48 DANCE DORRANCE DANCE SPONSORED BY SHERMAN CAPITAL MARKETS, LLC SOUNDspace Memminger Auditorium May 31 and June 7 at 8:00pm; June 7 and 8 at 2:30pm Artistic Director and Choreographer Michelle Dorrance, with improvisational solo work by dancers Production Manager/Technical Director Tony Mayes Lighting Designer Kathy Kaufmann Assistant Stage/Production Manager Ali Dietz Costumes Mishay Petronelli Original Live Music Greg Richardson Original Body Percussion Score Nicholas Young Dancers Megan Bartula Elizabeth Burke Warren Craft Ali Dietz (Understudy) Michelle Dorrance Karida Griffith Logan Miller Demi Remick Caleb Teicher Byron Tittle Nicholas Young PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION. Originally a site-specific work that explored the unique acoustics of New York City’s St. Mark’s church through the myriad sounds and textures of the feet, SOUNDspace has been adapted specifically for Spoleto Festival USA and continues to explore what is most beautiful and exceptional about tap dancing—movement as music. DORRANCE DANCE 49 DELTA TO DUSK Memminger Auditorium June 1, 2, 5, and 6 at 8:00pm; June 3 at 7:00pm Artistic Director and Choreographer Michelle Dorrance, with improvisational solo work by dancers Production Manager/Technical Director Tony Mayes Lighting Designer Kathy Kaufmann Assistant Stage/Production Manager Ali Dietz Costumes Mishay Petronelli, Michelle Dorrance, Andrew Jordan Music Toshi Reagon, Etta James, Muddy Waters, Chris Whitley, The Beatles, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, the Squirrel Nut Zuppers, Manu Chao, Radiohead,Stevie Wonder. Dancers Megan Bartula Elizabeth Burke Warren Craft Ali Dietz (Understudy) Michelle Dorrance Karida Griffith Logan Miller Carson Murphy Claudia Rahardjanoto Demi Remick Caleb Teicher Byron Tittle Nicholas Young PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION. Musicians Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Banjo Miriam Chicurel-Bayard Drums/Percussion Warren Craft Supporting Vocals, Acoustic Guitar Michelle Dorrance Vocals, Piano Aaron Marcellus Supporting Vocals, Piano Claudia Rahardjanoto Bass Greg Richardson Electric Guitar, Vocals Darwin Smith Drums/Percussion Nicholas Young Additional support for the 2014 Dance Series is provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance. Additional support provided by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The 2014 Dance Series is sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. These performances are made possible in part through funds from the Spoleto Festival USA Endowment, generously supported by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. CBS News journalist Martha Teichner hosts a “Conversation with Michelle Dorrance” at 5:30pm on June 2 at the Charleston Library Society, 164 King Street. 50 DORRANCE DANCE CHOREOGRAPHER'S NOTE THE COMPANY SOUNDspace MICHELLE DORRANCE (artistic director/choreographer) is one of the most sought after tap dancers of her generation During the winter of 2012-13, when this piece was created, I was and has been described by The New Yorker as “one of the asked to consider my influences, lineage, legacy—“the web of most imaginative tap choreographers working today.” A 2013 connections that new generations of artists trace with the past Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award winner, 2012 Princess Grace through their work”—and I would argue that no dancers call Award-USA winner, 2012 Rockefeller Foundation and Mertz- upon specific individual influences of so many of their masters Gilmore Foundation sponsored Field Dance Fund recipient, and the forms innovators (our ancestors, if you will) more and 2011 Bessie Award winner, Dorrance performs, teaches, directly and more often than tap dancers. Their personalities and choreographs throughout the world. Mentored by Gene Medler, she grew up performing with the North Carolina Youth and unique styles live deeply within most of us. Tap Ensemble and has since performed to rave reviews with I have had the honor of studying with and spending time with STOMP, Manhattan Tap, Savion Glover’s group Ti Dii, Jazz a great number of our tap masters before they passed away: Tap Ensemble, Barbara Duffy & Company, Rumba Tap, Derick Maceo Anderson, Dr. Cholly Atkins, Clayton “Peg-Leg” Bates, Grant’s Imagine Tap and Jason Samuels Smith’s Chasing the Dr. James “Buster” Brown, Ernest “Brownie” Brown, Harriet Bird. She holds a BA from New York University and teaches on “Quicksand” Browne, Dr. Harold Cromer, Gregory Hines, Dr. faculty at Broadway Dance Center. Jeni Legon, Dr. Henry LeTang, LeRoy Myers, Dr. Fayard and Harold Nicholas, Donald O’Connor, Dr. Leonard Reed, Jimmy MEGAN BARTULA began dancing at the age of four in Slyde and Dr. Prince Spencer. I would also like to honor our Michigan. A tap enthusiast from the start, her interests soon living masters by whom I am constantly influenced: Arthur spread to include intensive training in ballet and jazz at Deborah’s Duncan, Dr. Bunny Briggs, Brenda Bufalino, Skip Cunningham, Stage Door, where