The Oakland Press – Rachel Moulden

Greg Patterson of Warren teaches dance at Oakland University. Courtesy Greg Patterson

Gregory Patterson shares his passion for music and dance through the students he teaches at Oakland University.

“I was always interested in dance as a kid, but was more of a sports guy growing up,” says Patterson, a Warren resident and associate professor of dance, who has been teaching at OU for 21 years.

Part of his duties is leading the Michigan Five, a performance highlighting the best dancers from colleges and universities in the state. Created to demonstrate to high schoolers what Michigan colleges offer in their dance programs, it will be at The Berman Center for the Performing Arts at on March 11.

“It’s an exciting idea because dancers are always looking for outside opportunities to perform,” says Patterson who curates the performance.

Participating this year are dancers from the University Of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, Western Michigan University, Wayne State University and Detroit Renaissance High School.

Schools chosen for The Michigan Five are confirmed in October, and their dances are prepared through their classes, usually modern and contemporary works.

This year’s show is dedicated to Carol Halsted, who was a vibrant symbol in the dance world of Metro Detroit. Halsted, who died in late January, founded the OU dance department and went on to become director of dance at Michigan Opera Theatre.

Patterson’s performance career stretches back to high school and college, where he participated in the musicals “West Side Story,” “Hello Dolly” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” He graduated from Bowling Green University with a psychology degree, but after taking some dance classes he decided to pursue it as a profession.

He eventually earned his master of fine arts degree at the University of Michigan and has danced professionally for more than 30 years — as a member of Harbinger Dance Company, Eisenhower Dance, Ann Arbor Dance Works and Rigmarole Dance Company. On top of that, he’s the dance program director and artistic director of Patterson Rhythm Pace Dance Company, which he created in 2000. And he serves as chairman of the Michigan Dance Council, as well as choreographing and assisting with musicals at Oakland University.

Patterson says he’s incredibly fortunate to be involved in so many aspects of dance, but his biggest challenge is always having too much on his plate.

“I just can’t seem to say no when people ask for help,” he says with a laugh.

For Patterson, the most rewarding aspect is “being able to see students I have trained to go on in life and become successful dancers, working with well-known choreographers, and having the opportunity to tour internationally.”

The Michigan Five performance takes place at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 11, at The Berman Center for The Performing Arts, 6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield Township. This performance is sponsored by Harriet and Irving Berg. For more information about the show or to purchase tickets call 248-661-1900 or visit theberman.org/.

Rachel Moulden for Digital First Media

Oakland County resident David Bateman composed the music for this independent horror movie, “The Dark Below.” Courtesy David Bateman

Since his childhood local music composer, David Bateman, has always had an ear for music. Growing up in Royal Oak, Bateman began to study music at an early age by taking piano lessons.

“I remember my Dad playing this boogie-woogie riff on the piano all the time and being mesmerized that anyone could make that groove with their fingers,” he says.

Bateman, who now lives in West Bloomfield Township, was 15 when his father died, and music became a source of therapy for him. Since then he’s never stopped playing an instrument or learning music. He plays the piano, guitar and trumpet, among other instruments.

Bateman’s start as a music composer came during his high school years, when he wrote a lot of music and instrumentals in various genres for his own enjoyment. In the early ’90s, he was approached by his friend Michael Ozias — with whom he still works to this day — to write music for Ozias’ thesis film at Michigan State University.

“It was then, when I developed a passion for writing music to picture,” Bateman says. “I fell in love with not only the musical aspect of film scoring, but the technical side of things.”

Creating a film score can be challenging, and as he jokingly says, it also requires copious amounts of coffee.

“I take a lot of time trying to make each music score unique and interesting,” he says.

In preparing most of his scores, he gathers a wide range of field recordings to combine them as a hybrid orchestra. From there, he plugs the sounds into special software to create a musical “instrument,” or overall atmosphere.

Bateman says his biggest challenge with music composition is scheduling enough time to work on a film.

“Sometimes the request is to have music completed in two weeks. That’s writing, recording, mastering and delivering the final mix,” he says.

Bateman mostly gets called to work on horror and suspense movies, but prefers composing a wide variety of scores. Some of his favorite films he’s gotten to work on include “World of Art,” “Arlo” and the “The Burping Pig.” He’s also worked on multiple shows on Discovery Channel’s Investigative Discovery series, including “Homicide Hunter,” “Deadliest Catch,” and “People Magazine Investigates.”

His most recent work is in the upcoming indie horror film “The Dark Below.” It is about a woman who struggles to survive under the ice of a lake while a serial killer stalks her from the surface. The film is directed by Douglas Schulze and stars screen veteran Veronica Cartwright, Lauren Mae Shafer, and David G. Brow. It premieres on March 10 in Los Angeles, but as of yet there has been no announcement for a Detroit-area release.

Bateman described this as one of the most challenging films he’s worked on during his career. While he has written 45-50 minutes of music in his average film score, for “The Dark Below” he had to write more than 90 minutes. Plus, this movie has very little dialogue.

“Since the film mostly takes place on and underneath a lake, I created a lot of custom instruments using objects such as ice, water, shovels, axes and ice picks,” Bateman says. “The music needed to tell a story and gradually increase in pace with the mood growing eerie and twisted.”

Before recording many of the parts, to achieve a tense and bone-chilling atmosphere, he held ice cubes in his hands while fans blew cool air on him, making the studio temperature uncomfortable.

“The actors and crew in this film worked through some brutal conditions and did such an amazing job onscreen, that I wanted to share the same commitment and intensity,” Bateman says.

Now he is finishing the score to the thriller “Anders Manor,” starring Christina Robinson (Actor on “Dexter”). After wrapping up that project, he’ll be working on an MMA action film called House Rules which stars Tom Sizemore.

For more information about Bateman visit batemanmusic.net/.

Tag: The Oakland Press

Oakland University dance professor curates The Michigan Five performance

Oakland County resident composes score for upcoming indie horror film “The Dark Below”