1
00:00:00,880 --> 00:00:05,560
Speaker 1: Ola Latino USA. Listener, here's a show the Los Archivos.

2
00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:10,080
Speaker 2: This is me so my entry point to it was

3
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:14,560
Speaker 2: Ginger Rogers. But really this is my legacy. This art

4
00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 2: form is my legacy.

5
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:24,160
Speaker 1: From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria

6
00:00:24,239 --> 00:00:29,320
Speaker 1: no Hosa Today, Ayodelic Cassel, the decorated Afro LATINX tap

7
00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:32,840
Speaker 1: Dancer's going to tell us how tap dancing is part

8
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:42,280
Speaker 1: of her legacy. For Ayodelic Casel, tap dancing is not

9
00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:44,159
Speaker 1: just a series of steps.

10
00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:46,680
Speaker 3: For her, it's magic.

11
00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,680
Speaker 1: It's when she feels the most free and able to

12
00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,600
Speaker 1: connect to her cultural heritage. The Bronx native was born

13
00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,680
Speaker 1: to a Puerto Rican mother and a Black father, and

14
00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:01,720
Speaker 1: at a young age she discovered through the silver screen

15
00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:06,840
Speaker 1: transfixed by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. She started recreating

16
00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:10,360
Speaker 1: their moves in her bedroom, but it wasn't until she

17
00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,080
Speaker 1: was a sophomore at the NYU Tish School of the

18
00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:17,360
Speaker 1: Arts that she took her first tap dancing class. She

19
00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:21,360
Speaker 1: was an acting major at the time, but that class

20
00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,720
Speaker 1: changed the course of her life and she's been tap

21
00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,800
Speaker 1: dancing pretty much NonStop for the last twenty six years.

22
00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:34,480
Speaker 1: Since then, she's received a number of accolades and awards,

23
00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:39,200
Speaker 1: despite the field being dominated by male dancers. Ayodele was

24
00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:43,520
Speaker 1: the first woman to be invited to dance for Savion Glovers,

25
00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:48,200
Speaker 1: not your ordinary tap dancers group, and performed in places

26
00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:54,760
Speaker 1: like the White House, Radio City Music Hall, and Carnegie Hall.

27
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,840
Speaker 1: Her work calls attention to how tap dancing is an

28
00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:03,760
Speaker 1: expression of identity, culture, language and communication, and also the

29
00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:09,440
Speaker 1: forgotten history of black tap dancers. On today's episode of

30
00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,960
Speaker 1: How I Made It, Ayodele discusses the black roots of

31
00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,880
Speaker 1: tap dancing and her own journey into the art form.

32
00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:19,360
Speaker 3: Here's Ayodele Cassel.

33
00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:23,960
Speaker 4: My name is Iodele Cassell.

34
00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,800
Speaker 2: I am a tap dancer, choreographer, actor, lover of tesla

35
00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:34,200
Speaker 2: and steak. My name means joy has arrived and it

36
00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:38,160
Speaker 2: is Nigerian Yoruba. My father named me. It's one of

37
00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:43,120
Speaker 2: my favorite things. I am a native New Yorker, proud

38
00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:47,600
Speaker 2: Bronx native. When I was nine, my mom sent me

39
00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:50,760
Speaker 2: to Puerto Rico to live with my grandparents. What I

40
00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:54,120
Speaker 2: do remember the most, at least for that initial landing,

41
00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:57,120
Speaker 2: was feeling like how am I going to communicate? I

42
00:02:57,160 --> 00:02:58,400
Speaker 2: didn't speak the language, at all.

43
00:02:58,639 --> 00:03:00,280
Speaker 4: I knew one word. I knew how to say oh,

44
00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:00,760
Speaker 4: and that was it.

45
00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,400
Speaker 2: My grandparents didn't speak English that well, and my grandmother

46
00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,359
Speaker 2: would teach me with like a letter stencil who those

47
00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,160
Speaker 2: squadro one thing at a time. While I remember struggling

48
00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:13,680
Speaker 2: with the language, there was a seamless transition of when

49
00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:17,360
Speaker 2: you just are speaking it fluently. And I was there

50
00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:19,960
Speaker 2: till I was fifteen. I was supposed to be there

51
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:23,200
Speaker 2: for one year and ended up being six. At the

52
00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,440
Speaker 2: age of seventeen, I was a senior in high school.

53
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:28,760
Speaker 2: My English teacher, she started a course called history of

54
00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:31,799
Speaker 2: the Movies. That's when I first saw FREDI standing Rogers.

55
00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:33,920
Speaker 4: You know, I think I was in lovely Van Hook.

