Auditorium Theatre 2019-2020 Trinity Irish Dance Company

January 18 - March 8, 2020 | AUDITORIUM THEATRE 2019-20 | 19 CHELSEA HOY Trinity Irish Dance Company with Michelle Dorrance and Melinda Sullivan MICHELLE DORRANCE AND MELINDA SULLIVAN [AUD] Describe the experience of working with TIDC. Michelle Dorrance [MD]: Ever since the early 90s, I’ve known Trinity Irish Dance Company to be the only art- driven Irish dance company in the world. When Melinda and I were preparing for our piece, we were watching video of a TIDC performance and getting excited about the possibility of bringing other elements to the table. Every time we had an idea — “What about body percussion?! Drumming? Vocals?” — it would inexplicably show up already integrated in their next piece. It was a joy to experience TIDC’s powerful combination of cultural depth, innovation, and artistry. Their exceptional technical range opened the door to finding an entirely fresh rhythmic vocabulary. Melinda Sullivan [MS]: The TIDC dancers are incredible athletes with a wonderful musical sensibility. That combination, along with their open minds and vigorous work ethics, allowed Michelle and me to truly play and collaborate. Their mission to maintain tradition while pushing stylistic boundaries — an unprecedented vision in the Irish dance realm — made this creation a natural fit. Can you describe the historical connections between tap and Irish step? MD: To learn the legacy and history of tap dance is to learn the history of racial inequality in America, and how the spirit of that inequality was transcended. The first accounts of tap dance in America (initially called “buck dancing” and/or “buck and wing”) date back to the 1800s on slave plantations. In the mid to late 1700s, drums were taken away from African American plantation slaves because it was discovered they were using the rhythms to communicate subversively, organizing escapes and powerful uprisings. Body percussion/hambone (known then as “patting juba”) and tap dance were born both out of a necessity to communicate and survive, as well as an outlet for expression. Tap dance continued to develop throughout the late 1800s in New York City, where African Americans and Irish Americans co-existed, particularly in the Five Points area of lower Manhattan. Contests between these two cultures, where rhythmic and stylistic innovation and constant one-upmanship were paramount, thrust the development of tap dance as a dynamic improvisational form forward and into vaudeville and popular entertainment. These origins have a profound effect on the art form to this day. Why does this piece excite you? MD: American Traffic is a dance that explores identity and discovery. Investigating the intersection of these two percussive forms that are so historically linked gave birth to a significant rhythmic language, and TIDC couldn’t be more suited to [bring] that venture into uncharted territory. MS: Throughout the creative process, we started finding similarities and differences in our approach to the floor, where the weight is held in the body, how to count a musical phrase, and of course, the [dance] shoe itself. All of these elements presented exciting challenges and led to gratifying experiments that we move through in American Traffic . We are proud to be a part of the historic TIDC legacy and are grateful to contribute to such a powerful artistic institution in our dance community. Trinity Irish Dance Company performs at the Auditorium Theatre on February 29@ 2PM and 7:30PM.