We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Patrick Pulkrabek. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Patrick below.
Patrick, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I am hoping to leave a legacy that will be passed on for generations in dancers. My goal for all of my students is for them to be the absolute best version of themselves at all times. To always give their best effort and to hold themselves accountable. One of my favorite quotes is “Why be ordinary when you could be extraordinary.” When I am gone I hope that people will remember the way I made them feel. I hope that they will say that because I believed in them I helped them believe in themselves and push themselves harder. I hope that they say the energy I brought was infectious and bright.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Patrick Pulkrabek and I am a dance teacher and choreographer. I started dancing when I was 6 years old. I attended a dance recital that my cousin was in with my grandparents and I’ve been in love since that day. As a boy wanting to take dance class in the early 90’s I had to put on a lot of self produced shows for my parents until they finally agreed to enroll me in classes. I attended Perpich Center For Arts Education my junior and senior year of high school were I focused on dance. I then attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and received my BFA in dance. While in college I did not get a lot of financial help. I earned 18 credits a semester and worked at Starbucks 30-40 hours week on top of that to be able to pay rent and buy food. I look back at that time now and have no idea how I did that schedule, all I know is that if I was dancing I was happy and I would do ANYTHING to make that happen. After I graduated college I joined Spectrum Dance Theater in Seattle WA and danced professionally for 4 years until an injury forced me to retire. That was a very emotional time for me. I had no idea what to do, all I had ever known and loved was dance! A woman took my open ballet class that I taught and I knew she was an office manager at a dental office. I asked her if I could come in and shadow her for a few days to get some office experience. Long story short while I was shadowing her the dentist really liked me, my vibe, and my work ethic (thanks to the discipline dance has instilled in me) and offered me a job as the front desk receptionist. I was ecstatic! I had my first “office job”! I was the receptionist for 6 months and then I was promoted to Office Manager.
I worked at the dental office for 3 years and started teaching more and more every year. For some reason I did not think it would be possible to have a career as only a dance teacher. But as my schedule started to get fuller I decided to take a leap of faith. I quit the dental office and started teaching dance full time.
I have been teaching at Allegro Performing Arts Academy since 2004. I have choreographed many national award winning pieces including this last summer at Velocity Dance Convention Nationals in Las Vegas my piece “Le Ceour” was the 1st overall Intermediate small group and won the dance down at the gala!
In 2019 I was contacted by a casting company to submit work to NBC’s World Of Dance Season 4! I thought long and hard about this and decided I would ask two of my male students if they would want to do a duet and audition. Both guys were down and we started there. I choreographed 2 dances for them and they flew down to LA to audition. After months of back and forth we were officially casted! That was one of the most stressful and rewarding experiences of my life. When I create my goal is to make an audience feel. Having he ability to do this on national television is something I will be forever grateful for.
While dance is my first love, I also genuinely want to inspire people to be the best they can be at everything. I truly believe we have one shot at this life so lets make the most of it!
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artists is the ability to create something that makes people feel. When I choreograph I always relate to a personal situation in my life. While I don’t expect the audience to completely understand my story, my main hope is that they relate to it, create their own story, and feel something or make them think about something. When that happens it makes me feel like I just won the lottery. The ability to make people think and feel is the greatest reward I could ever ask for.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Dance companies do not pay well. I was working as a professional dancer and working 35 hours a week and I made $350 a week. During my first season I worked at Starbucks and taught dance on the side. Most weeks I would end up working about 60-75 hours. It was wild! I would start Monday morning at 4:15 am at Starbucks. I would get off at 9:15 am and head to the studio and danced from 10-4:30. Tuesdays I would dance 10-4:30 and teach 5-9:30pm. Wednesdays I was back at Starbucks at 4:15 am to repeat Monday schedule, and Thursday was the same as Tuesday. But to be honest I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Dance was my life, it was my blood, it was my world. It didn’t matter what I needed to do I would do it for dance.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Susan Tamcsin