Dickinson College grad to talk about his years working with Michael Jackson
If Michael Jackson was the king of pop, Vincent Paterson was the man behind his crown.
In his expansive resume of entertainment projects, the 1972 graduate of Dickinson College spent chunks of the last 25 years choreographing performances for celebrities including Madonna and Jackson, who died last summer.
Paterson, a theater major, will return to Dickinson to discuss his career at 7 p.m. March 31 in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium on West Louther Street between College and Cherry Streets in Carlisle.
He already knows the first question everyone’s going to ask about the “amazing, amazing man” who employed him for 16 years: “Most people what to know what I thought of Michael Jackson,” said Paterson. “Was he a nice guy or was he weird?”
Paterson portrays the white gang leader in the “Beat It” video. He also helped choreograph and played a zombie in “Thriller” before Jackson put him in charge of his moves in “Smooth Criminal.”
“(Jackson) never said a mean thing to anybody,” said Paterson. “He is very much alive in my mind and always in my heart.”
To Paterson, Jackson was the catalyst of his success, not the Wacko Jacko, off-the-deep-end image concocted by the tabloids. “I lived with Michael through all of those years with the press,” Paterson said. “I would sit in the trailer and he would cry. He would say ‘I don’t understand why they want to tear me apart.’”
The 59-year-old, who lives in California’s Hollywood Hills, occasionally hears Jackson’s soft voice in his head -- a voice he can imitate almost perfectly. “He always told me to let the music talk to you,” Paterson said. “Don’t ever impose your thoughts on the music. The music will tell you what it wants to do.”
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