TROUPE EXPLORES LIMITS OF TAP DANCING
DanceHouse’s 10th anniversary season comes to a close with two performances from Dorrance Dance. Formed by New Yorkbased dancer/choreographer Michelle Dorrance in 2010, the company has been lauded as “the future of tap dancing ” by What’s On Stage. For its return to Vancouver, the troupe will perform three pieces. Postmedia News talked to dancer Elizabeth Burke, originally from Chapel Hill, N.C., about starting out in tap and her work with Dorrance Dance.
Q: How did you get into tap?
A: When I was five years old, my mom was reading a local newspaper and she saw an advertisement for a tap-dance performance in the neighbouring town of Durham. It was a Sunday matinee, and she took me and my older sister. I think she was
drawn to it because as a toddler I would watch Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple movies, and (American tap dancer/choreographer) Savion Glover on Sesame Street. We went to see the performance and I was completely spellbound. I don’t think I moved a muscle the entire time. When it was over, I said to my mom, “I have to do this, find out how,” rather than something more polite. Long story short, I began taking lessons with a man named Gene Medler (founder and artistic director of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble), and never stopped.
Q: Are you dancing in all three pieces with Dorrance Dance?
A: I’m dancing in two of the three. The first work incorporates all the dancers and is danced to a recorded Wynton Marsalis tune, Jungle Blues. Each of us, as a soloist or in a duo, transcribes whatever instrument is taking a solo. So the sound of our tap matches up with the horn or whatever else. It’s very whimsical and playful. The second piece, Three to One, involves Michelle and two other dancers; that one won a Bessie (New York-based dance and performance award). The third work is Myelination, our most recent piece. That incorporates completely original music that was co-composed and is performed by our band. In this work, we each explore in our own ways what it means to dance at the edge of our technical capability. It’s something that explores the limitations of our physical and technical range right now. So that’s exciting.
Q: Would this involve speed, or technique?
A: It depends on the dancer.
At its core, tap dance is improvisational. It’s one of the earliest American street forms. It celebrates individual style and expression and approach. She (Michelle Dorrance) lets each of us explore our bag, so to speak, and what the edge of capabilities in our bag are. So I and Michelle and Claudia Rahardjanoto spend a while in a trio section exploring a relaxed technique, which in tap dancing might mean that you execute one movement — say, one throw of your leg — but rather than executing one sound, you’re getting anywhere from three to six or seven sounds.
Q: You mentioned the word whimsical in relation to tap earlier. Can tap also be serious?
A: Yes, the first piece we do, Jungle Blues, is very much rooted in vernacular movement and is a little quirky and wild. But Myelination has an abstract narrative element, and there are definitely moments that very, very stark and troubled and serious. You have moments of exploration of human relationships and how they can be damaging and messed up, and how others can be not damaging and not messed up. I would say overall, Myelination is more serious.