myelination

with jungle blues & three to one

2017

 
Rhythm keeps accumulating and multiplying in ‘Myelination’… it’s an exhilarating ensemble piece, including solos and duets, that switches gears from section to section... The live music — with vocals, piano, guitar, percussion and other instruments — is in a range of appealingly melodic jazz styles; its harmony with the dancing is never simple.
— Alastair MacAulay, The New York Times
 

Myelination (2017), choreographed by Michelle Dorrance, is a full-company work featuring original, live music by Donovan Dorrance and Gregory Richardson with vocalist Aaron Marcellus. This "exhilarating ensemble piece", in which each dancer is both an ensemble member and an improvisational soloist, challenges the performers to take risks and achieve new heights of technical and musical execution inside of the form of tap dance. 

In addition, Bessie-Award winning Three to One (2011), and the whimsical Jungle Blues (2012) complete this program, illustrating the great range that this company is known for.

program details:

  • Run time: 64 minutes

  • Live music

 

myelination

  • Run time: 45 minutes

  • 10 dancers; 3 musicians

  • Choreography:  Michelle Dorrance, in collaboration with and featuring improvisation by the dancers. Additional choreography by Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie & Matthew “Megawatt” West

  • Original Music: Prawn til Dante (Donovan Dorrance and Gregory Richardson) with vocals by Aaron Marcellus

  • Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann

  • Costume Design: Amy Page

three to one

  • Run time: 10 minutes

  • 3 dancers

  • Choreography: Michelle Dorrance

  • Music: Aphex Twin, Thom Yorke

  • Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann

  • Costume Design: Michelle Dorrance and Mishay Petronelli

jungle blues

  • Run time: 9 minutes

  • 10 dancers

  • Choreography: Michelle Dorrance, with solo improvisation by Christopher Broughton

  • Music: Branford Marsalis Quartet

  • Lighting Design: Kathy Kaufmann

  • Costume Design: Amy Page

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[An] effervescent, twitchy piece… [Myelination] showcases a bit of everything: from graceful, gliding swoops to one-armed balances that pull hip-hop back to tap… Throughout, Ms. Dorrance, a brilliant conductor, pushes the boundaries of tap while exposing its true nature: that it is music.
— Gia Kourlas, The New York Times

funding credits

Myelination has been commissioned, in part, by Cal Performances, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California. Myelination (2017 and 2015) has also been commissioned by New York City Center for the Fall for Dance Festival with generous support from the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Music for Myelination (2015) commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.

Myelination was also made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The 2017-2018 creation and presentation of an evening-length version of Myelination is also supported, in part, by a New Music USA Project Grant.

The creation of Three to One was made possible, in part, by the Danspace Project 2010-2011 Commissioning Initiative with support from the Jerome Foundation. Danspace’s Commissioning Initiative is a core component of the Choreographic Center Without Walls (CW²).

 
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