other works

Ways to Now

2021 //  45 min // 20 performers

Untitled Waveforms

2021 //  25 min // 10 dancers // 5 musicians

… Praise: The Inevitable Fruit of Gratitude

2021 // 43 min // 14 dancers // 5 musicians

it’s your choice - kaatsbaan cultural park spring festival

2021 // 12 min // 4 performers

DD128QR

2020 // 5 min // 13 dancers // 3 musicians

Basses Loaded

2019 // 14 min // 4 dancers // 4 musicians

Basses Loaded, for four tappers and four basses (two electric, two standing), had choreography for all, with the instrumentalists circling or closing in on the dancers. At the core of the action was Elizabeth Burke, who tore up the stage in a deft and impassioned solo. Ms. Dorrance watched from behind her electric bass, looking as natural on the periphery as she does in the limelight.”

— Siobhan Burke, The New York Times

Basses Loaded has been commissioned by New York City Center. Support for new dance works at City Center is provided by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

jump monk

2019 company premiere // 10 min // 10 dancers 4 musicians

Harlequin & Pantalone

2019 // 10 min // 2 performers // 2 musicians

Commissioned by New York City Center and Dorrance Dance. Underwritten by Virginia & Timothy Millhiser.

Destination Moon - Fire Island Dance Festival

2019 // 7 min // 8 performers

Elemental

2018 // 70min // 11 dancers // 3 musicians

Choreography: Michelle Dorrance and Nicholas Van Young in collaboration with the performers
Additional Choreography: Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie and Matthew “Megawatt” West
Original Music: Donovan Dorrance, Gregory Richardson, Aaron Marcellus
Featuring Original Composition “Stridulations for Dorrance” by Billy Martin
Additional Music: Charles Mingus

“Elemental is all about playing together, musically and otherwise. Choreographed with Nicholas Van Young from Dorrance’s early, Stomp days, the piece is also elemental in emphasizing the most fundamental thing about music — that it depends on contact. Most often in tap, metal hits wood. But here the palette extended to water and air as well as the sounds the body alone can make: the finger snaps, stomach pats, scats, and so on. Elemental is deeply charming in its whimsy…”

— Apollinaire Scherr, Financial Times

Elemental has been developed in part during the Harkness Dance Residency at BAM Fisher. Underwriting support for this work is provided by Anh-Tuyet Nguyen and Robert Pollock. Hand crafted instruments provided courtesy of artist Adam Morford of MorfBeats, www.morfbeats.com

Until The Real Thing Comes Along (a letter to ourselves)

2017 // 20min // 4 dancers

"Four women entertain the audience to the Nth degree, then gradually reveal the complex characters behind the shiny facade. A brilliant idea, tapped out with gonzo technical chops and energy, each woman her own person, their camaraderie touching."

— Wendy Perron, Dance Magazine

Underwritten by AT Nguyen and Robert Pollock

Works & Process Rotunda Project: Michelle Dorrance with Nicholas Van Young 

2017 // 35min // 16 dancers/musicians

"It was surreal seeing familiar tap steps but hearing them sound completely different because of the acoustics of the space. The sensibility that anything can be a percussive instrument, including the ramps and walls of the Rotunda, pervaded the work... The 40 minute piece was funny yet breathtaking, endlessly entertaining but compositionally brilliant, and as interesting aurally as it was visually."

– Courtney Escoyne, Dance Magazine

Works & Process Rotunda Project: Michelle Dorrance with Nicholas Van Young was commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim.

The Blues Project

2013 // 65min // 9 dancers // 5 musicians

Dorrance Dance with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely, featuring Derick K Grant and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, brings together today’s best tap artists, musicians, choreographers Michelle Dorrance, Derick K. Grant, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and acclaimed composer/musician Toshi Reagon in an innovative evening of rhythm, original live music, explosive energy, and raw emotion. The Blues Project is a creative collaboration that explores the relationship between music, sound, and movement.

The Twelve/Eight

2012 // 6-11min // 5-10 dancers

“One of the most effective numbers was simply tap at its most elemental… layered, contrapuntal rhythms thundered with a thrilling, irresistible groove”

— Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe

Jungle Blues

2012 // 9min // 6-10 dancers

“The world premiere of “Jungle Blues” unleashed undulating torsos, rolling hips, and shimmying shoulders. Knees and feet swiveled side to side like well-oiled levers, and dancers slid across the floor and balanced on toes. Chris Broughton showed off acrobatic splits and flips.”

— Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe

Three to One

2011 // 7.5min // 3 dancers

” …an odd, seemingly impossible marriage of tap and modern dance that came off edgy, seductive and smart.”

— Sid Smith, The Chicago Tribune

hree to One’’ put a tap-shoed Dorrance in between two barefoot dancers, Scott Nicholson and Mishay Petronelli. Stark lighting highlighted feet that skittered, knees swiveling in and out, bodies twisting side to side, casting the contrast between bare feet and hard shoes into sharp relief.”

— Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe

“Dorrance and barefoot guest Mishay Petronelli, both wrapped in black tulle from chest to upper thigh, did side-by-side steps that demonstrated how the shoe itself reflexively changes the quality and effect of the movement. In a second section… with her long hair whipping around her red-lipsticked face and her feet tearing up the stage at the mercy of powerful long legs, (Dorrance) punctuated her rhythms with vocals.”

— Jonelle Seitz, The Austin Chronicle

Remembering Jimmy

2011 // 7min // 7-15 dancers

“Ms. Dorrance’s “Remembering Jimmy”… created in honor of Jimmy Slyde, who was known for his slide step… pays homage to a tap master in both adoring and unaffected terms. It’s hypnotic; the stage is alive with slippery footsteps as dancers – dressed in white and wearing socks – slide from side to side like a flock of ghostly speed skaters.”

— Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

a Petite Suite  (a Petite Suite Revisited)

2010-2011 // 11, 13, or 17min // 5-7 dancers

“A petite suite (revisited)” vividly showcased the stylistic variety in Dorrance’s work, from the hard-stomping precision of “the Machine” to the rubbery-limbed looseness of “the Rag” to folk-tinged line dance in “the Waltz.” The group’s men got to tear it up in “the Boys,” with a sassy, swishy-hipped Nicholas Young, outfitted in gold headband and shorts, camping it up hilariously.”

— Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe

The Blues in "D"

2009 // 20min // 5-8 dancers

“Dorrance herself cut loose … unfurling ripples of delicate taps or hammering out aggressive heel stomps, periodically springing into the air, limbs angled off center or flexed feet tapping heels like ballet beats.”

— Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe

A Suite for the City

2005-2007 // 8min // 8-10 dancers

“…the piece brings out the latent menace of the song. The Beatles and modern-style tap are an unlikely combination, but in this case an extremely effective one.”

— Judy Weightman,The Broad Street Review

“With its anonymous crowds and clenched gestures, this work also captured the song’s pathos.”

— Robert Johnson, The New Jersey Star-Ledger

Bluegrass

2004 // 2 min // 1-5 dancers

At a full sprint, soloists capture the rapid-fire percussion as well as the quirky character innate in the unique sounds of bluegrass: the mandolin, the banjo and the fiddle.