Celebrating 28 years as a choreographer, Ms. Patterson has created more than 140 original works, including full-evening productions, winning international acclaim. Beyond the dance language, her work encompasses concept and direction, collaborating across disciplines with lighting, set, projection, and costume designers; musicians, composers, actors, and visual artists. Writing and poetry continue to infuse and accompany her work, the relationship to it ever-evolving.
A 2021 Bogliasco Fellow, Ms. Patterson has won such honors as the Choo San Goh Award, a nomination for an Isadora Duncan Award, the Hubbard Street 2 National Choreographic Competition, New Choreographers on Pointe, the National Choreographic Initiative, and a commission by The Cowles Center / SOLO Commissioning Program through the McKnight Foundation. Numerous works over the decades have been generously funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Princess Grace Foundation.
During her long career as a principal artist, she was known as a versatile, consummate performer, dancing with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Ballet Austin, Ballet Florida, and as an international guest artist in North America and Europe. Performances at the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Florence Gould Hall, and the Joyce Theatre accentuate her performance career.
Her versatility as a dancer set the stage with the breadth of experience that informs her voice as an artist today. With her roots in Pittsburgh, Ms. Patterson’s training was shaped by Francesca Corkle, Mansur Kamaletdinov, and Jean Gedeon at Pittsburgh Youth Ballet. A first place honor in dance from the National Society of Arts and Letters, gained her an opportunity join the Pittsburgh Opera on their European tour. The experience opened her eyes and launched a vision for her future. In 1987, she became an apprentice at Pittsbugh Ballet Theatre under the direction of Patricia Wilde, where she was given the opportunity to perform demi-soloist roles.
She joined Ballet Austin in 1988, dancing principal roles ranging from Juliet to Desdemona in John Butler’s Othello, originating roles in many works by Stephen Mills and Lambros Lambrou. In 1996, she was invited to join Ballet Florida, and danced a diverse repertoire including works by Vicente Nebrada, Ben Stevenson, Peter Martins, Val Caniparoli, Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Mauricio Wainrot, Norbert Vesak, Daniel Ezralow, Lou Conte, Sean Lavery, and Trey McIntyre. Ms. Patterson returned to Ballet Austin in 2000 and continued to perform principal roles such as Giselle, Kitri, Juliet, Odette/Odile, Waltz Girl in Serenade, and Ophelia partnered by Desmond Richardson. Works by Mills, George Balanchine, David Nixon, Twyla Tharp, David Parsons, Dwight Rhoden, and Ulysses Dove were also in her wide performance repertoire.
Ms. Patterson has been a prolific dance maker since 1998, creating choreographies for companies, universities, and international audiences. Multi-disciplinary full-evening productions include the Emmy Award winning Liquid Roads for MADCO, a contemporary adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for CoDa21, and Hansel and Gretel created for the Croatian National Theatre. Her creations appear in the repertoire of more than 25 companies including VOICE, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Nashville Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Austin, Richmond Ballet, Dayton Ballet, BalletMet, Contemporary Dance Wyoming, and DanceWorks Chicago, and has been presented internationally in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Slovenia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Spain.
She has had the honor of partnerships with internationally renowned artists. Collaborators include: set and costume designer Jorge Gallardo; lighting designers Tony Tucci and Burke Brown; musicians Matthew Perryman Jones, Peter Bradley Adams, Paul Moravec, Tucker Livingston, Gary Nicholson, Sons of the Never Wrong, and Jordan Brooke Hamlin; visual artists Emily Leonard and Eliza Thomas; theatre artists Sara Lovett, and Pollyanna Theater; and Choctaw Storyteller Tim Tingle. Writing and poetry continue to infuse and accompany her work, the relationship to it ever-evolving.
Her passionate dedication to a lifetime in the arts has given her extensive experience in the field. In addition to commissioned creations, she educates through classes, creativity workshops, coaching, and multi-disciplinary collaboration with young artists and universities, working with University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Dancers’ Workshop, Interlochen Arts Academy, Point Park University, Goucher College, Mercyhurst University, Texas Christian University, University of Alabama, and University of Iowa. Ms. Patterson has been sought out, because of her artistic sensitivity, to treat such topics as Civil Rights, Ageism, Anti-semitism, Women’s Suffrage, and the Trail of Tears.
As Artistic Director and co-founder of VOICE—serving as a platform for incubation, she developed interdisciplinary, multi-sensory engaging works in non-traditional spaces as immersive events. Writing for the Austin Chronicle, critic Robert Faires said: “By engaging our sense of taste during a performance, Voice Dance Company blew our mind. Patterson’s found a way to deepen our involvement in her work, to take us to new levels within it by engaging more of our senses.”
Ms. Patterson is working to grow deeper roots into her community through participation in poetry/writing groups and Wild Earth Conversations (WEC)— inspired by essays on Spiritual Ecology, working to generate awareness and action steps for the environment — she leads conversations with poet/priest/PhD Travis Helms. They are collaborating on offerings to support artists, build community and conversation, and deepen the partnership of her Artist Development Retreats in communion with his Ecotheos/ Poetry Wonderfest, Campfire, and WEC.
Having spent her life through experimentation in her own dancing and performance, she has found her unique voice as a choreographer, continuing to ask, “what else? how else? is this true?”. In dance language, sculpting musicality, architecture of space and time, she believes that the spaces in between, the small moments, make a difference.
Ms. Patterson advocates for empathy and compassion, searching to uncover the authentic and vulnerable – the voice within. She uses her art to examine our humanity and interconnection, believing in the art form’s power — to heal; and through the creative process, build unity and community.