The Choreographer Talks About His Memories

Vincent Patterson is a choreographer who has worked on various projects over the past 25 years, and in Michael Jackson’s videos “Beat It,” “Thriller,” and “smooth Criminal,” he collaborated with Michael as the movement/choreography designer. Today, he is scheduled to speak at Dickinson University about his career, and he knows the question that every interviewer is thinking of—what kind of person was that “amazing amazing man” who employed him for 16 years.

“Most people want to know what I think about Michael Jackson. Was he a good man or was he strange?”

Patterson, 59, who lives in the Hollywood Hills of California, says that he sometimes hears Michael’s soft, whisper-like voice in his head. He is the leader of the white gangsters in the “Beat It” video and one of the dancing corpses in “Thriller.” He says:

“He never said anything mean to anyone. In my mind, he is very much alive and always in my heart. I lived with him through all those years when the media was bad-mouthing him. I would sit in the dressing room and he would cry. He would say, ‘I don’t understand why they want to tear me apart.’”

“He always told me to let the music speak to me. He would say, ‘Never force your own ideas onto the music. The music will tell you what it wants you to do.’”

Source: eMJey / Pennlive.com