Renowned tap dancers return to Carrboro

Fans of dance will be afforded a rare opportunity Saturday — the chance to see some of the world’s premier tap dancing talent without leaving the comfort of Carrboro.

The ArtsCenter will host “The Greatest Tap Show Ever” presented by the North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble; the event ends the second day of NCYTE’s 17th annual North Carolina Rhythm Tap Festival.

Over the weekend, some of tap dance’s biggest names will teach lessons for all skill levels before taking to the stage themselves on Saturday. The featured tap performers collectively have appeared on magazine covers, Broadway, “So You Think You Can Dance” and stages across the world.

For two of the instructors, the trip to Chapel Hill is a voyage home. Michelle Dorrance and Elizabeth Burke both developed their tap careers with NCYTE under the tutelage of Artistic Director Gene Medler.

For Burke, who left NCYTE only five years ago, her first festival as an instructor is a humbling homecoming.

“Max Pollak is a genius; Derick Grant is a genius; Michelle Dorrance is a genius; Danny Nielsen is a genius,” Burke said. “Needless to say, it’s a tremendous honor and privilege and incredibly humbling that Gene would ask me to come teach a couple of classes and dance on Saturday night.”

When Burke stopped dancing at NCYTE in 2010, she followed a path forged by NCYTE graduate Michelle Dorrance. Burke joined the prestigious Dorrance Dance Company in New York soon after the company was formed in 2010.

But before NCYTE hosted 17 years of the tap festival, produced several superstars in the international tap dancing scene and graced stages from Beijing to Berlin, the ensemble was born of humble origins, according to Medler, the ensemble’s artistic director and founder.

“We started like a garage band; we started bad and we got good,” Medler said. “It was all kind of innocent and naive in the beginning, and I did all of the choreography, and now I don’t do any of the choreography — it all comes from external creative sources.”

But for Medler, the company’s shining moments are not exclusively followed by the applause that his company has come to enjoy whenever they perform, like with the reaction to their performance at the Kennedy Center.

“There are small moments along the way when you see a dancer grow or evolve right in front of your eyes, and those are extremely rewarding too.”

Even though performer and teacher Derick Grant wasn’t raised under Medler’s instruction in Chapel Hill, he feels at home when the festival brings him back to the Triangle.

“This is probably the fifth or sixth time I’ve performed at the festival, which is a huge honor, and it’s starting to feel like home away from home; there’s a level of comfort and commitment that comes with being a part of the village raising those dance children.”

This sentiment is a product of the culture that Medler has curated through his dedicated work in Chapel Hill.

“Most teachers have their students for a year, but these kids start when they’re 8, and I have them until they’re 18,” Medler said.

“I see a lot of changes in them, and it’s really like a family.”

arts@dailytarheel.com