School of Music, Theatre
and Dance

Varner Hall, Room 207
371 Varner Drive
Rochester, MI 48309-4485
(location map)
Academic Office: (248) 370-2030
Box Office: (248) 370-3013
Fax: (248) 370-2041
[email protected]

Gregory Patterson

Headshot of Greg Patterson
Associate Professor of Dance
Chair, Department of Dance 

Contact: [email protected]
(248) 370-3009


Gregory Patterson
, Associate Professor of Dance, Dance Program Director and Artistic Director of Patterson Rhythm Pace Dance Company, has been teaching at Oakland for twenty-one years. After graduating from the University of Michigan’s graduate program, he has increasingly developed a noteworthy career in dance performance, teaching and choreography. Greg has been dancing professionally for over thirty years during which time he has been a member of Harbinger Dance Company, Eisenhower Dance, Ann Arbor Dance Works, and Rigmarole Dance Company. He has also performed as a guest artist with both the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and the Doug Elkins Dance Company from New York. 

Twice, Greg has been invited to teach, choreograph and perform in Greece as part of the University of Detroit/Oakland University Classical Theatre Study Program, a four week intensive theatre program that recruits students from all over the country to participate in the study and performance of ancient Greek plays. In 1997, Greg’s “signature” piece “Who’s the Boss,” an excerpt from a larger work, was performed in Russia as part of an Eisenhower Dance appearance with the Pushkin Ballet. As a company member of Eisenhower Dance, Greg also performed with the company while in Russia and assisted Laurie Eisenhower (Artistic Director) with setting an original work on the Pushkin Ballet dancers. Greg’s performing career has also taken him on tours of both Mexico and Canada.

As a choreographer, Greg has been quite prolific. He established his dance company in the summer of 2000, when his work was chosen for the Leo Choreography competition at the Jazz Dance World Congress in Buffalo, NY. Since then, his dance company, Patterson Rhythm Pace (PRP), has been both a vehicle and an inspiration for his new work. PRP has steadily gained recognition for its evening performances of original works and collaborative projects with other local artists. In 2001, Greg received the Maggie Allesse Choreography Award for his work Traffic. His choreography has been performed by many dance companies including, Eisenhower Dance, Bal-Chi Dance Company of Chicago, Orchesis Dance Company at Western Michigan University, Michigan Dance Collective Dance Company of Traverse City, and the University Performing Dancers at Bowling Green State University. In 2004, he choreographed Strauss’s Die Fledermaus for the Michigan Opera Theatre, a company he has also performed with in the past. Over the years, Greg has choreographed productions for the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, a professional Equity theatre. Greg was invited to learn and set a dance choreographed by internationally renowned choreographer, Donald McKayle. This project, in conjunction with Arts Academy in the Woods, challenged Greg to learn the original choreography and then re-stage it as a quartet.

In addition to teaching, performing, and choreographing, Greg is a certified Pilates instructor. He developed the conditioning track that was added to the Dance Program’s curriculum for dance majors in fall 2007.

The recipient of a Travis Professorship, Greg’s dance company premiered in New York at the Citibank Ailey Theatre in 2010. Recently, Patterson Rhythm Pace remounted their evening length concert, Swingin’ which is performed with a live jazz band and vocalist.