Michelle Dorrance was born on September 12,1979 and is an American tap dancer, performer, choreographer, teacher and director.
14 Facts About Michelle Dorrance
1.
2.
Michelle Dorrance is known for her creative ensemble choreography, rhythm tap style and ambitious collaborative projects with fellow tap dance choreographers and musicians.
3.
Michelle Dorrance is currently a 2017 Choreographic Fellow at New York City Center and an Artist in Residence at the American Tap Dance Foundation.
4.
Michelle Dorrance formally trained at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill, founded by her mother.
5.
Michelle Dorrance 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 Mendonca, Van Porter and Dianne Walker.
6.
Michelle 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.
7.
Many of Michelle Dorrance's first professional performances occurred when she was a teenager, with the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble at major international tap dance festivals.
8.
Michelle Dorrance 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.
9.
In 2001, Savion Glover invited Michelle Dorrance to be a founding member of his group Ti Dii.
10.
Michelle Dorrance was a featured soloist in STOMP creators Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas's opening number for the 2011 Royal Variety Show.
11.
Michelle Dorrance was on faculty at Broadway Dance Center in Manhattan from 2002 to 2015, while teaching periodically at Steps on Broadway and Peridance Center in New York.
12.
Michelle Dorrance is on faculty as part of Nicholas Van Young's Institute for the Rhythmic Arts.
13.
Michelle Dorrance has taught at Duke University, New York University, East Carolina University, The Ohio State University, Barnard College, Elon College, UC Santa Barbara and Wesleyan University.
14.
Michelle Dorrance directed the Tap Program at The School at Jacob's Pillow in 2014.