For Bessie Award-winning tap marvel Ayodele Casel, tap dancing is akin to magic. Casel remembers the first time she thought this, while watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers float across the TV screen with effortless poise, two taps on each foot. But like any art form, tap dance has highs and lows. Some days there’s an ethereal connection, while other days demand a chase for inspiration.
“I feel like I kept putting on my tap shoes because I knew the magic was attainable — that feeling of everything coinciding and coming together so beautifully,” Casel said via phone in a recent interview. “I know it’s possible.”
That moment was replicated in Saturday night’s Spoleto Festival USA opening performance of “Chasing Magic” during “Cheek To Cheek,” a heartwarming ode to Astaire and Rogers with a duet performed by tappers Naomi Funaki and Jared Alexander. Their harmonious toe tapping and swift arm movements paired with nostalgic music originating from the 1935 film “Top Hat” transported audience members into young Casel’s shoes — an ambitious dancer enchanted by her predecessors.
Choreographed by Casel and directed by her long-time collaborator and partner Torya Beard, “Chasing Magic” weaves together the magic of tap dance, everyday life and the ebbs and flows entangled with each facet. On Saturday, Casel was joined onstage by five other tap dancers, soul singer Crystal Monee Hall and a cast of live musicians that includes Grammy Award-winning jazz sensation Arturo O’Farrill. A shuffle of tap, jazz and occasional improvisation, “Chasing Magic” commemorates the value of friendship and connection by welcoming longtime and new collaborators onstage.
“It’s also a celebration of just being alive and able to express yourself,” Casel said.
Like a jewelry box brimming with gems, director Beard said “Chasing Magic” is filled with a multitude of brilliant, glimmering numbers. Clad in beige trench coats and lightning bolt tops, the dancers began on stage – tapping, shuffling and cramp-rolling in circles before ending with an array of power poses.
“I think tappers are superheroes,” Casel said from onstage. Another standout performance was “1, 2, 3 More,” a tribute to female tappers who’ve furthered the dance form. “I will speak your name, I am your legacy,” Hall soulfully sang as the show transitioned into this heartfelt routine.
Harmonious with the sounds of speedy toe-tapping, a mix of music rooted in rhythm and groove imbues the show. When Casel and her collaborators tapped and twirled it never felt like they were merely dancing to music. Their taps were constantly in conversation with each musician and instrument, contributing to the music that enlivened Sottile Theater.
O’Farrill and Casel engaged in a dual improvisational piece called “Sand Box,” which O’Farrill said has been evolving since they first collaborated during a metro station “jam session” in the Bronx. The duo was visibly in tune with each other’s energy as Casel tapped beside O’Farrill playing piano — her feet and his fingers synchronized in both vigor and speed.
“You have to enter into a moment and heighten your awareness of the vibe in the room,” O’Farrill said. “The audience, Ayodele, the people backstage — they all contribute to a very specific feeling in the air.”
Saturday night’s performance captured the beaming chemistry of the artists onstage and extended those joyful connections to the audience during several performances as Casel dismantled the fourth wall. Early in the show, she invited the audience to ponder a lived experience they would consider magical, and during the final performance, the artists improvised what they imagine the various states and countries that they call home sound like.
“Where you’re from, your culture, what you eat,” Casel said, “it all inspires how you dance.”
IF YOU PLAN TO GO: Chasing Magic will be showing at Sottile Theater on Sunday May 28 at 6 p.m. and Monday May 29 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $48 to $98.
Natalie Rieth is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.
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