56
00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:34,880
Speaker 3: I know, you were.

57
00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:38,880
Speaker 2: This world that seemed really interesting to me. Like I

58
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,880
Speaker 2: thought Fred and Ginger were like magic, so graceful, and

59
00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:44,240
Speaker 2: they had such great chemistry.

60
00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:46,720
Speaker 4: It was just like it was beautiful to watch.

61
00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:50,760
Speaker 2: There's something in the format of a musical that is

62
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:54,240
Speaker 2: sort of fantastical, and as somebody who just did not

63
00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:59,320
Speaker 2: grow up seeing that, it was really intriguing. And then

64
00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:02,040
Speaker 2: of course tap dancing, if you don't know what goes

65
00:04:02,080 --> 00:04:04,320
Speaker 2: into it, it is a little bit like magic. It's

66
00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,640
Speaker 2: like you see people like moving their feet and all

67
00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:12,920
Speaker 2: of these sounds are coming out. I just wanted to

68
00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:14,560
Speaker 2: be able to move my feet in the way that

69
00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,240
Speaker 2: they did. And I remember like I would go home

70
00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,039
Speaker 2: after school and I'd go to the library to like

71
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:22,520
Speaker 2: rent their movies, and I just close the door and

72
00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:28,719
Speaker 2: try to move like they were. What if I could

73
00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:31,520
Speaker 2: do that, what if I could be Ginger Fully knowing

74
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,039
Speaker 2: that there's no way that this black and Puerto Rican

75
00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:37,400
Speaker 2: girl was gonna ever be considered anything like Ginger Rogers

76
00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:39,839
Speaker 2: because I didn't see people like me who were on

77
00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,680
Speaker 2: screen like that, especially during those thirties and forties and fifties.

78
00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:45,440
Speaker 2: So I remember just sort of that being a fantasy.

79
00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,880
Speaker 2: And then I was an acting major at YU and

80
00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:53,039
Speaker 2: my sophomore year they offered two movement classes that the

81
00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,360
Speaker 2: actors had to take, and it was tap dancing and

82
00:04:56,400 --> 00:04:58,880
Speaker 2: tai chi, and I was like, oh yeah, oh my God, like,

83
00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:01,120
Speaker 2: finally this is going to be my chance to really

84
00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,000
Speaker 2: get to move my feet in the way that I

85
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:05,920
Speaker 2: saw Ginger Rogers doing. So I signed up for tap immediately,

86
00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,159
Speaker 2: and I even got like some shoes that looked like

87
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:11,320
Speaker 2: one of her shoes in the movie. I went to

88
00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:13,440
Speaker 2: pay Less shoe source, because you know, the dance school

89
00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,479
Speaker 2: has cheesy shoes. I got these really cool, like heel

90
00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,160
Speaker 2: suede shoess and I got them tapped up, and I

91
00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:23,760
Speaker 2: felt like I walked into my first class in style.

92
00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,039
Speaker 2: And I was so happy to do my first shuffle.

93
00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:31,160
Speaker 2: I was living my life. About a year after that,

94
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:34,840
Speaker 2: I met someone who was a freshman and he was

95
00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:36,760
Speaker 2: actually a real hood for His name is Bokarie Wilder.

96
00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:39,159
Speaker 4: He was like, yeah, you tap dance. I was like yeah.

97
00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:41,000
Speaker 4: He was like, oh, we should go jam. I was like, yeah,

98
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:42,040
Speaker 4: let's go jam.

99
00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,480
Speaker 2: He took me to that studio and I'm putting up

100
00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,239
Speaker 2: my shoes with my shuffle hopstep for lap ball change,

101
00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:50,920
Speaker 2: just all of the joy and the spirit in the world.

102
00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:54,320
Speaker 2: As I'm leasing up, he starts to warm up. I

103
00:05:54,360 --> 00:06:01,560
Speaker 2: heard him go I had never heard that ever. I

104
00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:06,920
Speaker 2: had heard Dade the Deep, Da Dade Da Da. So

105
00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:09,839
Speaker 2: I realized very quickly that I did not know what

106
00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:16,520
Speaker 2: I was doing. It was a really formative time and

107
00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,000
Speaker 2: really impactful because he was like, oh, wait a minute,

108
00:06:19,279 --> 00:06:21,520
Speaker 2: you know Gregory Hines, right, And I was like, no,

109
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,360
Speaker 2: I don't know him, do you know like Sammy Davis Junior.

110
00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:26,719
Speaker 2: I'm like, God, I didn't know know the Nicholas Brothers. No,

111
00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:33,839
Speaker 2: he said, tap dancing is not just a series of steps,

112
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:36,600
Speaker 2: and it's not combinations that you do in dance class.

