Ayodele Casel: Diary of a Tap Dancer

My name is Ayodele Cassell, and I am the writer, choreographer, and I'm in the cast of Diary of a Tap Dancer. I first discovered tap dancing in high school. I was a senior, and my teacher started the course where she was showing us old movies. And in one class, she showed us Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. I think it was Swing Time. All of a sudden, everything went away, and I was just looking at them float through the screen. And I thought, man, that is so cool. In 2019, I had the opportunity to apply to be a Radcliffe Fellow. Thank you. And the project that I submitted was this idea of creating a theatrical work that centered the lives of the Black women tap dancers from the 30s through 50s. Diary of a Tap Dancer is a play with music and dance. It examines and points to the history of tap dance, the present exciting landscape of tap dance today, and brings forth information about Black women tap dancers that people may not be so familiar with. Tap dancing, it's a very improvisational form. It is informed by your lived experience. So I always say where you grew up, the music you grew up listening to, the languages that you speak is what powers and fuels tap dancing. I just felt like, as a woman of color, in these shoes, in these tap shoes, that it was my responsibility to bring them with me so that folks, as they get to learn about me, they also inevitably learn about them. What I hope is that audiences see the power in telling one story and elevating and honoring who they are, where they came from, that they see the power in elevating other people and their stories. I think one of my missions in life is to transform the way audiences view tap dancing, period.