she spent ten years on their national award- Miss Mable Lee and Dianne Walker. winning competition team. At The University of Michigan, While we are exploring new ideas in this show, we are also Bartula was an executive member, dancer, and choreographer constantly mindful of our rich history. Dr. Jimmy Slyde was the for RhythM Tap Ensemble. Since moving to New York in 2008, inspiration for my exploration of slide work in socks and his she has worked with Derick K. Grant, Lynn Schwab, and Lisa La influence continues to guide this work. In order to tap dance Touche. She is currently a member of Dorrance Dance and she on the original wood floor of St. Mark’s Church, we had to turn continues to train, perform, and teach in New York City and in the Midwest. away from aluminum taps towards using different surfaces on the soles of our feet. Leather soles and wood taps pre-date aluminum taps as they were used in the late 1800s when the ELIZABETH BURKE works with Dorrance Dance and is on faculty at the American Tap Dance Foundation. An alumna form was still called the “buck dancing” or “buck and wing.” of the internationally acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap There is a bit of a historical reference in some of the leather- Ensemble, she spent 11 years under the tutelage of Gene soled work we are doing, in that we explore the sounds of early Medler. She has danced for choreographers Derick K. Grant tap dancing (imagine Bill “Bojangles” Robinson on the balls of and Caleb Teicher, and most recently performed with Dorrance his feet) before introducing the power of the rich bass in the Dance at Jacob’s Pillow Dance and New York City Center’s Fall heels. Tap master, John Bubbles, the game changer, is known for Dance Festival. She appears in the short film Nostalgia, and for revolutionizing the tap dance in this way. We invite you to understudied Jason Samuels Smith’s Chasing the Bird at The experience tap dancing with fresh eyes and ears, with both an Joyce Theater. Burke obtained bachelor’s degrees in political acknowledgement towards the past and look into the future. science and communication arts from Marymount Manhattan College in May. DELTA TO DUSK WARREN CRAFT is a New York City tap dancer who has trained in ballet with both American Ballet Theatre and the School of Tap dance has deep historical roots in the jazz tradition but is American Ballet. As a tap dancer he has been a member of almost half a century older than jazz music itself. It has a legacy Brenda Bufalino’s New American Tap Dance Orchestra, Max of inspiring musical movements (bebop) and influencing Pollak’s RumbaTap, and the Tap City Youth Ensemble, and stylistic innovations in dance (breaking/bboying, house, hip he has worked with Ayodele Casel, Derick K. Grant, Michelle Dorrance, Jason Samuels Smith, Barbara Duffy, Michela hop). In this evening, we aim to explore tap dance’s tremendous Marino-Lerman, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and Jared range in musical sensibility and aesthetic while indulging an Grimes. He has performed at City Center, Lincoln Center, appreciation for its origins and rich traditional vernacular. Dance Theater Workshop, and Central Park’s SummerStage, and he toured with Tony Waag’s Tap City on Tour. Craft has been featured on the cover of Dance Spirit Magazine and in the Dance Magazine article, "Child Prodigies in Dance." He is also the drummer for singer/songwriter Michael Ferraiuolo and is working on his own solo music. ALI DIETZ (understudy, assistant stage/production manager) grew up in Orchard Park, New York, studying at Mary Alice’s Dance Studio under the direction of her mother. After receiving a degree in personal and professional communication from SUNY Geneseo, she moved to New York City and began working for Dorrance Dance in late 2012. She is the Founder of DORRANCE DANCE 51 the non-profit organization Dancers Give Back (DGB), which has Grimes, Max Pollak, Michael Minery, the late Harold ‘Stumpy’ raised over $217,000 for cancer research and patient support. Cromer, and the legendary Mable Lee. Aside from running DGB, she presently teaches tap dance in New Jersey and Buffalo, New York. LEONARDO SANDOVAL began his dance studies at age six, in Piracicaba, San Paolo, Brazil, studying ballet, jazz, modern, theater, KARIDA GRIFFITH is from Portland, Oregon. She has been and song. He has been featured on many TV shows in Brazil, such involved in Dorrance Dance, The Cotton Club’s Sophisticated as Xuxa Park, Pequenos Brilhantes, and Crianca Esperanca. By Ladies, Barbara Duffy & Company, and The Children’s Theatre the age of 18, Sandoval was invited to Los Angeles to take classes Company (Board of Directors). Her stage productions include at Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s Summer Intensive as well as Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel, Radio City Rockettes, Black the LA Tap Fest 2006. In Brazil, Sandoval has worked with Steven and Blue (Henry LeTang and Dianne Walker), New York City Harper, Christiane Matallo, and Heloaldo Castelo Silva.