Ayodele Casel is an actor, tap dancer, and choreographer. While I Have The Floor, her one-woman show that premiered at Spoleto Arts Festival, revealed her journey to reclaiming language, culture, identity, and expression through the art of tap dance.
The ArtLab’s first artist in residence was Ayodele Casel, organized in collaboration with Harvard University Committee on the Arts (HUCA) and Harvard Dance Center Director Jill Johnson.
Casel is the recipient of a 2017 Hoofer Award and the 2018 Artsmith Transcendence Award, for championing arts education. She was selected to represent City Center On the Move 2019, where she shared her work “Rooted” and engaged with New York City communities. Hailed by the legendary Gregory Hines as “one of the top young tap dancers in the world” and by the New York Times as “a tap dancer of unquestionable radiance,” Casel has become an internationally sought-after artist and a powerful voice for the art form.
While in residence at Harvard, Ayodele hosted a Town Hall, led a tap dance master class at the Harvard Dance Center, and worked with students in the secondary field in Ethnicity, Migration and Rights (EMR) and Latina/ o Studies.
ArtLab podcast Works in Progress episode 4 features Ayodele Casel
Program associated with this residency: Harvard Town Hall with Ayodele Casel on November 1, 2018