Faculty Spotlight: Patrick Hinson

Q: What do you look for most in a student?

A: What I admire most in a student is for them to have an open but inquisitive nature.  My teacher for the last 15 years of my performing career wanting us to be like a white wall waiting to be written upon.  AT the same time it is very important to have an inquisitive nature always searching deeper for the answer.

Q: What are a few specific things you like to focus on in class? 

A: In class I like to begin with a focus on alignment and weight placement as once these are achieved to an optimum they allow much more to be accomplished.

Q: How would describe your teaching style? 

A: I would say that my teaching style is certainly Vaganova based, yet certainly influenced by my years with New York City Ballet.  And, yet further influenced by my final coach Stanley Williams who had been trained by Vera Volkova at the Royal Danish Ballet.

Q: What is your favorite place you have lived in and why?  

A: I do have an affinity for Germany, and specifically Ulm.  It holds a special place in my heart due to the lifestyle and its location in southern Germany close to the Alps, France and Austria.

 

 

Q: Favorite thing you did this summer? 

A: The only thing I actually did this summer was to work in India, although I am not sure that it would classify that as one of my favorite things.

 

 

Q: If you were to have another career (however unlikely), what would it be? 

A: It would have to be architecture, which was my love as a child.

 

Q: Favorite music to dance to (not-ballet)? 

A: Salsa

 

*Interview provided by Kate Webb, Sophomore Dance-Arts Administration Major