Ailey/Fordham Rising Junior Becomes First Student Choreographer in Spring Concert

Patrick Coker

A Fordham College at Lincoln Center student achieved a first for the Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. program as the lone student choreographer featured in The Ailey School’s Spring Concert.

Rising junior Patrick Coker’s piece “Although We Don’t See, We Feel” was one of six pieces showcased on May 22 and 23 and was the only piece by a non-professional—a first for the school’s annual Concert.

“Last February, I choreographed a five-minute version of this piece for Global Harmony, an annual performance at The Ailey School that showcases student choreography,” Coker said. “Following the performances, co-director Tracy Inman approached me and asked me to lengthen it to ten minutes for the Spring Concert.

“This was the first student choreography piece ever to be selected, so my dancers and I felt that we had high expectations to live up to,” he said. “It has been an incredible process because I’ve learned so much about myself, and it’s been fun developing my own voice and choreographic style.”

Read more about the experience in a Q&A with Coker.

 

 

— Joanna Klimaski