"Diary of a Tap Dancer" opens in Massachusetts, pays tribute to women "whose stories were erased"
CAMBRIDGE - Writer, dancer, choreographer and actor Ayodele Casel is telling her own story in a world premiere piece at American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Autobiographical story
Diary of a Tap Dancer isn't only autobiographical, it highlights the often-overlooked Black female dancers of the past.
"The opportunity to tell my story has filled something in me that I think I've been searching for awhile," said Casel.
The play follows her journey from first learning Spanish during the years she spent in Puerto Rico as a child, to returning to New York City as a teenager.
"I always say that your identity is your superpower," said Casel. "To me, that means like everything from the people who raised you, to the foods that you eat, to the languages that you speak. It's important to give voice to that."
When Casel put on her first pair of tap shoes at age 19, she said she was instantly hooked.
"I think it was late and at the same time, I feel like I was tap dancing, like, my entire life," said Casel. "It was very familiar. The thing about tap dancing is that it's about communication and it's about expression and it's about connection. I believe that the language of rhythm is something that we all innately understand."
Honoring dancers before her
Coming up in the tap world, Casel was surrounded by men who weren't always welcoming to women who wanted to dance.
"That didn't discourage me," said Casel. "I just wanted to do it. I was so enamored by the dance, I just wanted to do it."
As she performed more and more, Casel realized a big piece of the art was missing.
"What kind of piqued my interest in wanting to discover who was actually there before me was when I would meet audience members and they would say, 'I didn't know women tap dance! You were amazing. You could do everything they could do!' It was a real revelation to them, that's when I thought, something is wrong," said Casel.
Now she is working to right that wrong and pay tribute to some incredible dancers who were mostly lost to history.
"When I think about the women tap dancing, women whose stories were erased, and when I think about all so many stories of women of color that just get pushed to the background, the ability to take control over that? To me, it feels like very much, like, narrative justice," said Casel. "I was very compelled to say their names, just to bring them into the space. I can't change the past, I wasn't there in the 40s, 50s. I'm not the one who contributed to their erasure but I feel like I can shift this by bringing them into every space that I occupy. In that way, I feel like I've lived a life of real purpose."
Diary of a Tap Dancer can be seen at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge through January 4.
