Michelle Dorrance

Michelle Dorrance (born September 12, 1979) is an American tap dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher and director. Awarded a MacArthur "Genius Grant", she is the Founder and 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. She is currently a 2017 Choreographic Fellow at New York City Center and an Artist in Residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation. Dorrance lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life 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.C. and the founder and director of the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, and her father Anson Dorrance, long-term coach of the UNC Women's Soccer team, who led the U.S. Women's Soccer Team through the inaugural Women's World Cup in 1991. Dorrance has two younger siblings, Natalie Dorrance Harris and Donovan Dorrance.

Training 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 Gene Medler. 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 Weber, Mark Mendonca, Van Porter and Dianne Walker. This early education from tap dance masters shaped Dorrance's appreciation for the form and its legacy.

Education 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.

Career 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. Dorrance's collaborative approach to working with other dancers and musicians has uniquely shaped her work.

Awards USA Doris Duke Fellow – 2016 JUBA! Award – 2016 MacArthur "Genius Grant" – 2015 Herb Alpert Award – 2014 ATDF's Hoofer Award - 2014 Jacob's Pillow Dance Award – 2013 Princess Grace Award – 2012 Bessie Award Winner – 2011

Performance credits Barbara Duffy & Co. Max Pollak's Rumba Tap Tony Waag's Tap City on Tour Cintia Chameki's Ritmico Rhythm Kaneko's Groovin' High CPD Lynn Dally's JazzTap Ensemble Savion Glover's company Ti Dii Opening Ceremonies for the 2001 Cannes Film Festival 2002 Winter Olympics the Nijinsky Awards the Jerry Lewis Telethon Savion Glover at The Beacon Theatre The Apollo Theater's 70th Anniversary Concert the debut of Improvography at the Joyce Theater