Thea Patterson

Teaching:

Dance

Bio:

Born in Oakland, California, Thea Patterson holds an MFA in Ballet from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and English from the University of California, Irvine. 

Before receiving her MFA, Thea worked as a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher in the Bay Area. She taught ballet and contemporary techniques to a range of levels and ages. During that time, Thea was a company member, collaborator, and commissioned choreographer with No Strings Attached Dance Company, a project-based company in the Bay Area founded by Lissa Resnick. She has performed with Peninsula Ballet Theater, Natasha Carlitz Dance Company, Danse Lumière, Blue Scorpion Dance Theater, Jaq Dalziel, Alyssa Mitchel, Yuki Fujimoto, and Garrett+Moulton Productions. Her performance with No Strings Attached Dance Company helped to win the Audience Choice Award at PUSHfest Dance Festival in 2018, hosted at ODC Theater.  In 2020, Thea was co-awarded a 2018-2019 Isadora Duncan Dance Award in Outstanding Achievement in Performance Ensemble for her work with Garrett+Moulton Productions at The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

From 2021-2023 Thea worked as a full-time Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Utah, teaching ballet techniques in both the Ballet and Modern Programs in the School of Dance and Beginning Ballet for Non-Major students. Additionally, she taught Pointe techniques and assisted in teaching Improvisation/Choreography in the Ballet Program within the School of Dance. Her research focuses on dissecting the construct of the “ballet body,” its many intersections, and its impact on the physical and mental health of ballet’s practitioners, specifically professional ballerinas. She aims to make ballet more inclusive and joyous on recreational and professional levels. She believes that every body is a ballet body and that learning ballet should be as joyous as it is challenging.