Jo Patrick
Jo Patrick, as the oldest dancer in Celine Dion's Las Vegas show "A New Day," has amassed a wealth of experience. He's intertwined the threads into a memorable career.
It started in Maryland, at the Baltimore School for the Arts. Patrick was one of its first graduating members. From there, he was off to Florida's Disney World. He went on to work at several other theme parks before settling down for 15 years with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago.
It was there he suffered a setback that broadened his view of his career, teaching him the fragility of dance and the need to establish a longevity plan. "In my late 20's, I broke my foot at Hubbard Street. Fifth metatarsal. Doing a saut de basque, a ballet move, which Baryshnikov, you know, does really well, and I don't know if I was trying to be him but anyway, I broke my foot. And it was only in class, so it wasn't onstage or anything, and about six months later, after therapy, I got back and I did it again. Same foot and everything. Same move, same everything. Crazy. And then about three years later I did it again on the other foot. So I decided the double saut de basque will be something I'll no longer do."
It didn't hold him back. His variegated career moved on to two years in the "Fosse" national tour. It was while he was out on the road that he saw an audition notice for Celine Dion's show. "I never thought I would move to Las Vegas and become a showgirl," he jokes, "but you never know."
Patrick opened with the show and in December, he'll close with the show. He says, "If this is where I retired dancing, it would be fine with me. I mean, come on." But he adds, "I would love to continue with Celine. I know she's doing a world tour so that would be great. I mean, I'd go as her court jester if I could."
Nevertheless, not willing to gamble on the unraveling of a good career, he's back in the audition game. "I'm also auditioning for Broadway shows. I'm back and forth to New York and auditioning for anything that's auditioning. And here, too – ‘Spamalot,' ‘Jersey Boys,' ‘Producers.' Anything that comes up, I'm going. I would really like to get back into musical theater and sing," says Patrick
Already an accomplished singer, Patrick has a CD titled "Somebody," almost all of which is original material composed by his brother. Patrick hopes his voice will keep him in the game long past the dance portion of his career. He says, "I find that watching performances, and also on television, I see that people really make their careers much later in life than they expect. I mean, a lot of people don't make it when they're young, unless you're on ‘American Idol,' but you look at actors and they come into their thing when they're like 50, 60. Carol Channing's still performing, for God's sake, and she just got married a few years ago."
The itch to continue in show business, for Patrick, is an artistic calling, not a financial necessity. "I learned early on to save my money. I bought real estate property when I was a dancer early on. I've sold and bought and sold, and now I've got a nice little chunk of change in the bank. I own two homes here in Las Vegas – one I live in and one I rent out."
In addition to being a smart businessman, Patrick has wise advice regarding a dance career: "The two things I really wish I'd taken when I was younger are tap and gymnastics, because I don't feel rhythmically I'm as strong as I could have been had I had tap. And with gymnastics, I can't tell you how many auditions I've gone to, because I'm smaller, and at the very end of the audition after everything they go, ‘Can you tumble?'"
"I don't know if I've lost jobs, but it definitely would've helped me get one. If a choreographer has 10 dancers in the show and they know they want to use some kind of gymnastics and they can hire all 10 people with the skills – gymnastics - in their back pocket, they're going to do that. I would do that as a choreographer."
With or without gymnastics, Patrick knitted his skills into a textured career, full of enviable professional credits and promising avenues. For more on Patrick or to hear a select portion of his CD, visit his web site at www.jopatrick.com.