Home > Faculty > Tap > Michelle
Dorrance
CURRENT CLASSES:
Michelle Dorrance began dancing
under the Tutelage of Leading Youth
Tap director Gene Medler at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill
in North
Carolina. She spent ten years with his North Carolina Youth Tap
Ensemble performing both as a company member and as a soloist
at the
St. Louis Tap Festival, the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, and
international festivals in Europe and South America. She was
a founding member of Savion Glover's company "Ti Dii,"
performing with
him at the Joyce Theater, Monaco Dance Festival's "Nijinsky
Awards,"
the "2002 Winter Olympics," the "Jerry Lewis
Telethon," and the "Cannes
Film Festival." She has taught and performed as a solo
artist at the
"North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival," the "International
FeetBeat Festival in Finland," "Tap Encontro in Brazil," the "Groovin
High"
workshops in Japan, as well as both the Dusseldorf and the Heidelberg
Stepptanz Festivals in Germany.
Michelle was dance captain and
soloist in the premier run of Common Ground, a spotlight
dancer
with the vintage jazz band "The Squirrel Nut Zippers," as
well as with
the dynamic duo "Bitch and Animal," and was a cultural
ambassador to
Russia for the town of Chapel Hill representing tap dancing
as an
indigenous American art form. Michelle's choreography has been
showcased throughout the country and internationally, and has
been
featured at Jacob's Pillow with Cintia Chameki's "Ritmico,"
at
Birdland with members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, in the
New York
City Tap Festival's Gala performances, as well as in a commercial
for
Toyota Taiwan. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from New York
University's Gallatin school.
Michelle is currently a member of Barbara Duffy and Company,
deez and
deez, Manhattan Tap, and is on faculty at Broadway Dance Center.
She
is honored to have spent time with and has been heavily influenced
by
Gene Medler, Savion Glover, Dianne Walker, Josh Hilberman, Ted
Levy,
Sam Weber, Brenda Buffalino, Barbara Duffy, Buster Brown, Cholly
Atkins, Jimmy Slyde and Mable Lee.
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