Gina Patterson “has emerged with a powerful and poetic individual voice… emotionally captivating…with stunning immediacy” (Arts Atlanta)—“Layers of gesture and meaning build the total construct as an artist would craft a sculpture from clay.” (Backstage Beat)— Backstage magazine called her a choreographer of “startling originality” — Dance Magazine said of her work, “Patterson has a voice, that ever-elusive thing, and whatever the future of ballet may be, choreographers like her will always have a place in it.”
Celebrating 25 years as a choreographer, Ms. Patterson has created more than 120 original works, including full-evening productions such as the Emmy-winning Liquid Roads for MADCO, a contemporary adaptation of Romeo and Juliet for CoDa21, and her one act 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, and DanceWorks Chicago. Ms. Patterson’s works have 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.
During a long career as a principal artist, Ms. Patterson danced with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Ballet Austin, Ballet Florida, and as a guest artist in the US, Canada, Iceland, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and France. Performances at 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.
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 of all ages, working with Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Dancers’ Workshop, Interlochen Arts Academy, Point Park University, Goucher College, University of Iowa, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Gina and lighting designer Tony Tucci
Ms. Patterson has been sought out, because of her sensitivity, to treat such topics as Civil Rights, Ageism, Anti-semitism, Women’s Suffrage, and the Trail of Tears. She advocates for empathy and compassion through her work as an artist, leader, and educator beginning with a mindfulness of her own speech and actions – holding close the power of listening, of respect.
Inspired by research at the Olin Library at Washington University in St. Louis, It Is was created for MADCO's Freedom: A Civil Rights Project. On behalf of Chris Hannon, 2016 McKnight Dancer Fellowship recipient, Way of the Dodo was commissioned by The Cowles Center for their SOLO Commissioning Program, funded by the McKnight Foundation. 72 Steps, a work about women's voting rights was commissioned by the League of Women Voters for Nashville Ballet 2. The Tennessee Performing Arts Center included it in their educational performance series, leading up to the centennial in August 2020.
Her first choreography, Insideout, garnered her instant acclaim. It was taken into the repertoires of Ballet Florida and Ballet Austin and was presented by both Ballet Builders / New Choreographers on Pointe and at the Fifth International Dance Festival in Miami. She was awarded the prestigious Choo San Goh Award for Choreography for Life Wind, the B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Choreographer for Trail of Tears: Walking the Choctaw Road, and has presented five pieces at the Ballet Builder's Showcase in New York. Free to Fly was presented at the Festival Internazionale Abano Danza in Italy and at the Ljubljana Summer Festival in Slovenia. She created Liquid Eyes for Hubbard Street 2, winning their 2005 National Choreographic Competition. The Inconstant won her a nomination for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. Many of her works over the years have been generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. She is honored to receive a Fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation for the fall of 2021.
Gina in studio with Richmond Ballet
As Artistic Director/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.”
As Artistic Director of San Angelo Civic Ballet (Ballet San Angelo), she commissioned new music, brought professional dancers, and created a multi-disciplinary youth workshop series to accompany each performance, bringing new voices while building community and exchange. Collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, a monthly newspaper column, and youth/elder interview pairings enriched community conversation and original full-evening works.
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—the spaces in between, the small moments, make a difference. She uses her work to explore our humanity, small acts of kindness, and passionately helps others uncover the voice within.