| Biography | Joseph Cipolla, Guest Artist was born in New York and began studying ballet in 1977 with Maris Battaglia at the American Academy of Ballet. He joined Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1979 and performed principal roles in Franklin's productions of Swan Lake and Giselle, Balanchine's The Four Temperaments, Square Dance, Agon, Serenade and Stars & Stripes, and works by Tetley, Mitchell, Reiter-Soffer, de Mille, Bettis, and Taras amongst others.
He joined Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (now Birmingham Royal Ballet) in 1986, and danced principal roles in many of the Company's productions including Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Franz in (Coppélia), Colas (La Fille mal Gardée), Albrecht and Hilarion (Giselle, Prince Florimund (The Sleeping Beauty, Prince and Drosselmeyer (The Nutcracker, and Romeo and Tybalt (Romeo & Juliet).
Other roles included: Ashton's The Two Pigeons, MacMillan's Solitaire, Elite Syncopations and Las Hermanas, Bintley's Flowers Of The Forest, Balanchine's Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Divertimento No 15, Orpheus and Symphony in Three Movements, Cranko's Pineapple Poll, Massine's Choreartium, Jooss's The Green Table, Tuckett's License My Roving Hands, and Van Mannen's Five Tangos, Grosse Fuge, and Twilight.
He created many roles in works by Bintley including: Fred Beenstock in Hobson's Choice, Orion in Sylvia, Second Seminarian in Carmina Burana, Farmer Boldwood in Far from the Madding Crowd, Floreador in The Nutcracker Sweeties, Othello in The Shakespeare Suite and Merlin in Arthur parts 1 and 2.
He has appeared in Margot Fonteyn's The Magic of Dance, Hobson's Choice, The Nutcracker, and The Nutcracker Sweeties for the BBC. He danced at the White House for Mrs. Thatcher's first visit there, took part in the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games and was nominated for a prestigious Olivier Award in 1993.
He has extensive teaching experience including the Royal Ballet School, American Academy of Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet Summer School, and Dance Theatre of Harlem and is co-director and founder of Configuration, (formerly known as the WashAshore Dance Ensemble).
Choreographic credits include Sea Captain's Nutcracker, Can You Feel This?, Swiftly Rose the Moon, Cantara, Before All Worlds, and The Path We Have Chosen. |