113
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:42,400
Speaker 4: This is a real form of expression because it comes

114
00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:44,599
Speaker 4: from you. He's like, you don't even need music.

115
00:06:45,839 --> 00:06:50,520
Speaker 2: He taught me that this art form was really rooted

116
00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:53,400
Speaker 2: in the history of black people in this country, that

117
00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,440
Speaker 2: it is my legacy. I think this art form of

118
00:06:57,520 --> 00:07:01,800
Speaker 2: tap dancing speaks really directly to the history of this

119
00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:05,760
Speaker 2: country and lands squarely at the intersection of race and

120
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:09,920
Speaker 2: gender and appropriation. And we talk about the development of

121
00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,520
Speaker 2: the slave Codes of seventeen forty, for example, born out

122
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:17,120
Speaker 2: of the rebellion that black people in this country they

123
00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,480
Speaker 2: knew rhythm. They were so connected to their power in

124
00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:24,320
Speaker 2: that way that they could start revolts across plantations through

125
00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:32,360
Speaker 2: communicating with specific rhythms, and so when that was discovered,

126
00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:36,600
Speaker 2: laws were enacted in this country to basically ban them.

127
00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,080
Speaker 2: What I love about that story, even though it's completely

128
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:45,520
Speaker 2: steeped in oppression and a dehumanization, is that the spirit

129
00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:47,960
Speaker 2: of a human being, in the spirit of black people

130
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,440
Speaker 2: that what happens when somebody attempts to take away your

131
00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:55,840
Speaker 2: mode of expression and to take away your instrument, you

132
00:07:56,160 --> 00:07:57,119
Speaker 2: find another way.

133
00:07:57,600 --> 00:07:58,800
Speaker 4: You're not going to give me a drama.

134
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,160
Speaker 2: I can make sound with my feet, I can make

135
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:03,880
Speaker 2: sound with my body. I can make sound with my hands.

136
00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:08,840
Speaker 2: The one thing you learn very quickly as a tap

137
00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:12,400
Speaker 2: dance student is that it thrives on your individual expression.

138
00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:15,840
Speaker 2: If I could describe it for somebody who doesn't do it,

139
00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:21,320
Speaker 2: is like if you have an impulse and then naturally

140
00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:26,480
Speaker 2: something starts to build and you get ideas that are

141
00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:31,440
Speaker 2: in rhythm form, and your feet are able to communicate that.

142
00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,000
Speaker 2: So we have steps that have a different number of notes.

143
00:08:36,040 --> 00:08:39,400
Speaker 2: For example, a step is just one note. A shuffle

144
00:08:39,480 --> 00:08:44,800
Speaker 2: has two sounds, shuffule one two, a cramp roll has

145
00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:52,560
Speaker 2: four sounds. It starts to boil up into a rhythmic pattern,

146
00:08:52,800 --> 00:08:59,640
Speaker 2: and it's influenced by really your upbringing. I grew up

147
00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:02,520
Speaker 2: listening Hector Lavo to Ray Boretto, and I grew up

148
00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:04,680
Speaker 2: listening to Oresti's Blato.

149
00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:06,079
Speaker 4: And Fania All Stars.

150
00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:09,720
Speaker 2: And I also grew up in the nineties, which is

151
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,760
Speaker 2: like the height of hip hop. Everything that has entered.

152
00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:17,400
Speaker 2: Your ear has become part of your makeup is available to.

153
00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:20,319
Speaker 4: You when you get this impulse to move. So if

154
00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:27,920
Speaker 4: I had Sada sada, saka da da da, and then

155
00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:29,520
Speaker 4: I can go on and on and on. But all

156
00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:31,520
Speaker 4: of these things just live there.

157
00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:35,440
Speaker 2: And they are available to you to come out in

158
00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:41,040
Speaker 2: whichever way that you so choose. I think it was

159
00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:43,560
Speaker 2: the beginning of a journey of really getting to know

160
00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:46,920
Speaker 2: myself as a human being. But what made me think

161
00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,959
Speaker 2: I can do this forever as a career was when

162
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:51,800
Speaker 2: I saw Bringing the Noise, Bringing the Funk at the

163
00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:56,440
Speaker 2: Public Theater in ninety five. Bringing the Noise, Bringing the

164
00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:59,920
Speaker 2: Funk basically told the history of black people in this

165
00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:04,320
Speaker 2: country through tap dancing from the Middle Passage all the

166
00:10:04,320 --> 00:10:09,040
Speaker 2: way through current times. It was revolutionary because it was

167
00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:12,160
Speaker 2: the first time that tap dancing was seen and heard

168
00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:15,120
Speaker 2: in a way that was not common like the way

169
00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:18,120
Speaker 2: that we think of tap dancing as like timesteps and

170
00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:22,560
Speaker 2: everybody in Unison with arm choreography, kind of like forty second.

