Ruben Graciani had never danced before he was admitted to the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts at age 14, but only four years later, he was accepted into the world-renowned Juilliard School, a move that didn’t work out, resulting in his decision to transfer.

By no means did that stem his desires to pursue modern dance, so he moved on to attend the State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase), propelling him into a 20-year-long professional career in modern dance, which led to teaching and the realization that he was a dancer for life.

“Juilliard really wasn’t the right place for me for a bunch of reasons, but it was hard to walk away because it was such a prestigious place,” Graciani said during an interview in his office on Friday, Sept. 19. “I had auditioned at Purchase when I was in high school and when I was there, I had this gut feeling that this is the place for me, but I went to Juilliard because it was Juilliard.  It was sort of like the Harvard of the dance world.” 

 “It was one of those moments when you should follow your instincts because I totally thrived there [at SUNY] and it was the right place for me,” Graciani said.

As a student at SUNY Purchase, he toured all over the world. A week after Graciani graduated from Purchase, he got a job with one of the biggest dance companies in the country, Mark Morris Dance Group. He was with the dance group for five years before moving onto dancing with several of other smaller dance companies. 

After this, he started teaching and also doing some freelance work. During this time, he got his graduate degree from the University of Maryland and afterward began teaching at Ohio University. 

Upon starting his job in Ohio, Graciani got a call from a very well-known choreographer, Joe Goode, to join his company. Graciani took a leave of absence in his first year of teaching to dance for Joe Goode’s company. After a couple times of doing this, he decided to settle down and start teaching full time, moving on to Skidmore College in New York for the next six years. Graciani then left Skidmore after being granted tenure when he saw Point Park hiring for a new chairmen.

“I saw the posting for this job and really wanted to work in a conservatory, and I know this program. I really want to work with dancers at that caliber. And so I just threw my name in the hat,” Graciani said. “I think they [the faculty] wanted someone new to come in from the outside. They were looking for a person who can connect with today’s dance world and try to figure out how we can best serve our students to get them out in the dance world and be successful.” 

Graciani got the job, and is now the chairman of the dance program at Point Park’s Conservatory of Performing Arts (COPA), where he hopes to bring his wide-ranging experiences to the students here.

Fellow Point Park Dance Department faculty members seem to be appreciative of Graciani, including Susan Stowe, the former chair of the dance department.

“He’s had an opportunity to do some administrative work at his previous institution, Skidmore, and he seems to possess the type of skills needed for the chair position,” Stowe  said during an interview in her office on Sept. 24. “He seems very well-connected in the dance community.”

Point Park dance students also seem to be taking a liking to Graciani and his way of teaching.

“I believe Rubén is a great addition to Point Park. I have him for my contemporary partnering class, and he provides a really welcoming and fun learning environment,” Erin Patterson, a sophomore dance major, said. “He seems to really care about the dancers within the program and sounds like he’s really interested in helping students make connections in regards to their future in dance.”

Even students who don’t have Graciani as a professor quite yet are able to feel his passion for dance and for helping students.

“Upon meeting him, I could sense that he really cares about each individual student and their success as a student and dancer,” Tammi McCloskey, a sophomore dance major, said.

Graciani clearly has a lot of knowledge and experience when it comes to the field of dance and the dance world. He will use this knowledge and experience to better the dance program here at Point Park.

“I think my goal for the program would be to try to position the Point Park Conservatory as really forward thinking, which means we need to have more intentional relationships with technology and how technology influences the arts and performance,” Graciani said during an interview in his office on Sept. 26. “We need to take a cold hard look at how we can be better, because everyone can be better no matter how well-intentioned a group of people are. We can always improve.”