Patty Bender

Patty began her career at Disney World as a choreographer – one of two at the park at that time. Her projects included everything from character shows, to parades, to special events and industrial shows. She left Disney to work and study in New York for five years. While she studied acting and directing, she worked as an actress and choreographer. (One project took her to Japan, where she lived for six months, training the Japanese staff of a new dance program.) Upon her return to Orlando she consulted as a choreographer/director and marketing specialist for a number of professional sports teams directing their professional cheerleading programs. It was during this time that she began her long relationship with Renaissance Entertainment. Over the years Patty has directed, choreographed and produced a multitude of shows and film projects with Renaissance. These include everything from animal shows, action stunt shows, and ski shows to large format and feature film projects. Her projects with Renaissance have taken her around the globe (i.e. Thailand, Spain, Italy, China and India).

In the year 2000, Patty became involved with a very successful theatre production Menopause The Musical as part of the original creative team (choreographer). From 2000-2013, Patty worked as the International Director and Choreographer for all of the MTM productions and created 3 new theatre projects, as well.

Since returning to freelance work with Renaissance Entertainment, she has been a producer on four feature films, overseen the staging and install of a multi-species marine-mammal show (which included aerial performers and acrobats) at a new theme park in China and directed 2 successful shows for Ramoji Film City – a theme park in India located on the property of the largest working film studio in the world.

Her international experiences with Renaissance and MTM have helped her develop a unique ability to work with multi-national performers, technicians, designers and staff (sometimes of widely varying skills sets and abilities) to create high caliber entertainment in a professional, productive and invigorating environment.