Faculty and Staff
Tom Ralabate
Thomas P. Ralabate is Professor, Chair, and Producing Director of the Department of Theatre & Dance at University at Buffalo/SUNY. He has served in the past as Assistant Chair Dance, Director of Dance, and Artistic Director of UB's Zodiaque Dance Company. Professor Ralabate has taught for all major dance organizations throughout the United States and Canada. A former United States and North American Latin Ballroom Dance Champion, he was the American representative with his sister Kip, to the World Latin Dance Championships.
Professor Ralabate's choreography has been featured at the National Dance Theatre of Bermuda; Joffrey Midwest Ballet; other university programs; the state televised Miss New York and Miss Pennsylvania Scholarship Pageants for the Miss America Scholarship Competition; and Zodiaque Dance Company. He is currently the National Chair of Education Strategy for Dance Masters of America Inc. (DMA), and he has revised both DMA's Jazz Exam and Jazz Syllabus. In addition, Professor Ralabate has created jazz dance syllabi for Chicago National Association of Dance Masters (CNADM), Dance Teachers' Club of Boston, and INTERDANZA, Mexico. Honored for his contributions to dance by raising national dance standards, Professor Ralabate is a recipient of the Artistic Achievement Award and the Adele Artinean Award presented by CNADM; the Jazz Dance World Congress Angel Award; the Buffalo Ambassador Award; the first recipient of the College of Arts & Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Area of Arts at University at Buffalo; and the prestigious Ivy Hall Foundation Award, first awarded to Gene Kelly and presented by Dance Masters of America. DMA has established an educational scholarship in the name of Thomas Ralabate. In 2003, he was the recipient of the DMA Distinguished Educators Award and, in 2005, was the recipient of an Individual Artist Award by the Arts Council of Western NY and the greater Buffalo and Niagara Partnership.
A contributing writer for the Higher Ed Column in Dance Studio Life Magazine, dedicated to quality dance education, Professor Ralabate received a 2006 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Scholarship and Creative Activities. In 2007, he was honored in New York City by Dance Teacher Magazine at their annual summer conference for distinguishing himself as an outstanding educator in higher education and advocate for dance. Professor Ralabate was awarded DMA's Member of the Year, in 2009, by the DMA National Executive Committee and Council of DMA Past Presidents at the 125th Anniversary Celebration National Convention held in Washington, D.C. Professor Ralabate is honored to appear in the Pedro Brenner 2009 film documentary Gus an American Icon, based on the life of jazz dance legendary Gus Giordano.