171
00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:23,160
Speaker 4: Street type thing.

172
00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:28,400
Speaker 2: It was really a true authentic representation of how the

173
00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:33,680
Speaker 2: forum was living in America. And when I went to

174
00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:37,400
Speaker 2: that show and I saw young black actors, young black

175
00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:41,160
Speaker 2: tap dancers really on stage, like having a story that

176
00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:43,480
Speaker 2: was told through them at.

177
00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,480
Speaker 4: A theater that was around the corner from my school.

178
00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:48,120
Speaker 2: That's when I thought, oh, I want to do that,

179
00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:50,200
Speaker 2: and not only do I want to do that, but

180
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:52,560
Speaker 2: I want to do it to the best of my

181
00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:55,320
Speaker 2: ability and I want to dance with the best. And

182
00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,880
Speaker 2: that is when I first saw a way to do

183
00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:04,240
Speaker 2: this long term. When I started to dance professionally, and

184
00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:07,040
Speaker 2: I happened to come up at a time when the

185
00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:09,160
Speaker 2: focus was on a lot of young men.

186
00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:10,840
Speaker 4: The audience members.

187
00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:11,840
Speaker 2: At the end of the show would say to me,

188
00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:14,840
Speaker 2: I did not know that women's tap dance, or they'd

189
00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:16,880
Speaker 2: be like you, girl, you dance like a man. They

190
00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:19,200
Speaker 2: would say this as though they were giving me compliments.

191
00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:23,200
Speaker 2: So it was that moment of constantly hearing other people

192
00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:26,000
Speaker 2: say those things that made me look for the women

193
00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:27,959
Speaker 2: that look like me. Because I knew about Ginger Rogers

194
00:11:27,960 --> 00:11:30,040
Speaker 2: and Eleanor Powell and Ruby Keeler, and I knew about

195
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:33,040
Speaker 2: all those women, but I didn't know of Jenny Legan,

196
00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:35,040
Speaker 2: I did not know of Lois Bright, I did not

197
00:11:35,160 --> 00:11:38,199
Speaker 2: know about Juanita Pits. I started to call out these

198
00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:41,600
Speaker 2: names just as I was learning them, and I would

199
00:11:41,640 --> 00:11:45,600
Speaker 2: just say Coral La Red, Juanita Pitts, Louise Madison. I

200
00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:48,079
Speaker 2: feel like I can't change the past. What I can

201
00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,480
Speaker 2: do is I can bring them into my experience so

202
00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:53,760
Speaker 2: that when people see mean tap danced, they understand that

203
00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:56,120
Speaker 2: I didn't just get plopped here, and there is a

204
00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,240
Speaker 2: legacy of women behind me who were doing it and

205
00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,840
Speaker 2: who should be name and recognized. It has become a

206
00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:05,880
Speaker 2: practice for me over the last twenty five years.

207
00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,120
Speaker 4: I hold them with me anytime that I'm dancing.

208
00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:13,719
Speaker 2: Then we could talk about appropriation, how a lot of

209
00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:16,960
Speaker 2: the white dancers were royalistic in these black communities and

210
00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:19,640
Speaker 2: taking their work and performing it while black people did

211
00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:20,360
Speaker 2: not have the.

212
00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:22,880
Speaker 4: Right and ability to perform themselves.

213
00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:25,680
Speaker 2: Even when we talk about the silver screen, we know

214
00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:29,559
Speaker 2: Fredistang and Ger Rogers, and we celebrate Fredi Stair very easily,

215
00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:31,920
Speaker 2: but we don't know that one of his teachers was

216
00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:35,479
Speaker 2: John Bubbles, who was a black dancer who actually revolutionized

217
00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:38,480
Speaker 2: the art form by dropping his heels into the ground

218
00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:40,240
Speaker 2: and allowing more.

219
00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:41,680
Speaker 4: Notes to be played with his feet.

220
00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:44,040
Speaker 2: We don't know about Jenny Leaghan, a black tap dancer

221
00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:46,920
Speaker 2: who's actually the first black woman to dance with Bill Robinson,

222
00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:49,240
Speaker 2: who was a huge star at the time. But we

223
00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,959
Speaker 2: know Shirley Temple, we know Sammy Davis Junior and Jimmy

224
00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,000
Speaker 2: Slide and Buster Brown and Chuck Green and all wonderful,

225
00:12:56,360 --> 00:13:00,400
Speaker 2: beautiful tap dancers, but we don't know the women that

226
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:04,120
Speaker 2: were their contemporaries, their colleagues who were also trying to

227
00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:05,440
Speaker 2: work in the same way.

