Press Release: Boundary-breaking tap is back at Sadler's Wells

[Jan McNulty]

Wednesday 4 September 2019

Dorrance Dance
Myelination and Other Works
Sadler’s Wells, EC1R 4TN
Thursday 14 - Saturday 16 November 2019
Performances: Thursday - Saturday at 7:30pm
Tickets: £15 - £45
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com 
 

“One of the most imaginative tap choreographers working today” – The New Yorker

Following the success of ETM: Double Down at Sadler’s Wells, named one of the Guardian’s Top Ten Dances of 2017, Dorrance Dance returns from 14 - 16 November with the critically acclaimed Myelination, alongside two shorter works.

 

Transforming the world of tap dance, choreographer, performer and Artistic Director Michelle Dorrance has dedicated her work to exploring the rich traditions and breaking new boundaries of America’s original dance form. In this diverse triple bill, her company Dorrance Dance expands ideas of what tap dance can be.

In the Bessie Award-winning Three to One, Dorrance places herself between two barefoot contemporary dancers, performing to the music of Aphex Twin and Thom Yorke. In Jungle Blues, lively humour is set to the New Orleans swagger of the Grammy Award-winning Branford Marsalis.

 

Closing ensemble work Myelination takes inspiration from electrical transmissions between nerve cells, dancers darting rapidly like firing electrons throughout. Featuring original live music, Myelination showcases each dancer as both a precise ensemble member and a unique improvisational soloist.

 

Dorrance Dance is an award-winning tap dance company based in New York City. The company’s work aims to honour tap dance’s history in a new, dynamic, and compelling context; not by stripping the form of its tradition, but by pushing it - rhythmically, technically, and conceptually.

 

Founder and Artistic Director Michelle Dorrance grew up performing with North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, and has since performed with STOMP, Savion Glover's Ti Dii, and Jon Batiste and Stay Human on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, among others. Dorrance's choreography has been seen around the world, and recent commissions include works for American Ballet Theater, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Vail Dance Festival. Her numerous accolades include a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, a Princess Grace Award, a Capezio Award and many more.
 

NOTES TO EDITORS

 

About Sadler’s Wells

Sadler’s Wells is a world-leading creative organisation dedicated to dance in all its forms. With over three centuries of theatrical heritage and a year-round programme of performances and learning activities, it is the place where artists come together to create dance, and where people of all backgrounds come to experience it – to take part, learn, experiment and be inspired. 

 

Its vision is to reflect and respond to the world through dance: enabling artists of all backgrounds to create dance that moves us and opens our minds, and sharing those experiences with the widest possible audiences – to enrich their lives and deepen their understanding of what it means to be human.

 

Audiences of over half a million come to Sadler’s Wells’ three London theatres each year, with many more enjoying its touring productions at venues across the UK and around the world, and accessing its content through digital channels. Sadler's Wells commissions, produces and presents more dance than any other theatre in the world, embracing the popular and the unknown. Since 2005, it has helped to bring over 170 new dance works to the stage, many of them involving its 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and four Associate Companies – the most exciting talents working in dance today. 

 

Sadler’s Wells nurtures the next generation of talent through a number of artist development initiatives and reaches over 30,000 annually through its learning and engagement programmes.

 

Located in Islington, north London, Sadler’s Wells’ current building is the sixth to have stood on site since entrepreneur Richard Sadler first established the theatre in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera having all started at Sadler's Wells.

 

Sadler’s Wells is to open an additional mid-scale venue in east London in 2022. The new space will be at the heart of the East Bank project, a new cultural and education district in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, which will also include BBC, UAL’s London College of Fashion, UCL and the V&A in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. As well as a 550-seat auditorium, Sadler’s Wells’ new venue will include a choreographic centre and a hip hop theatre academy, the first of their kind in the world to be run by a theatre.

www.sadlerswells.com