Michelle Dorrance on the Blues
April 27, 2015

In an exclusive interview with Dance Magazine editor at large Wendy Perron, Michelle Dorrance discussed her current work, The Blues Project, displaying the disarmingly humble demeanor we’ve come to expect and love from the tapper.

She is honored and thrilled, she says, to have Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Derick K. Grant co-choreographing The Blues Project with her. It’s a unique experience dancing to the blues, she explains, because she is moved more by the vocals and guitar than the percussion and rhythm sections.

When Perron asks what instrument Dorrance would play if she wasn’t busy making music with her feet, she says she “fake plays” harmonica—she’s played it on her tap tours to Europe—and has mastered no more than “three chords and the truth” on guitar and ukulele—to play the blues (and other) melodies she was obsessed with as a child, she says.

When the subject of sexy women tappers like Chloé Arnold’s Syncopated Ladies comes up, Dorrance says she would probably perform best as comic relief in one of their sets, noting it takes a ton of technical skill to be sexy while dancing. Give her six months, she adds, and she might be able to do it.

The Blues Project will have a weeklong run at Jacob’s Pillow this summer. Watch the full interview with Perron here: