The Man Behind The Throne

Dance On Film ~ The Man Behind the Throne

Monday, May 19, 2014 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm
  • Library Hall

A new film by Kersti Grunditz featuring Vincent Patterson

Vincent Paterson is the Hollywood choreographer who created defining moves for stars like Michael Jackson and Madonna. He challenges the myth of self-destructive fame as the road to success with his childlike joy of creation, his tough work ethics and his personal integrity. He is an artist unknown to most people, whose work is seen by millions.

Vincent Paterson is the one who told Michael Jackson to grab his crotch and who was called Satan by the Pope after directing the Blond Ambition Tour. He is an artist unknown to most people, but whose moves have been imitated in front of millions of mirrors. An educated and humble man who is the somewhat unexpected link between Madonna and Lars von Trier. A poor boy from Brookhaven, Penn., who became a star choreographer in Hollywood. Director Kersti Grunditz says on IMDB, "I met Vincent in 2001, read his bio and realized I had seen all his work, but never heard of him. After a good deal of persuasion he let me into his life and allowed me to make this intimate documentary."

Run time: 58 min.

The Dance on Film series is presented by the Bud Werner Memorial Library, Perry-Mansfield and Steamboat Dance Theatre.

The free screening includes an introduction by dance history professor and Perry-Mansfield Executive Director Joan Lazarus.

Joan Lazarus

About the film's commentator
Joan Lazarus served as Executive Director of Oakland Ballet, General Manger of Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center, and Executive Director of WestWave Dance, an annual festival of new choreography presented in San Francisco. Joan has performed with or in the works of Alonzo King, Cliff Keuter, Ellen Bromberg, Victoria Morgan, Krissy Keefer, Frank Shawl, Bill DeYoung, Toni Pimble, Richard Colton and Alan Ptashek. She taught at the University of Oregon, Mills College, San Francisco Ballet, Dance Circle of Boston, The Princeton Ballet, RoCo Dance & Fitness, and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, and co-authored the Dance Curriculum Guide adopted by the San Francisco Unified School District. She received Bay Area National Dance Week’s Contribution to the Field of Dance Award in 2006, and in 2012 she received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Sustained Achievement. Lazarus was named 2011 Dance MVP by the San Francisco Chronicle. Joan joined the staff at Perry-Mansfield in June 2012.

About Dance On Film

This Dance On Film series is presented by Bud Werner Memorial Library, Perry-Mansfield and Steamboat Dance Theatre. Perry-Mansfield celebrates its 101st anniversary as the oldest continuously operating arts camp in the United States this year. Steamboat Dance Theatre is a community dance organization presented its 42nd annual concert March 20-22, 2014, in addition to year-round dance scholarships and education programs in Yampa Valley schools and throughout the community. This collaborative and educational dance film series features free screenings of the hottest new dance documentaries along with the finest classic dance films from a variety of genres filmed throughout the ages.