Michelle Dorrance
| Michelle Dorrance | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 12, 1978 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Dancer, Choreographer |
Michelle Dorrance (born September 12, 1979) is an American tap dancer, musician, choreographer, performer, director and teacher. She is the Artistic Director of Dorrance Dance. Dorrance is known for her creative ensemble choreography, rhythm tap style and ambitious collaborative projects with fellow tap dance choreographers and musicians.
Dorrance was raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina by her mother, M’Liss Gary Dorrance, a former dancer with Eliot Feld’s American Ballet Company and the National Ballet of Washington, D.Cc, and the founder and director of the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, and her father, Anson Dorrance, current coach of the UNC Women's soccer team, who led the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team to the World Cup in 1991. Dorrance has two younger siblings, Natalie Dorrance Harris and Donovan Dorrance.
Dorrance formally trained at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, founded by her mother. There, she studied ballet, jazz and tap dance, with tap master educator Gene Medler.
At age eight, Dorrance was accepted into what was formerly known as T.C.T.C. (The Children’s Tap Company), which is now the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble. In addition to providing intensive technical training in tap dance and practice of tap improvisation, Medler introduced his dancers to as many living tap masters as possible. Both through Medler’s mentorship and her own pursuit of further study, Dorrance learned from tap dance greats Maceo Anderson, Dr. Cholly Atkins, Clayton “Peg Leg” Bates, Bunny Brigs, Dr. James “Buster” Brown, Ernest “Brownie” Brown, Harriet “Quicksand” Browne, Dr. Harold Cromer, Arthur Duncan, Gregory Hines, Miss Mable Lee, Dr. Jeni Legon, Dr. Henry LeTang, LeRoy Myers, Dr. Fayard Nicholas and Harold Nicholas (The Nicholas Brothers), Donald O’Connor, Dr. Leonard Reed, Dr. Jimmy Slyde and Dr. Prince Spencer. Dorrance also surrounded herself with the generation of tap dancers who learned from those greats, including Josh Hilberman, Barbara Duffy, Savion Glover, Brenda Bufalino, Ted Levy, Sam Webber, Mark Mendoca, Van Porter and Dianne Walker. This early education from tap dance masters shaped Dorrance's appreciation for the form and its legacy.
Dorrance received a BA from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she created a major that dealt with concepts of American race in relationship to democracy in American culture, themes she explores in her current choreography. During her early years in New York, she attended Buster Brown’s tap jams at Swing 46, where she connected and collaborated with dancers she reveres, like Brown, Glover, Lee, Slyde, Jason Samuels Smith, Michela Marino-Lerman, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Max Pollack.
Many of Dorrance’s first professional performances occurred when she was a teenager, with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble at major international tap dance festivals. She also performed as a soloist with swing-revival icons, the Squirrel Nut Zippers when she was 16, and in 1997 was the youngest cultural ambassador to Russia from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 2001, Savion Glover invited Dorrance to be a founding member of his group Ti Dii. In 2007, she joined the New York City cast of STOMP, where she received immediate praise as the only female member of an all-male cast, later touring with the North American and international casts. She was also a featured soloist in STOMP creators Luke Creswell and Steve McNicholas's opening number for the 2011 Royal Variety Show. She later performed in Emmy-nominated Jason Samuel Smith’s Chasing the Bird/Charlie’s Angels with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Chloe Arnold in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Dorrance also performs as a bassist and backup vocalist with indie-pop artist and childhood friend, Darwin Deez.
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