From young teens to adults, everyone will be moved by this beautiful story and jaw-dropping dancing.
The world premiere of Ayodele Casel’s “Diary of a Tap Dancer” is playing at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., until Jan. 4, 2025. Directed, choreographed, and performed by Casel, she weaves together her own personal narrative and her phenomenal skills, while also recognizing the female pioneers in the art of tap dancing. The show is 2.5 hours long, being broken up into two acts with one intermission.
Casel was born and raised in the Bronx, and spent six years living in Puerto Rico with her grandparents. She took up tap in her senior year of high school, and went on to become the only woman to ever join Savion Glover’s Not Your Ordinary Tappers. Now 49 years old, she is an award-winning tap dancer and choreographer.
“Diary of a Tap Dancer” portrays Casel’s challenges as a woman of color in the male-dominated industry, and the hard work she put in to reach success. Every monologue is conversational and personal, as if she is having a heart-to-heart with each individual in the audience. Her words flow seamlessly into her tap dancing, with the message she is trying to convey through her movement still being understood clearly.
“These steps are my words,” Casel expresses in the production.
In the second act, as Casel further showcases her own skills, she also recognizes the Black women who were pioneers in tap. She shines light on the shadows that have hidden them throughout history, sharing the stories that they could not tell in their own time.
Lois Bright. Eleanor Powell. The Whitman Sisters. They are names you may not have heard before, but these women from the past come to life as Casel talks about the foundation they laid in the world of tap. Her raw emotion while speaking of these women allows the message to truly sit with you for days after the show.
Aside from Casel, the rest of the cast is made up of seven other dancers: Naomi Funaki, Afra Hines, Quynn L. Johnson, Funmi Sofola, Liberty Styles, Annaliese Wilbur, and Ki’Leigh Williams.
“It is a very validating and emotionally fulfilling experience for me,” Styles said about the production following a Dec. 15 performance.
The performers had the audience laughing, clapping, crying and cheering, and the energy in the room during the tap numbers was electric. Tickets are available online, starting at $35. For information and tickets, go to https://americanrepertorytheater.org.
–Dec. 20, 2024–
