This show is a revelation and gift! TAP into the holidays with a world premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge: DIARY OF A TAP DANCER! Ayodele (like “deli”) Casel whom we last saw in 2022 at the ART chasing magic, wrote and choreographed this show, directed by longtime collaborator Torya Beard. The production charts (beginning with her natal chart!) Ayodele’s rise through the resistant ranks to become a tap master, and digs down into the roots of this classic dance form in the process. She is joined on stage by 7 virtuosic tappers and a three-piece combo as they tap into the zeitgeist, history, and our hearts. It’s a joyful, inspiring, eye-opening spectacle which reveals again how deep and wide misogyny runs, and how some women outrun it through drive and talent.
Ayodele Casel/Photo:Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
The first act is overlong and feels longer because there’s more talk than tap. I’d streamline some of the talk and punctuate more of it with dance– how she got her name, anecdotal family history, formative and traumatic experiences– and arrive sooner at her awakening to the art of movies then tap dancing as a means of expression and a way to transcend her tough Bronx background. The layered set is simple with gorgeous video projections illustrating much of what Ayodele references. As she tells her life, Ayodele’s delivery is fascinating– lacking the polish of a seasoned actor, but brimming with the warmth and intimacy of someone confiding in a friend–in this case, us. Ayodele’s honesty and vulnerability is moving and keeps the show moving too.
Ayodele Casel/Photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
In Act II, the show comes together, interweaving Ayodele’s personal story and the story of the dance form itself, back to American slaves who tapped out messages they could not speak. Act II unfurls a dance tapestry — long elaborate sequences of intricate steps, rhythmically inspired, free flowing, improvised from one dancer to the next, from their bodies to ours, echoing the history of the art. The production gains even more dramatic momentum as we learn about the roadblocks to Ayodele’s becoming a tap dancer. Who knew tap dancing was such a macho endeavor, and that Ayodele as a half Puerto Rican, half Black woman was frozen out of a circles within circles. We learn of a multitude of impediments: to her gaining experience in this man’s world, to jobs available only to white male hoofers who wished she’d shuffle off to Buffalo. We suddenly have our eyes opened to the hidden history of women of color barred from performing– many of them closeted gay women — some of whom could literally tap circles around their white counterparts, and whose superior skills not only kept them from success and fame, but often got them fired so as not to outshine white female stars whose names are well-known.
Cast of Diary of a Tap Dancer/Photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
What we don’t know are names like Jeni LeGon, legendary tap dancer, actress, instructor, and pioneering African American dancer who was among the first to establish a solo career. She appeared on screen in 24 films, and on stage with Count Basie, Lena Horne and countless luminaries. Before Salt-N- Pepa there were Edwina “Salt” Evelyn and Jewel “Pepper” Welch who by all accounts learned to tap on the streets of Philly and NYC in the 1920’s before becoming tap dancing headliners at the Apollo, wearing pants and bringing down the house with their exuberant and comedic routines during the Big Band era.
Cast of Diary of a Tap Dancer/Photo: Nile Scott Studios and Maggie Hall
As the production builds to Ayodele’s climactic tap routines which stun by virtue of the sheer stamina and inventiveness required, as well as the determination and artistry through which she has reclaimed her identity, we are staggered by what she is conveying in this moment–along with the seven artists who have coalesced with her onstage–as a memory keeper: the sounds of generations of artists stifled and unheard which her tapping channels. She wept on stage and I in my seat as she held center stage and paid these artists full-throated, long overdue tribute. Memories of my own early tap dancing lessons came flooding back to me– the time step, the waltz clog– I couldn’t know as a 5 year old what I know now, that these steps came trailing the hard won moves of those who paved the way and tapped Ayodele into a future which has a long way to go before we are all heard tapping on the same level surface. It’s a beautiful sound.
SEE DIARY OF A TAP DANCER at American Repertory Theater through January 4!
