University at Buffalo (UB)
Honoring Two Outstanding UB Dance Professors!
Published November 10, 2021
Professor Jeanne Palmer Fornarola
UB Theatre and Dance wishes to recognize the outstanding service of two of our longest tenured dance professors.
First we offer huge congratulations to Jeanne Palmer Fornarola, Clinical Professor, on her receipt of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Dance Education Association!
NYSDEA's 2021 Virtual Awards Ceremony and Community Celebration was held on Saturday, November 6, 2021 via Zoom.
Per the NYSDEA's press announcement of this year's awardees: Jeanne Palmer Fornarola is Clinical Professor at The State University of New York at Buffalo where she teaches courses in ballet, dance history, and dance pedagogy and served as the undergraduate Director of Dance for ten years. She holds NYS certification in Dance K-12 and created the UB dance community engagement program, Bridging Communities Through Dance, which brings the dance experience to children in the Buffalo City Schools. She coordinates the weekly Friday Forum Series that programs a wide variety of master classes and related workshops to UB Dance, augmenting the curriculum, and connecting students with professionals in the field. She has directed UB’s Zodiaque Dance Ensemble and Back to Buffalo Alumni Dance concerts. She has choreographed works for UB’s resident dance companies, UB Art Galleries, Starring Buffalo and NYC staged readings for new musicals in development.
Jeanne has been a Teaching Artist for Southern Tier Arts in Education, and was the Founder and Director of Binghamton University’s Summer Dance Program and Danceworks of Rochester, Inc. She has been on faculty at the SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts, Broome Community College, Dance Masters of America Teachers Training Program and Student Honors Intensive Program, and adjunct faculty in Graduate School of Education at UB.
Jeanne’s research interests center around blended learning in dance that considers the learning styles of the emerging Digital Natives generation. Her dance education initiative, Personalized Learning in Dance Education connects dance and arts professionals in the field with K-12 dance educators, and private sector arts organizations. www.pldance.com. She has been published in the Journal of Dance Education, The Encyclopedia of Appalachia, Dance Studio Life, and Dance Teacher/Spirit. She has served as an Arts Auditor for NYS, and Secretary on the Board of Directors for New York State Dance Educator Association, the state affiliate of the National Dance Educators Organization.
Jeanne is the 2018 recipient of the University at Buffalo’s Zodiaque Dance Company’s Directors Award and has received UB Recognition for The Positive Influence on Students.
Thank you Jeanne for all of your incredible contributions to UB Theatre and Dance through the years! The department is that much stronger with you as a part of it and we are thrilled that your dedication to our students has been properly recognized!
Professor Thomas Ralabate with UB Theatre and Dance co-founder Linda H. Swiniuch.
In addition, in honor of Professor Tom Ralabate’s upcoming retirement, the Department announces the new Mr. Tom UB Dance Jazz Award. If you would like to join us in honoring Tom, please consider donating to the fund to support future generations of UB Dance students:
We congratulate Tom on his retirement at the end of the Fall 2021 semester and extend many celebration dances and “ZBows” of gratitude for his 45 years of service to the University at Buffalo. Tom has had an incredible impact on the Department of Theatre and Dance serving in important administrative roles including Artistic Director of the Zodiaque Dance Company, Department Chair, and Director of Dance as well as facilitating artistic residencies, mentoring faculty, planning benefit events, cultivating scholarship opportunities for students, and so much more. As an accomplished and popular educator, Tom has shared his exceptional teaching and curricular leadership in comparative Jazz Dance styles (among many other courses) and through his research, teaching and service to the field, most notably raising the visibility and status of Jazz Dance in academia across the United States.
Tom began his UB career as a Fellow in Dance and rose through the ranks to Full Professor, teaching and mentoring generations of students who would go on to their own professional careers as dancers, choreographers, university professors, company directors, studio owners and beyond. Tom has earned many accolades including being the first recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Area of Arts, 2007 SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, the 2016 Julian Park Award - the highest honor awarded by the Dean of the College for meritorious and notable contributions, the 1999 and 2000 Jazz Dance World Congress Angel Award, the 2016 Dance Masters of America President’s Award, and the 2007 Dance Teacher Magazine Award.
Tom’s multi-layered choreography has continually enhanced the educational excellence for UB Dance students. With works ranging from many styles of jazz dance, to modern dance to commercial dance, Tom’s innovative creative work has inspired generations of dancers and delighted UB audiences. His professional choreography has been featured at the National Dance Theatre of Bermuda; Joffrey Midwest Ballet; and the state televised Miss New York and Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageants for the Miss America Scholarship Competition. In his professional roles, he is currently the National Chair of Education Strategy for Dance Masters of America Inc. (DMA) and has contributed to revisions to DMA’s Jazz Exam and Jazz Dance Manual. In addition, he has created jazz dance syllabi for the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM), Dance Teachers’ Club of Boston, and INTERDANZA, Mexico.
A past contributing writer for the Higher Ed Column in Dance Studio Life Magazine, dedicated to quality dance education, Ralabate was a contributor to Jazz Dance A History of the Roots and Branches (University Press 2014), edited by Lindsay Guarino and Wendy Oliver. Ralabate is honored to appear in Pedro Brenner’s film documentary Gus an American Icon, based on the life of jazz dance legendary Gus Giordano. In 2019, Ralabate was a selected interviewee for UPROOTED - The Journey of Jazz Dance, a feature-length documentary that aims to study Jazz dance and its challenges in-depth, directed by award-winning Director Kahadifa Wong.
Some words from Tom:
"Sincere thanks to the many faculty/colleagues for their shared time in making UB Theatre and Dance an artistic playground to grow. Special thanks to Linda Swiniuch, Saul Elkin, the chairs, area directors, production teams, and administrative staff who made it possible to build and serve this vibrant artistic community. Reflecting on many blessed years of teaching while building UB Dance and wearing many hats in the department, the most powerful experiences have been those times shared with students. It has been in the studios and making magic happen on the stages where we have all increased a deep understanding of ourselves through the study of theatre and dance. It is time to design and choreograph a different role, still in service and gratitude to UB and in service to the honorable teaching profession, hopefully for years to come."
UB is incredibly lucky to have had the sustained engagement of Tom Ralabate leading the development of UB Dance, and we are looking forward to making him proud as we continue to expand on the level of excellence in dance education that he has established. He has set the “barre” high!