Leif Norman photographer

Workshop – Master Class

Patrick Parson

Patrick Parson founded Ballet Creole in 1990, for which he is the Artistic Director, principal choreographer, and Musical Director of the Creole Drummatix. The company quickly gained national and local acclaim in Canada and parts of the United States. The Ballet Creole School of Performing Arts offers classes for children, youth and adults from beginner to professional levels. True to its educational mandate, Ballet Creole tours intensively, presenting educational and entertaining performances.

Patrick regularly conducts dance/music workshops and lecture demonstrations for educators and student bodies in Boards of Education and Universities throughout Ontario. He has completed a Masters Degree in Dance Ethnology at York University, where he is currently a professor in the Kinesiology Department.

Patrick toured internationally as principal dancer with the Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Theatre of Trinidad. His professional dance and choreographic experience spans Caribbean, African, East Indian, Jazz and Modern dance styles. Patrick acquired Ballet and Modern training at the Caribbean School of Dance, the Dance Academy of Trinidad and Tobago, the Ryerson University dance department, and he is a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and most recently furthered his training at Jacob’s Pillow. Patrick studied the Dunham Technique at the Katherine Dunham Center for Arts and Humanities in East St. Louis, Illinois. He was one of the last teacher’s to be awarded certification in the Dunham Technique before Ms. Dunham’s passing in 2006. He is a proponent of this technique in Canada where it is little known and practiced. He taught Master Classes at the IABD Conferences in 2011 and 2009.

Patrick is the recipient of the Entrepreneurial Award of Merit from the African Caribbean Chamber of Commerce, and the New Pioneers Award from Skills for Change, for his pioneering work in the world of dance in Canada.

AFRO-CARRIBEAN / DUNHAM (Master Class: Friday at 10:00 – 11:30am)

Patrick Parson combines the structured Contemporary technique of Katherine Dunham with the traditional movements of the Afro-Caribbean aesthetics to bring an exhilarating class challenging and mastering the body’s ability to move with the central control of the CORE. The class is danced to live percussion music with the resounding beat of the drums to motivate and stimulate the students.