Empty Hallways: The Kyisha Patterson Story
Published:Sunday | May 11, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Krysta Anderson, Lifestyle Reporter
A mother's love is truly unconditional, and teacher, choreographer and dancer, Kyisha Patterson, was fortunate to have two. For many years, she has remained silent, dancing through her pain, but underneath lies a unique story which centres on the loss of the maternal figures in her life - her grandmother and mother, all during the time she received the blessing of becoming a mother.
Patterson has been a teacher and mentor all her adult life. From the tender age of nine, she developed her passion for dance. "I obtained classical training in ballet, up to five years, before moving on to the Edna Manley Junior Department," she told Outlook.
On the heels of Campion High School, she joined the University Dance Society, while attending the University of the West Indies (UWI) ,where she eventually became president. She has represented Jamaica locally, regionally, and internationally, taking great pride in her craft. She later took things to a whole new level in choreographing with top dance company, L'Acadco, and ultimately made her dream a reality when she started her own dance company, ArabesK Dance Collection. Each November, she hosts her season of dance - Bricolage.
But through this all, she maintained her steady daytime job as a teacher, with a few of her students vying for and winning top awards at the academic level.
On the surface, she appears to be 'having her cake and eating it, too', pursuing both her passions. But these achievements came with more than their fair share of hardships - sacrificing time and energy - just for professional pursuits. She credits her mother's unconditional support for getting her through and excelling at it all. "My mother encouraged the arts. She used to dance for the late Eddie Thomas and she ensured that my brother and I followed our own dreams. Fortunate for us, it was like mother, like daughter, and like son, too, since my brother is also pursuing his performing arts dreams in London. So, I guess you could say we are an arts family."
When she decided to branch off on her own, her mother supported her dream and was there every step of the way, "My mother was the backbone of the company. She got along with all of my dancers, attended most of the major rehearsals and all of the productions, providing refreshment for everyone."
Surrounded by maternal love, when Patterson found out that she would be joining the maternity club, they were both, to say the least, excited. With the relationship with the soon-to-be father up in smoke, she was prepared to be a single mother, and her family took it all as a sign of blessings from God. The harsh blow from life came when death knocked on her grandmother's door in 2006, just a month from Patterson becoming a mother.
If that was not bad enough, Patterson's mother also died in 2008, just a year after Patterson's son, Shaun-Francis Ellis, was born.
Empty Hallway
"When I finally settled in at home, I began feeling this sense of emptiness consume me. My mother and grandmother were both gone, and the images on the walls were almost haunting," she revealed. "Had it not been for the love and encouragement of my friends and family, my son Shaun-Francis and my extended dance family, I am not sure where I would be today." she added.
Through perseverance, she shifted her focus to her dance company. In keeping her passion for dance alive, she has decided for this Mother's Day to offer the gift of dance to all mothers.
Titled 'Midpointe', it takes place today, at the Phillip Sherlock Centre at the UWI, at 6 p.m. and she has dedicated a dance on the line-up called 'Maternal Instinct', to her mother and, to a greater extent, her grandmother.