Season 1 - Episode 4 Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard

Talking about Tap, today we are joined in the studio by Ayodele Casel, award winning tap dancer, actor, and choreographer of the current Broadway revival of “Funny Girl” and her collaborator and partner, the Director, Torya Beard. Ayodele and Torya were first at the ArtLab in 2019 and have been advisors to its development since then. They return to Harvard for the premiere of their newest performance, 'Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic' at the American Repertory Theater. Leaders of the Arts both on stage and off Torya is the executive director of A Broader Way, a youth leadership and nonprofit with the mission to amplify the power of women and femmes through the arts. Undercover their magic as we discuss how tap dance has shaped their world and how they plan to use it to improve the lives of others.

Link to Ayodele’s residency page on ArtLab website: https://artlab.harvard.edu/Ayodele-Casel 

New York Times Review of Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/arts/dance/review-ayodele-casel-chasing-magic.html 

Link to purchase tickets: https://www.joyce.org/ayodele-casel-chasing-magic 

Link to Torya’s biography: https://americanrepertorytheater.org/bio/torya-beard/ 

Link to A Broaderway Foundation: https://abroaderway.org/ 

Link to Kristian Hardy’s biography: https://artlab.harvard.edu/people/kristian-hardy 

Works in Progress is recorded and produced in the Mead Production Lab, located on the traditional territory of the Massachusetts people, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. The show is hosted by Bree Edwards and Kristian Hardy, engineered by Kat Nakaji, edited by Jemma Byrne, and produced by the ArtLab at Harvard University with help from Thinkubator Media. Theme music by Kicktracks and Gvidon.

For more information about the show, the ArtLab, and the artists featured, visit artlab.harvard.edu. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching ArtLab at Harvard.