About the company
Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. Founded in 2011 by Artistic Director and 2015 MacArthur Fellow Michelle Dorrance, the company shares the incredibly dynamic range that tap dance has to offer through performance & education. Our goal is to engage with audiences on a musical and emotional level, and to share the complex history and powerful legacy of this Black American art form throughout the country and the world.
“...a sonic distillation of a blistering American past and its perilous present, with a transcendent strength of spirit woven through.”
We have an unconquerable respect for our art form — its traditions and its possibilities.
At its core, tap dance is a subversive form. Rooted in protest and transcendence, improvisation and innovation were paramount to its survival and are innately embedded in its very foundation. We strive to honor this legacy.
Music is at the root of everything we create.
Meet the Artists of Dorrance Dance
Dorrance Dance is made up of truly unique artists; dancers and musicians who are rooted in improvisation with an investment in choreographic exploration and musical composition.
Company Highlights
With the artists of Dorrance Dance, Michelle Dorrance and Nicholas Van Young created the first ever site-specific commission for the Guggenheim Rotunda by Works and Process at the Guggenheim in 2017.
The Blues Project (2013), co-created by Michelle Dorrance, Dormeshia, Derick K. Grant, and Toshi Reagon, won a 2015 Bessie Award for Outstanding Production.
ETM: The Initial Approach (2014) and ETM: Double Down (2016) were developed during residencies at Jacob’s Pillow Dance and the Joyce Theater and have since been performed in 18 states and 8 countries.
Myelination (2017) received a New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project Production Grant and premiered to critical acclaim at NY City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival. This work has enjoyed subsequent runs at the Joyce Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, and extensive international touring.
In 2019, Dorrance Dance celebrated its largest solo engagement in NYC to-date, with a three-night run at New York City Center as part of their 75th anniversary season.
The future of tap dance is limitless.
Expanding our audience and educating the next generation of tap dancers is a vital part of our vision. We want to see tap dance growing in every direction at once — in the jazz club, on the concert dance stage, in music festivals, on television and film, on Broadway, and in all levels of dance education.
We engage communities on tour with lecture demonstrations, workshops, and school performances. We hold an annual tap dance intensive for pre-professional dancers in NYC. We partner with dance education programs to bring the form to public school students of all levels. And we encourage audiences to seek out the incredible range of our extended family of tap dancers performing work today.
We need your help to continue sharing this vital American art form.
Your support means you share in our mission to honor and expand the tap dance tradition. Your contributions to the company mean we are able to perform more, teach more, and invest more in our communities.