size puppets required some rethinking of conventional choreography.

"One of Julie’s ideas was to have you see the puppets and the puppeteers," Fagan said. "So you saw the headdress of a lion on a woman’s face, and this woman was costumed as a lion but in beautiful silk fabric.

"So you had to keep in mind that this beast can tear you to shreds for a meal, but at the same time, God, is she beautiful and, boy, is she sexy. I had to keep that dichotomy going throughout the piece. I love the lioness piece for that reason."

The famous opening number, "Circle of Life," in which a savannah full of animals fills the theater from the lobby to the stage, remains his favorite, for reasons both personal and professional.

"I’ve seen the show like 7 million times, all over the world," he said. "And every time that first dance goes up, I bawl like a baby. And I’m bawling out of happiness for bringing back childhood memories. My infant daughter died. She loved her cats and tigers, so I had her in mind when I did a lot of those dances."

Although Disney conducted an international search to find a choreographer, Fagan was a natural fit. He is well versed in Afro-Caribbean movements from his upbringing in Jamaica. He’d also toured Africa several times with his company, using each visit to scope out dance styles and theatrical techniques, even the movements of wildlife.

"Most people in America (who visit Africa) get to West Africa and that’s it," he said. "But I’d been to East, West, North and South. … I’d been saturated with Africa."

The athleticism in Fagan’s choreography also stems from his roots in dance. He was a gymnast in high school but was asked to perform in a Christmas program as a substitute for a cast member who had broken his ankle.

"I did it on a lark," he said with a laugh. "My female partner kept telling what to do — ‘now lift, now turn’ — and so forth, and lo and behold, everybody said, ‘You were wonderful!’ I didn’t know the joy of real dancing, and thank God I found out."

Seventeen years after "The Lion King" premiered on Broadway, Fagan waxes enthusiastically about it, calling it "the best show in the whole world."

"I wanted it to be rich," he said, "rich to the eye and to the ear. The ear, when you see good dancing, there’s rhythms going on that you can pick up on. You should feel it in your seat when you’re sitting down."