Tap dance is an integral part of Black history.

And the award-winning New York City tap dance company Dorrance Dance, founded by Michelle Dorrance in 2011, is keen to make sure its historical roots don’t disappear.

Dorrance Dance will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., courtesy of Dance Alliance of the Pikes Peak Region. Tickets are $15-$50; entcenterforthearts.org.

The evening will feature “A Swing Suite,” the choreographic debut of longtime company members Elizabeth Burke and Luke Hickey. It celebrates Black cultural traditions and also Gene Medler, who mentored dancers and choreographers in the company.

Dancers will also perform Michelle Dorrance’s 2013 piece “SOUNDspace|REDUX,” originally a site-specific work that explored the acoustics of St. Mark’s Church in New York City through the sounds and textures of the foot. It has since been adapted for the stage.

“(Michelle) Dorrance orchestrates her dancers as a stylish group, but there is plenty of space for their individual personalities to shine,” wrote critic Lyndsey Winship for The Guardian in 2019.

Tap dance emerged in 19th-century America, born from the integration of West African dances and the clog dances and jigs of Irish, Scottish and English immigrants.

Dorrance Dance’s style of rhythm tap, as opposed to theatrical tap dance, means some of the dancers double as instrumentalists.

“Audience members will get to see all of the dancers improvise as individuals at a really high level,” Michelle Dorrance in a press release.