Generosity is an overlooked virtue of a dancer, but shouldn’t it be as valuable as raw talent? It enlivens a stage where a performer is dancing, not only for the audience but also for those who share it. I’ve always known that Ayodele Casel, a tap dancer and choreographer of exceptional depth, was that type of artist, but it took a pandemic to drive her home. Who can bring the stage to life like Casel? And who can bring a virtual work to life as if you were there in person? She is amazing.
“Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic” is a solemn portrayal of artistic encounters: how after a lost year they stay exactly where you left them.
Polished in look and spontaneous to the touch, this virtual production, presented by the Joyce Theater, focuses on Casel who surrounds herself with a variety of staff including modern day choreographer Ronald K. Brown, jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill and the drummer Senfu Stoney. It is a journey – of music and dance – on which Casel brings musicality and nimble feet to every stop along the way.
Directed by Torya Beard, who keeps the show moving wonderfully while recognizing the right spots to slow down and pause, “Chasing Magic” was shot in Kurt by Kurt Csolak, a tap dancer and filmmaker. There is no sad sentimentality that has shaped other virtual presentations here and elsewhere. The theater has never looked so fresh and promising.
The program unfolds in chapters, starting with “gratitude”. Here Casel reveals a premiere with Annastasia Victory on the piano, “Ain’t Nothin ‘Like It”. At first we see Casel’s upper body and only hear soft knocking and brushing on the wooden board; but soon the camera pans to show her whole body – small but strong, sharp and yet fluid.
Casel is more than a container of sounds, as articulated as her emphatic feet; As the music gains momentum and momentum, it uses its entire self – a self full of vibrations – to soften and deepen the pitch and tone.
As we step into the landscapes of “Friendship” and “Joy” there are older works including two collaborations with tap dancer Anthony Morigerato that include recordings of “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Cheek to Cheek”. If you watch the dancers together, you will see two highly sensitive instruments in play. Morigerato jumps lightly across the floor with stocky grace in footwork that braids and opens his feet; In “Fly Me” it culminates in a solo with a devilish twist. While Casel fixed on his feet with joy. She can’t stop smiling, but then again, she never stops smiling. That’s the way it is. And it’s contagious.
Two other dancers, Naomi Funaki and John Manzari, play with Casel and Morigerato in a bubbly quartet playing O’Farrill’s arrangement of “Caravan”: it’s like watching the most incredible band – tight enough to play loosely. But the connection between O’Farrill’s music and Casel’s dance, as seen on her 2019 Joyce debut, is the next level. In “Chasing Magic” they meet again, first for a short conversation in which they talk about what it is like when they perform together.
“When I think of magical moments,” says Casel, “it’s like this complete belief and trust that everything that will be will be.”
In “The Sandbox”, in which O’Farrill plays the piano and Casel dances in front of him, the balance between groove and lightness becomes almost feverish as the tempo of both becomes faster and Casel’s dance takes on a blistering intensity. Meanwhile, the camera moves around them, showing different angles and perspectives of the theater itself – revealing it and also worships it as a container of magic.
As the program progresses, Casel opens the stage to more guests, including Brown, a choreographer known for his poetic amalgamation of contemporary dance moves rooted in African traditions, including West African and Afro-Cuban dance. In “Meeting Place: Draft 1” Brown in head-to-toe white including his sneakers and Casel – later together with Funaki and Manzari – seem to absorb and energize parts of each other while they dance, his body sways and sways like waves made of silk. It is lineage and rhythm, the past and the present that come together in what one hopes will be the beginning of a greater collaboration.
In “The Magic,” singer-songwriter Crystal Monee Hall plays the theme song while the camera flashes at all of the cast and finally the dancers, including Amanda Castro, are spread across the stage for a rousing, joyful finale that spices up the floor with brisk knocks in unison.
When it’s all over, you don’t know exactly what happened: Casel’s theater brand feels real even from a distance. She leaves a farewell note as an homage to all artists who danced in basements, corners of a room, garages, on roofs, 2 x 4 and 4 x 4 pieces of wood. We are superheroes. Pa’lante! Typing is magic. “
And Casel too. Did you know your picture will be on a stamp this summer? Get to know you. She doesn’t have to chase magic. It chases them.
Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic
Until April 21st on JoyceStream; joyce.org.
