(photo: Rose Mattrey)

Why you should know who he is: Aaron Piepszny is fast making a career for himself as a dancer of hybrid variety with sources including hip-hop, classical ballet and mime. Piepszny first registered on my radar when he showed up to the Dance Stage at the Artvoice Street Festival last year. Aaron walked up and asked if he could fill some free time between performing groups. We said, “Why not?” and he gave us quite a show. Currently Aaron is taking in as much inspiration as he can and spinning it back out to the world through movement. Piepszny performs this Friday (Feb. 24) at 7pm, at the Albright Knox Art Gallery’s free Gusto at the Gallery. On March 4, he’ll be traveling to Toronto to perform in a talent show called “Kollaboration.”

When I spoke with Aaron he was taking a break at Putnam County Elementary School in Eatonton, Georgia, where he was performing “Picasso People,” a one-man mime show that was created by Carlton Van Pryz of Lancaster, New York.

Education: SUNY at Buffalo

Influences: A hip-hop dancer named Mr. Wiggles and all kinds of cultural dance, primarily African and Afro Cuban. Also, Janet Reed, Elaine Gardner, Gino and Denise Vaccaro and the Electric Boogaloos.

Current project: Gusto at the Gallery at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery on Friday. I’ll be interpreting Karin Davie’s paintings in movement and dance. In dance I work a lot with dynamics and time, breaking one gesture down into parts with various hip-hop and mime movements.

How did you come to dance as your main art form? After an awkward and non-athletic childhood—I could run and I was agile, but I never received any respect for that— I started acting at Studio Arena School at age seven; we did a lot of movement games there. When I was in high school it was clear I was not an athlete. I was in musicals. I was the only Cuban dancer in our production of Guys and Dolls. Then I went to a club in New York City, and was blown away by what was going on there. I had never seen anything like it before. Then I started taking dance classes: ballet, jazz and modern. I graduated with a degree in anthropology, and then I lived on a farm for three years. I moved to Georgia, and we didn’t have any furniture. I participated in “Monsters of Hip Hop” and I realized, I do have some kind of inherent talent, and since then I have taken as many classes as possible. Now, in Buffalo, I take classes everywhere I can.

Other artistic outlets? I’ve been writing poetry since I was 12. I have periods where I write multiple times a day and I am working on a memoir that I work on pretty consistently. Dancing seems more immediate right now, though. Some people don’t release their first volume of poetry until they’re 35, so I have some time. Recently I’ve been writing essays and articles and I make music, but most of my creative juices are directed toward dance at this point. I do art—drawing and painting as well—something solid and static where I have something to show for my efforts once I have made it.

Do you choreograph beforehand or improvise? If I have a piece of music that I know I am using, I have phrases that I want to put in my performance, but I really sort of illustrate the sounds that are in the music. If there is an attack on a certain sound, I try to make it look like I am that sound. That’s when I really feel like I am the music. I’m pretty much an improviser.

How do you select music? I usually choose music that is overtly rhythmic. I usually try to pick something with a perceivable, repetitive, cool noise that I can illustrate well—music that I move to like a spring. Something that lets me use all the different styles I have; something with juicy sounds that I can sink my teeth into; something that changes a lot.

Favorite mode of travel: I honestly like to dance from here to there. I have my iPod on when I am walking somewhere.

Favorite food? Fruit in general.

The perfect day? I would wake up well hydrated, drink some water, have a dance class or two, receive some particular attention in the dance community, eat fruit, perform or dance with other people, free-styling, write a few poems, go swimming, get a massage and have a well-earned sleep.

Special place in Buffalo? The Albright-Knox is my favorite indoor space, and outside would be Chestnut Ridge.

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