4 | OCTOBER 1 - 7, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
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Dorrance Dance will perform Oct. 2 at The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts. The show will also be the official opening of Music Worcester’s 2021-22 season. PROVIDED PHOTO
Dorrance Dance opens season for Music Worcester at Hanover Theatre Richard Duckett Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
Dorrance Dance had a date with Music Worcester last November. “This is the story, I’m afraid, of a ton of performers,” said Michelle Dorrance — dancer, choreographer, MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellow, and founder and
artistic director of the awardwinning New York City tap dance company that bears her name — about the way the pandemic cut into shows and schedules. “The arts and performing artists were about the last to return to doing our job in some normal sense of the word,” she said. As matters have worked out, however, Dorrance Dance will
not only be in Worcester to perform at The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Oct. 2, but the show will also be the offi cial opening of Music Worcester’s 2021-22 season. “I’m so looking forward to it,” Dorrance said. “The reason we do what we do is we believe in live performance.” The program will feature “SOUNDSpace” (2013) with
choreography by Dorrance, solo improvisation by the dancers, additional choreography by Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie and Byron Tittle, and music by Gregory Richardson There will be seven to eight dancers on the stage, with Richardson on upright bass. Originally a 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 and continues to explore what is most beautiful and exceptional about tap dancing — movement as music, Dorrance said. “This is one of my favorite works I’ve ever made,” she sad. St. Mark’s Church is “still a practicing church” that has a dance space and presents See DORRANCE, Page 5
