Patricia Dye, a lifelong learner, is currently pursuing her doctorate in Dance Education Ed.D. Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her B.F.A. in Dance Performance at Adelphi University and her M.A. in Dance and Dance Education from New York University.
In 1993 Ms. Dye, founder, co-director, and the principal dancer of the Passing Ancestral Knowledge Along Theater Dance Company (P.A.K.A.) Foundation. Ms. Dye has assisted Professor Dana McBroom-Manno at The 92nd Street Y for over two decades, assisted Mama Manno as a dance educator at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Ballet Hispanico in teaching and staging the tribute to Mama Dr. Katherine Dunham.
Ms. Dye has served as a dance instructor at the New York City Department of Education Office of Arts and Special Projects (OASP) for over 25 years and at Middle School Summer Audition Boot Camp for nine years, preparing students for performing arts high school auditions under the direction of Darlene Garner at Lincoln Center. She is a teacher mentor in the Arnhold New Dance Teacher Support Program managed by Sandra Stratton-Gonzalez and NYCDOE Dance Director, Shirlene Blake. Ms. Dye conducted workshops for over six years at the OASP’s Professional Learning Series for Dance Teachers mentored by Dr. Joan Finkelstein. She has also conducted P.A.K.A. Dunham-based technique and cultural heritage workshops at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development’s Dance Education Program since 2015 in collaboration with Professor Deborah Damast, as well as a guest Dunham teacher for the Dance Department at the Tisch School of the Arts with Sean Curran.
Ms. Dye taught, advised, and directed the student-centered Dance Department at Science Skills High School for Science, Technology & Creative Arts, which includes the Jow-Ile-Bailar student-run, after-school dance companies in DUMBO Brooklyn for 25 years. Ms. Dye has presented workshops for the NYCDOE Region 8 and conferences, including NDEO, SDHS, NDA, and CORD, and was a previous member of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Teacher Advisory Council. Throughout her successful career of over fifty years. Ms. Dye has taught master classes and workshops, choreographed and appeared in videos, industrial shows, Broadway shows, television commercials, and movies throughout the USA and Europe, including professional dance companies such as Forces of Nature and Ballet Schulz Beckman.
Ms. Dye was the Artistic Director of the Restoration Dance Theater at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation for seven years. She has served as assistant and Dance Captain for Baba Dr. Chuck Davis since 1988. Ms. Dye is also a member of the Council of Elders for African Cultural Heritage featured in DanceAfrica at the Brooklyn Academy of Music mentored by Baba Lee Abramson and Mama Kumali. She is a featured Master Dance Educator in the NYS Emmy-nominated documentary PS Dance! Ms. Dye is one of the DEL 92nd Street Y Dance Ambassadors and conducts dance education workshops with Anne Biddle and Jody Gottfried Arnhold. Dye is also the narrator voice of the remote dance learning film PS Dance! “Dance to the Rescue.” In 2021, Dye was a curator for the “Celebrating Diversity” Fashion Institute of Technology International Dance and Music Festival Concert 10th Year Retrospective. In 2020, Ms. Dye was presented with the Dance Teacher of the Year Award by Dance Teacher Magazine. She was also presented with the Artistic Commitment and Dedication Award for DanceAfrica’s 25th Anniversary celebration. She was also presented with the Outstanding Dance Educator Award from the New York State Dance Education Association (NYSDEA) for Pre K-12 Dance Educators in 2022.