Dorrance Dance
Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City celebrating its 10th Anniversary. Led by Michelle Dorrance, the company supports dancers and musicians who embody and push the dynamic range that tap dance has to offer. The company’s mission 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 through performance and education. The company’s inaugural performance garnered a Bessie Award for “blasting open our notions of tap” and the company continues its passionate commitment to expand the audience of tap dance, an original American art form.
Founded in 2011 by artistic director and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Michelle Dorrance, the company has received countless accolades and rave reviews. Dorrance Dance has performed for packed houses at venues including The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York, NY), Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Becket, MA), The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Vail Dance Festival (Vail, CO), Carolina Performing Arts (Chapel Hill, NC), Cal Performances (Berkeley, CA), Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC), among many other colleges and universities across the U.S., and including international venues in Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, England, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Michelle Dorrance
Michelle Dorrance is a New York City-based artist. Mentored by Gene Medler (North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble), she was fortunate to study under many of the last master hoofers. Career highlights include: STOMP, Derick Grant’s Imagine Tap!, Jason Samuels Smith’s Charlie’s Angels/Chasing the Bird, Ayodele Casel’s Diary of a Tap Dancer, Mable Lee’s Dancing Ladies and playing the bass for Darwin Deez. Company work includes: Savion Glover’s Ti Dii, Manhattan Tap, Barbara Duffy and Co., JazzTap Ensemble and Rumba Tap. Solo work ranges from The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to commissions for the Martha Graham Dance Company, Vail Dance Festival, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Center. Dorrance made her Broadway choreographic debut with James Lapine’s Flying Over Sunset at Lincoln Center Theater in 2021. A 2018 Doris Duke Artist, 2017 Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellow and 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Dorrance is humbled to have been acknowledged and supported by United States Artists, The Joyce Theater, the Alpert Awards, Jacob’s Pillow, Princess Grace Foundation-USA, The Field, American Tap Dance Foundation and the Bessie Awards. Dorrance holds a B.A. from New York University and is a Capezio Athlete.
Josette Wiggan
Josette Wiggan has a love for performing that was fostered by Paul and Arlene Kennedy in Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA, Josette’s career highlights include the 2001 Spotlight Award winner in non-classical dance, the 1st National Broadway Tour of 42nd Street, movies Idlewild and Princess and the Frog and studying with Germaine Acogny at L’ecole les Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. Alongside her brother, she was a part of two original casts of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour from 2009-2013. The duo has also been seen in Tireless, a curated show by Michelle Dorrance that had its debut at Jacob’s Pillow in 2017. In addition, Wiggan is a part of Dorrance’s all woman quartet, Until the Real Comes Along and All Good Things Must Come to an End. She is a sought after educator, choreographer and performer and has dedicated her life to the perpetuation of African American Vernacular Jazz Dance.
Hannah Heller
Hannah Heller was a founding member of Savion Glover’s Ti Dii and has appeared with Dorrance Dance, Jane Comfort and Co. and Grand Lady Dance House. New York theater credits include Elements of Oz (3LD) Emily Climbs: Machine Mechànte (The Brick), The World is Round (BAM), The Reception (HERE Arts Center) and Evelyn (Bushwick Starr). Film and television credits include Lemon (Magnolia Pictures/Killer Films), Hard World For Small Things (WEVR) and Jeff and Some Aliens (Comedy Central).
(L - R) Michelle Dorrance, Josette Wiggan and Hannah Heller