(photo: Rose Mattrey)

Why you should know who he is: Although you may not have seen Joseph Cipolla in Buffalo recently, he has been busy running between teaching ballet as an adjunct faculty member at UB and starting up his own dance company, Configuration Dance. As a graduate of St. Joe’s and the American Academy of Ballet in Amherst, Cipolla has been dancing on international stages with professional companies for nearly three decades, including a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. Sharing his gifts with young students has always been one of his great loves, along with rousing enthusiasm for the cultural and social importance of the arts.

Current project: After establishing Configuration Dance in 1999 in Cape Cod with his wife, fellow ballet dancer Catherine Batcheller, Cipolla has decided to bring the professional company to Buffalo. On Sunday (April 9th) at 7pm, the company will hold a performance at UB’s Center of the Arts. (For more information, call 645-2787 or visit www.ubcfa.org.)

You took your first dance lesson at 17 years old. How extensive was your knowledge of dance? “It wasn’t too extensive [laughs]. It was kind of a quick study/crash course at first. As an ex-St. Joe’s boy, I had a limited amount of dance experience from the musicals that were put on there, but hadn’t actually taken anything as extreme or difficult or as challenging as classical ballet…I did it as an experience and ended up being told that I had some natural talents that I should explore and cultivate.”

How did you wind up in a professional dance company in New York City? “There was a seminar the summer that I started [at the Academy], and one of the great ballet masters of our time, the late Karel Shook, saw me and suggested that I should come to New York and study for a year to see if I liked it. And I did. Then over a year later the artistic director, Arthur Mitchell, asked me to perform with the Dance Theatre of Harlem as an apprentice.”

Tell us about Configuration Dance. “There is not another company like it in the area. We’re a contemporary ballet company, and we’re made up of all professional dancers with top-rate choreographers. Our company continues to pick up a new set of dancers for about 20 weeks at a time, and we wanted to use that to our advantage. We would have a new, fresh look every time. A different configuration—that’s where we came up with the name.”

When did you and your wife have the idea to bring the company to Buffalo? “When we started to work outside of our area, it seemed to be a no-brainer that we should take the company home. When I started to come back to Buffalo, I realized that there really wasn’t a fully professional organization that would get funding at this kind of level and is as connected to the dance world outside of Buffalo. Recognizing that there was a deficit, we thought it would be a real challenge and a good thing to bring into the city.”

What is your goal in establishing this dance company in Buffalo? “I’m hoping to give dancers in Buffalo opportunities that they wouldn’t normally have. I know that the unfortunate thing for me was that I had no choice but to leave Buffalo at 17 in order to make a career for myself. My mission right now is to bring something back to Buffalo. Where students can have the option to stay here and make a career. Basically at the end of the day I have to share my experiences and offer my own knowledge. What I went out there to get, I want to bring back here.”

What do you feel that Configuration will have to offer students that is unique in comparison with other dance companies out there today? “There is a wealth of talent in the area. In the Academy, there have been 76 students to go on and have careers in ballet. But where are they? Now we have some of those students coming back with us to dance with Configuration. What is needed here is the polish. Schools can only get you so far. There are little things, the finishing touches, that can be put on students before they take the bold challenge to audition for companies. What I would like to give is the opportunity for area students to not have to go outside of the city to make a career. And that does not exist right now. The other thing about our company is that, while we believe in a strong ballet technique and ballet training, we embrace all different forms of dance as well. We are trying to train dancers to be as versatile as possible, because the dancers that are out there making it have to be well equipped in all different areas. We want to be a showcase for different areas and styles, both classical and contemporary.”

What are some of your future projects for the company in Buffalo? “As far as artistic projects go, at some point down the line we want to have a really slick, contemporary and edgy, full-length piece. We’re also very interested in doing an evening of dance to American composers.”