Patrick VanBuren trained in his home town of Merritt Island, FL, under Liz Bevilacqua, at Dussich Dance Studio until studying pre-professionally with Peter Stark, Kim Marsh, and Olivier Munoz, at the Orlando Ballet School. Throughout that time he was Florida Dance Masters Junior Mr. Dance and Mr. Dance title holder, as well as a Finalist at the Youth America Grand Prix.

Patrick danced with the Orlando Ballet II, Columbia City Ballet and Ballet San Antonio as a soloist, and Montgomery Ballet and Fort Wayne Ballet as a principal dancer. In 2010 he was selected as one of two senior male competitors representing the US in the USA International Ballet Competition at Jackson, considered to be the Olympics of dance.

Mr. VanBuren is a member of the ABT National Training Curriculum Fellowship. Currently one of 47 people worldwide. He has served as the Assistant Director of the Ballet Conservatory of South Texas, Ballet Master and Artistic Director of Montgomery Ballet Company and School, and as an instructor in the upper school of Fort Wayne Ballet’s Auer Academy. His notable roles with the Florida Ballet are Hilarion in Giselle, Jonathan Harker in Dracula, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, George Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie,  both Russian and the title character in The Nutcracker, and Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream. This is Patrick’s sixth season dancing with The Florida Ballet and third as the professional company’s Rehearsal Assistant.