Elizabeth Burke
(Choreographer/Performer) is a New York City based tap dancer, choreographer, teacher, and performer from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A "deft and impassioned" (The New York Times) dancer, she has worked with Dorrance Dance consistently since their inaugural 2011 season; highlights include being an original cast member of many repertory works. She trained under her mentor, Gene Medler, in the acclaimed North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, performing worldwide. Elizabeth is a sought after teacher, frequently teaching worldwide in festival and conservatory settings. Stage: Carnegie Hall; New York City Center; Sadler’s Wells; Birdland Jazz Club; The Joyce Theater; Screen: The Bride! (dir. Maggie Gyllenhaal); Other career highlights include work with living legend, multi-hyphenate artist Brenda Bufalino, Bessie Award Winner Nicholas Van Young, and Bessie Award Nominee Max Pollak.
Michelle Dorrance
(Artistic Director/Choreographer) 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, Trinity Irish Dance Company, and New York City Center. Michelle 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 Bachelor of Arts from New York University and an honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of North Carolina. She is a Capezio athlete and was recently named an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells.
Luke Hickey
(Choreographer/Performer) is a tap dancer, choreographer, actor and teacher based in New York City. Named by Dance Magazine "25 To Watch" in 2020, Hickey studied with legendary tap educator and founder of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble, Gene Medler. As a choreographer, he has presented at venues including Birdland Jazz Club, Little Island, and Jacob’s Pillow. “never unmusical” (New York Times), Hickey has performed consistently with Dorrance Dance since 2019. As an educator, Hickey is dedicated to passing on the history and wisdom that Gene, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne Walker and many others so generously shared with him. Stage: New York City Center; LA’s The Ford; Detroit Jazz Festival; Guggenheim Museum; Kennedy Center. Screen: The Bride! directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal; “A Bread Factory” directed by Patrick Wang.
Toru Dodo
(Performer) Toru Dodo, a Tokyo-born, Grammy-nominated pianist, composer, arranger, producer, and author, has been a resident of New York City since 1998. A proud alumnus of Berklee College of Music, Dodo has released five albums as a bandleader. As one of New York's most in-demand sidemen, Dodo has worked with jazz legends such as Kenny Garrett, Benny Golson, and Curtis Fuller. He currently performs frequently and travels worldwide with the artist and vocalist Somi. Dodo has also made his mark in theater, serving as a regular pianist for the acclaimed Off-Broadway show Sleep No More from 2011 to 2024.His collaboration on Somi’s Holy Room: Live at Alte Oper with Frankfurt Radio Big Band contributed to the album’s nomination for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Jabu Graybeal
(Performer) From Pittsboro, NC, award winning artist Jabu Graybeal fi rst studied with JUBA award winner Gene Medler and was a member for 9 years of the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble (NCYTE), one of the most renowned youth tap companies in the world. Jabu is a Jacob’s Pillow and YoungArts Foundation alumni who has worked and performed with a diverse group of companies, such as Caleb Teicher & Company, Emmy Nominee Chloe Arnold’s Apartment 33, Justin Peck, Riverdance and America's Got Talent Season 19. He was the fi rst tap dancer to be accepted into the Berklee Global Jazz Institute Workshop at the Newport Jazz Festival. Jabu Graybeal is a touring star member of Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox and 1/2 of music duo SUMMERZOVR.
Addi Loving
(Performer) New York based, is a rising artist in the world of performing arts. Hailing from North Carolina and St. Louis, she trained under Gene Medler in North Carolina, and her talent beamed through her involvement in MUNY St. Louis. A YoungArts winner in 2019 and attendee at Jacob's Pillow, her passion is evident through her performances. With a bright future ahead, Addi is more than thankful every time she joins Dorrance Dance on the stage.
