Music Paterson collaborated with
Michael Jackson,
George Harrison and
Madonna on various projects, including directing and choreographing Madonna's
Blond Ambition Tour, the centerpiece for the
documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (also known as
In Bed with Madonna outside of North America). He created Madonna's "Marie Antoinette/Vogue" performance for the
MTV Awards and her appearance on the Academy Awards. He also choreographed Madonna in the film
Evita (1996). For
Michael Jackson, he is one of the two fighter dancers in "
Beat It" videoclip, and was assistant choreographer and a zombie dancer in "
Thriller". He co-directed and co-choreographed Jackson's
Bad World Tour as well as co-choreographing Jackson music videos "
Smooth Criminal", "
The Way You Make Me Feel", "
Dirty Diana", "
Speed Demon", "
Black or White" and live performances for the
Super Bowl XXVII Halftime show, the
Grammys, and the
MTV 10th Anniversary. He also co-directed and co-choreographed the music video for Jackson's hit "
Blood on the Dance Floor".
Films Paterson directed (with one hundred cameras) and choreographed the musical sequences in
Lars Von Trier's film
Dancer in the Dark, which was awarded the
Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival. He has choreographed several films, including
The Birdcage,
Closer for director
Mike Nichols and
Evita for
Alan Parker.
Threnody, his 2002 short dance-film reflection on September 11, won the Gold Jury Award at the
Houston Cinema Arts Festival. He also choreographed the videos "
Hot for Teacher" for Van Halen and "
California Girls" for
David Lee Roth as well as videos for
George Harrison,
Donna Summer,
Sheena Easton,
Paul McCartney and
Julie Brown. His initiation into the opera world was his direction of the TV program
Anna Netrebko: The Woman, The Voice. The DVD is the top selling classical DVD in European history. He directed the
television film In Search of Dr. Seuss, which received seven
Emmy Award nominations. He choreographed
ABC's
South Pacific starring
Glenn Close and has served as choreographer for several
Academy and
Grammy Award programs. As a cinematic tribute to his direction and choreography in an array of electronic media, The Lincoln Center Film Society presented an evening entitled "Vincent Paterson, Master of the Media." A similar evening was previously held at
Paris'
Cinematheque Francais. Paterson has choreographed sections of films such as
Ruby,
Hook,
The Mighty Quinn, and
Mannequin.
Commercials Paterson has choreographed over two hundred and fifty commercials including commercial campaigns for
Pepsi,
GE,
Rubbermaid and
Nike, directed commercial campaigns for
Payless ShoeSource and
El Pollo Loco, for the television series
Dharma and Greg and a documentary for
Project Angel Food. As a dancer in his early career, he danced for
Shirley MacLaine and was
Barbara Mandrell's partner on her TV series for two years. He appeared in many TV specials with
Lynda Carter,
Cheryl Ladd,
the Osmonds, among others. He partnered both
Olivia Newton-John and
Diana Ross in music videos. Paterson is featured in the
Smithsonian publication, "Masters of Movement: Portrait's of America's Greatest Choreographers." He has also served as a judge on
Bravo's dance reality series
Step It Up and Dance along with fellow choreographer
Nancy O'Meara and actress and dancer
Elizabeth Berkley. The highly acclaimed documentary about Paterson's life, "The Man Behind The Throne," has been shown nationally and internationally and has garnered numerous awards for Swedish director Kersti Grunditz. He was made a Fellow at
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Broadway Paterson's direction of the play
Gangsta Love, set in a boxing club, earned him a
Los Angeles Drama-Logue award for outstanding director. He also directed
Prague's National BlackLight Theater in ''
Gulliver's Travels''. Paterson has a Tony nomination for his work as choreographer on
Kiss of the Spiderwoman, starring
Chita Rivera on Broadway. He choreographed
London's
West End production of
Lenny for director
Sir Peter Hall and
Los Angeles Opera's
Grand Duchess for director
Garry Marshall. Paterson directed the opera
Manon for both the
Los Angeles Opera and the
Berlin Staatsoper which was conducted in
Los Angeles by
Plácido Domingo and starred soprano Anna Netrebko and
Rolando Villazon. In 2009, he directed and wrote
Cirque Du Soleil's
Viva Elvis presented at
Las Vegas'
CityCenter. In 2012, Paterson directed
Loving the Silent Tears, a Broadway-style musical, based on
Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poetry collection,
Silent Tears. 1994 he directed and choreographed in Berlin the
Kander &
Ebb musical
Cabaret. Originally at and now at TIPI. It is the longest running show in Berlin's history. In 2016, he directed and choreographed
Lloyd Webber's musical,
Evita, for the
Ronacher Theater in Vienna. The successful run was extended for 5 months. ==References==