Michelle Dorrance

Dorrance founded her company, Dorrance Dance, in late 2010/early 2011. Its debut performance was on a shared evening with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards at Danspace Project, for which the company received a Bessie Award for "blasting open our notions about tap." Dorrance has since choreographed three evening-length works for the company: SOUNDspace (2012), The Blues Project (2013, a collaboration with Derick Grant, Toshi Reagon and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards), and ETM: The Initial Approach (2014, a collaboration with Nicholas Van Young). Dorrance's choreography has been described as "dynamite," "brilliant," "a marvel," and "a delight." In her current work, Dorrance "pays homage to tradition, yet she does everything differently, and she does everything very, very well." Dorrance's collaborative approach to working with other dancers and musicians has uniquely shaped her work.

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. She is also on faculty as part of Nicholas Van Young's Institute for the Rhythmic Arts (IFTRA). 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. Dorrance is a sought-after teacher at tap dance festivals domestically and abroad, including the American Tap Dance Foundation's Tap City in New York, DC Tap Fest, The North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival, the Stockholm Tap Festival, Brazil International Tap Festival, Chicago Human Rhythm Project's Rhythm World, the Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival, LA Tap Festival, Beantown Tap Festival in Boston, Austin's Soul to Sole Festival, Prague City Tap Festival, New Jersey Tap Festival, and Encontro dos Ritmos in Brazil. Dorrance also directed the Tap Program at The School at Jacob's Pillow in 2014.

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. In 2007, she joined the New York City cast of STOMP, where she received immediate praise, later touring with the North American and international casts. She was also a featured soloist in STOMP creators Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas's opening number for the 2011 Royal Variety Show. She later performed in Emmy-nominated Jason Samuel Smith's Chasing the Bird/Charlie's Angels with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Chloe Arnold in 2007, 2009 and 2011. Dorrance also performs as a bassist and backup vocalist with indie-pop artist and childhood friend, Darwin Deez.

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, current 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.

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.