John Manzari
(Performer) John Manzari is a dancer, singer, actor & choreographer. Stage: Funny Girl (OBC); Anything Goes (MUNY); The Tap Dance Kid (Encores!); Bzzz. Television: Law & Order SVU; Black Broadway: A Proud History, A Limitless Future; Rooted; The Kennedy Center at 50. Concerts: one-man shows, Recenter & The First Set; guest appearances with the NY Pops, NSO, Seattle, Houston, Vancouver symphonies and others; The Hot Sardines; Fall for Dance; Fall for Dance North; Amelia Island Dance Festival. Films: Reimagined. Short Films: I Get Knocked Down; Ghost; To: Everything I Love; Slip. Documentaries: Maurice Hines: Bring Them Back; Leonard Soloway’s Broadway.
Gregory Richardson
(Musical Director/Performer) Gregory Richardson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in upright and electric bass and guitar. He is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Music From The Sole and musical director of Dorrance Dance. His compositions for dance have been presented by Lincoln Center Education, Jacob’s Pillow, The Yard, Guild Hall, Works & Process, BAM, The Joyce, and New York City Center, including a collaboration with actor Bill Irwin. He has also performed with Toshi Reagon in her opera Parable of the Sower, toured internationally with indie band Darwin Deez, and played with Grammy-winning artists Keyon Harrold and Marcus Gilmore.
Kathy Kaufmann
(Lighting Designer) Kathy Kaufmann is a New York City native and two-time Bessie recipient. She is resident designer at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, has taught at Sarah Lawrence and NYU, and has toured extensively throughout the world. She designs regularly for Dorrance Dance, Joanna Kotze, The Bang Group, Mariana Valencia, Ephrat Asherie Dance, Vicky Shick, and Music From The Sole.
Christopher Marc
(Sound Designer) is a NYC-based sound designer and production manager from Minneapolis, MN. He has designed and engineered sound for Michelle Dorrance, Music From the Sole, Variety Life Productions, Lincoln Center Restart Stages, Luke Hickey and Michael Jellick, as well as regional and Off-Broadway productions with the Kennedy Center, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, IJB Productions, Aquila Theatre, and Mills Entertainment. Marc also designs/builds custom floors for percussive dance and is owner/operator of @CMarcAudio.
Christopher Gilmore
(Lighting Supervisor) With Luke Hickey: A Swing Suite (Excerpt) at New Victory Dance Festival 2025; A Little Old, A Little New (The Joyce @ Chelsea Factory, American Dance Festival 2022, NVDF 2023)
Christopher Marc
(Sound Designer) is a NYC-based sound designer and production manager from Minneapolis, MN. He has designed and engineered sound for Michelle Dorrance, Music From the Sole, Variety Life Productions, Lincoln Center Restart Stages, Luke Hickey and Michael Jellick, as well as regional and Off-Broadway productions with the Kennedy Center, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, IJB Productions, Aquila Theatre and Mills Entertainment. Marc also designs/builds custom fl oors for percussive dance and is owner/operator of @CMarcAudio.
About Dorrance Dance
Dorrance Dance was founded in 2011 as a tap dance company, passionately committed to sharing the complex history, powerful legacy, and infi nite possibilities of tap dance on a musical, conceptual, and emotional level. After 15 years of being the world’s most lauded tap dance company, Dorrance Dance’s mission has expanded.
As a producing entity, the organization seeks after work that continues to contextualize tap dance’s history and its diaspora in a culturally signifi cant way. The company aspires to support the development and touring of new works that continue to deepen the relationship between tap dance and the forms that have a direct relationship to its lineage.
www.dorrancedance.com | Instagram: @dorrancedance | Facebook: facebook.com/dorrancedance/
As seen in tonight's performance, Dorrance Dance is deeply committed to creating and producing new works and employment opportunities for artists that intersect, innovate, and honor the cultural legacy of tap dance. Please join our mailing list for updates and consider donating to support the art and artists!
Dorrance Dance is generously supported by The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Howard Gilman Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Music USA, The O'Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, One World Fund, and The Shubert Foundation.
Rehearsal and development for this performance was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. These performances are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Offi ce of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Dorrance Dance is a recipient of a U.S. Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, made possible by the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Charles D. Schumer.
