Dormeshia, the woman who enlarges tap dance history: Women History Month in Dance, 2021

Women’s History Month in Dance 23, 24, 25. The world of tap has been dominated by men; and white people have taken a large share of the limelight in what many black people feel is their own tradition. In this context, the skill and stardom of Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards (b.1976) is all the more remarkable. Her achievement and glamour are such that the single word “Dormeshia” is now a brand name.

She began dancing at age three. In the last century, she was part of the sensations that were “Black ‘n’ Blue” (she was twelve) and “Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk.” For eleven years, she was tap instructor to Michael Jackson. In this century, she has won two Bessie Awards, as a performer and as a choreographer; a Princess Grace Award; and an Astaire Award (Best Female Performer in Broadway’s After Midnight). Several examples of her rhythmic complexity can be found on YouTube: for example, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M9qiwXhJjko .

A fraction of her amazingly theatrical skill and complex rhythm can also be seen this weekend in the closing “Performance” panel of the online NYU “Alchemy and Effort of Restaging Dance” symposium. (I’m the lucky man who moderates that panel.) Sumbry-Edwards is not a panelists, but she, Jason Samuels Smith, and Derrick K. Grant are seen in “Swingin’ the Miles”, an excerpt from “And Still You Must Swing”. Some of the dance is inevitably improvography, but some addresses the tap legacy of Jimmy Slyde (1927-2008). The dance critic and historian Sally Sommer will be speaking about the historical matters arising.

Wednesday 10 March 

23: Dormeshia

24: Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards

25: Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards