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Dancing Across the Globe

From Steward to New York City and then around the world, alumni Patrick Coker '10 was determined to follow his dream.
“There are so many people who have the talent, but a lot of success is what you’re exposed to and how you can get there,” said Patrick Coker '10.

Mr. Coker, a modern dancer with the first company of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has always been clear about his own ambitions to dance professionally. He credits his parents and The Steward School for helping him make it happen.

“Steward sees students for who they are and what they wish to be, and nudges them in that direction,”Mr. Coker said from his apartment in New York City. “Through Steward, I was able to have a pathway to what I dreamed of doing.” 

He went on to explain that the teachers and administrators at Steward, especially former Director of College Counseling Carolyn Brandt, helped him to graduate early and enroll in a partnership program between Fordham University and Ailey. This dream started in Middle School, and by 17, he was dancing on Ailey’s stage. Ailey’s mission is to celebrate and bring together a diversity of both dancers and audiences.

“Dance has not only taken me to New York, but it’s opened up the world to me," he said. "Ailey conducts national and international tours every year, and I’m connected to so many people and places I wouldn’t have been otherwise. I wake up excited every day to go to work.”

Mr. Coker offered this advice for students today: “If you have the passion, you owe it to yourself to follow through with it. I’ve learned through my work that it’s not the most talented people who get the job, it’s the people who work the hardest and are the most determined. My advice to anyone who’s following their passion is 'just keep going.’”
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