“It’s a man’s world, but I don’t care. I just wanna dance,” declares Ayodele Casel at the end of Act I and again at the beginning of Act II in her new show, “Diary of a Tap Dancer.”
The show, in its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater through Jan. 4, combines narrative, song and dance in a style all its own. Written and choreographed by Casel and directed by Torya Beard, her wife and longtime collaborator, “Diary” tells the story of her life. Anecdotes about Casel’s upbringing, family and relationship to tap are interwoven with the names and stories of the Black women tap dancers who came before her.
We begin in what Casel calls the “boogie down Bronx,” where she’s born to a Puerto Rican mother and a Black father she doesn’t meet until she’s 17. At 9, she is sent by her mother to grandparents in Puerto Rico, and she stays until she’s 15. She speaks eloquently and emotionally about her family, and the stories are frequently moving but funny. Casel is just as good at delivering a joke about her grandfather as she is the story of her uncle’s death by addiction.
She’s supported throughout by an ensemble of dancer-actors who portray characters in Casel’s life and are backup dancers in group numbers. The show stumbles narratively at times, but one place it never fails is in its dance: Casel’s choreography is tight and clean, especially impressive given the amount of movement in this show. The ensemble members – Naomi Funaki, Afra Hines, Quynn L. Johnson, Funmi Sofola, Liberty Styles, Annaliese Wilbur and Ki’Leigh Williams – are talented, shining equally in sneakers or tap shoes. Casel is mesmerizing on her own, her feet moving at lightning speed and her body attuned to the rhythm of the music, but the group is so good she’s almost made better by having them around her. Funaki, Hines and Williams especially stood out for their engrossing performances.
Between the top-notch dancing and Casel’s excellent stage presence, there’s a lot to love about “Diary.” A simple set design by Tatiana Kahvegian provides a canvas for Katherine Freer’s projections, a nice amalgamation of mango trees and apartment buildings that change with Casel’s life. Camilla Dely’s costuming, which alternately has the performers in track pants with sneakers and in costumes with tap shoes, was a fitting way of representing themes in the play, and music director Nick Wilders’ players – Paul Reyes Bueno on bass, Keisel Jiménez Leyva on drums and Carlos Cippelletti on piano – add liveliness.
My biggest qualm with “Diary” is that it takes a long time to get to the tap. Casel doesn’t start dancing until she starts at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the beginning of Act II. Up to that point, Casel and the ensemble use dance to tell stories and illustrate themes, but the narrative isn’t about tap. I recognize the impulse to share Casel’s dance story in the context of the rest of her story, but it took too long to get to the good stuff. And because Casel has had such an illustrious career with varied experiences, Act II winds up feeling rushed and disjointed, without enough time spent on anything for me to feel like I really learned her story. I came away feeling I knew all about her childhood but not much about her dance career, and I wanted more.
“Diary” also struggles to balance Casel’s story with the women whose stories she’s said to be sharing. The interspersed callbacks to historical women are well-intentioned but don’t quite land; they are poorly timed and don’t have a cohesive structure or format, making them more distracting than affecting.
Even so, Casel’s work is a well-developed memoiristic piece unlike any performance I’ve seen. Despite its issues, it’s still worth a trip to the theater. Casel’s tapping alone makes it worth it, and her impeccable ensemble is a euphoric complement.
A stronger
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