The Blues Project features hometown favorites

They have big shoes to fill.

For Michelle Dorrance, her father is a national championship winning coach at UNC and her mother founded the Ballet School of Chapel Hill.

For Toshi Reagon, her parents belonged to the Freedom Singers, a musical group that advocated for civil rights beginning in the 1960s. Her mother founded the internationally-acclaimed folk band Sweet Honey in the Rock.

But when the two take the stage at Memorial Hall tonight for The Blues Project performance, all eyes will be on them.

The Blues Project will feature tap dance group Dorrance Dance / New York alongside Reagon and her band BIGLovely. BIGLovely’s music provides rhythm for the dancers and the dancers provide percussion for the music.

Michelle Dorrance, founder of Dorrance Dance and one of The Blues Project’s choreographers, is a Chapel Hill native. Her father, Anson Dorrance, is the UNC women’s soccer coach and her mother, M’Liss Gary Dorrance, founded the Ballet School of Chapel Hill.

Anson Dorrance said he recalls running into then-UNC Chancellor James Moeser after Michelle’s off-Broadway performance of STOMP at Memorial Hall in 2008.

“The Chancellor was surprised to see me,” he said. “I had to tell him the lead female was my daughter.”

It was this same performance where Michelle caught the eye of the Carolina Performing Arts staff. After The Blues Project debuted in 2013, they recruited the show to Memorial Hall.

“It was something we wanted to do not only because it was a great piece of work, but just with all her connections, it’s a great fit for us, for campus and for Chapel Hill,” said Mark Nelson, a spokesman for Carolina Performing Arts.

Gene Medler was Dorrance’s tap instructor for 10 years when she lived in Chapel Hill. He said he’s eager to see her latest work.

“She’s really pushing the art form into the future and it’s incredible and exciting to watch,” he said, referring to Dorrance’s co-choreographers Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards and Derick K. Grant.

“A lot of times choreographers have great ideas but they don’t have the dancers that can execute them. She does.”

Sumbry-Edwards previously worked as Michael Jackson’s tap instructor and Grant’s work has been featured on the Fox show “So You Think You Can Dance”.

“They’re like Michelle — they’re creative and they’re dedicated and they’re the future of tap,” Medler said.

Michelle Dorrance has been a fan of Reagon for years, but the two officially linked up when Reagon invited her to perform in one of her blues and jazz concerts. Afterward, they decided to work together on The Blues Project.

Joel Richardson, a spokesman for Carolina Performing Arts, said he thinks the fusion of dance and music in The Blues Project will make for a unique performance.

“The audience will get a kick out of the dancing being a part of the music,” Richardson said. “You won’t simply be coming to see one or the other, you’re getting to see both perform at once, creating one piece of performance art.”

arts@dailytarheel.com