Irish Dance Meets Tap and Ballet at the Vail Dance Festival

Tap dancer and choreographer Michelle Dorrance and Chelsea Hoy of the Trinity Irish Dance Company are debuting a cross-genre work on August 10 at the Vail Dance Festival in Colorado. According to Dance Magazine, the production brings together tap, ballet, and Irish step dancers for a world premiere that integrates New York City Ballet stars with top-ranked Irish and tap performers.

The production is part of the festival’s NOW evening of world premieres. Dorrance, a veteran of the festival for 10 years, is collaborating with Hoy, the co-artistic director of Chicago’s Trinity Irish Dance Company, to merge three distinct dance disciplines in a single studio setting.

The Cast and Collaborative Lineup

The performance features a high-profile cast from the New York City Ballet, including Roman Mejia, Tiler Peck, and India Bradley. They are joined by tap dancers Dario Natarelli and Emiko Nakagawa, alongside a contingent from Trinity Irish Dance Company consisting of Michael Fleck, Maddie Cabral, Anna Gorman, Sofia Dorantes, and Chelsea Hoy.

Dance Magazine notes that Sofia Dorantes is currently the winningest female Irish step dancer in Mexico and is performing in her first season. Dorrance described the collective talent in the studio as a group that is blowing everyone’s minds.

Technical Integration of Tap, Ballet, and Irish Step

The choreographers are focusing on finding a technical middle ground between the different forms. The tap dancers are utilizing skat and soft shoe virtuosity, while the ballet dancers are exploring the percussive elements found in petit allégro, according to the report.

Hoy identifies Irish dance as the common denominator between the styles. She explains that Irish soft shoe shares a lineage with ballet due to French influence, while percussive hard-shoe dance aligns more closely with tap. Hoy describes hard-shoe dance as a dance of resistance that preserved Irish rhythms and culture following the British invasion of Ireland.

Irish Dance in the Concert-Dance Circuit

The inclusion of Irish step dance at the Vail Dance Festival marks a return for Trinity, which last appeared at the event in 1999 during the global popularity of Riverdance. According to Hoy, Irish dance has historically been separated from the contemporary and ballet worlds.

While Trinity has performed at venues like The Joyce and Jacob’s Pillow—where it held a full evening in the Ted Shawn Theatre last summer—Hoy states that dancers often feel a disconnect from other genres. She noted that the Vail project is the first time some of her dancers have felt they literally can exist on the same dance floor as ballet and tap artists.

History of Dorrance and Trinity Collaboration

This project follows previous collaborations between Dorrance and Trinity Irish Dance. The two entities first worked together on the 2020 production American Traffic and more recently on SÉseacht earlier this year.

Dorrance stated she has been a fan of the Trinity Irish Dance Company since the late 1990s, adding that she is thrilled to experience the artists as a collaborator.