228
00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,240
Speaker 4: Really, the one of my.

229
00:13:17,160 --> 00:13:22,439
Speaker 2: Missions is to really transform the way people view tap dancing,

230
00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,240
Speaker 2: So I'm happy that Chasing Magic kind of allowed that

231
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:32,200
Speaker 2: window into that. We were invited by Aaron Maddox at

232
00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:34,800
Speaker 2: the Joyce Theater. Aaron reached out and said, hey, do

233
00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:38,240
Speaker 2: you want to do something for our virtual season? And

234
00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:40,160
Speaker 2: I was like, I haven't seen any of my friends,

235
00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:42,560
Speaker 2: and I thought, well, how are we going to do this?

236
00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:47,400
Speaker 2: I sent tapes, just video recordings of some choreography, and

237
00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:50,120
Speaker 2: we had one day of rehearsal and then two days

238
00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:51,960
Speaker 2: of actual shooting and.

239
00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:52,440
Speaker 4: That was it.

240
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:59,400
Speaker 2: So it came together like magic, actually very quickly. But

241
00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:04,480
Speaker 2: because we we had really wonderful, committed and focused and

242
00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,120
Speaker 2: generous dancers, we made it happen.

243
00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:10,840
Speaker 4: And Chasing Magic.

244
00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:17,960
Speaker 2: You'll see solos, duets, trios, You'll see full group numbers.

245
00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:24,720
Speaker 2: We're gonna see numbers that are a cappella, numbers that

246
00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:29,720
Speaker 2: swing Latin jazz. You're gonna hear an African and six'

247
00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,520
Speaker 2: eight rhythm just.

248
00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:33,040
Speaker 3: Done with our.

249
00:14:33,040 --> 00:14:35,480
Speaker 2: Feet we're gonna dance to a soft shoe and a,

250
00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:37,000
Speaker 2: waltz and we're gonna like.

251
00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:37,560
Speaker 4: Really hit it.

252
00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:41,560
Speaker 2: Hard What i'm trying to do is just show really

253
00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,000
Speaker 2: the depth of the art form and how much we

254
00:14:44,040 --> 00:14:47,800
Speaker 2: can accomplish with just two pieces of metal on our.

255
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:53,840
Speaker 2: FEET i Think Chasing magic is a celebration of, collaboration, friendship, art,

256
00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:59,880
Speaker 2: life honoring our, experiences honoring our, history and just like

257
00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:02,160
Speaker 2: how all those elements sort of come together to really

258
00:15:02,160 --> 00:15:06,160
Speaker 2: create these little magical. Moments i've read a lot of

259
00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:08,760
Speaker 2: things lately about agism and, dance and one of the

260
00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:12,360
Speaker 2: things That i'm really inspired by about tap dancing is

261
00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:16,160
Speaker 2: that we dance until we no longer, can whether you're

262
00:15:16,160 --> 00:15:19,520
Speaker 2: into your eighties or your. NINETIES i grew up knowing

263
00:15:19,560 --> 00:15:22,560
Speaker 2: that the older you, get the better you, get and

264
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:25,360
Speaker 2: So i've never felt, like, OH i got to get

265
00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:27,240
Speaker 2: make sure to get all my things Before i'm thirty

266
00:15:27,440 --> 00:15:30,720
Speaker 2: or Before i'm, forty IF i feel like tap dancing

267
00:15:30,800 --> 00:15:32,680
Speaker 2: is one of those art forms that it's like, wine

268
00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:38,480
Speaker 2: you get better with. AGE i think one of the

269
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:43,640
Speaker 2: things THAT i have been building towards now is amplifying the.

270
00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:46,040
Speaker 4: Message What i've.

271
00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,880
Speaker 2: Been working so diligently and so many of my peers

272
00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:51,600
Speaker 2: is for people to understand that tap dancing is more than,

273
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,480
Speaker 2: entertainment that tap dancing is more than just people dancing in.

274
00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,400
Speaker 2: UNISON i want people to know that tap dancing is

275
00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:01,160
Speaker 2: a really sophisticated and beautiful, express musical.

276
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,760
Speaker 4: Expression it thrives off of music and.

277
00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:09,240
Speaker 2: Freedom you're connected to something else that nobody can really

278
00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:09,920
Speaker 2: take away from.

279
00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:18,360
Speaker 1: You ayodelei hopes to keep expanding people's understanding of tap.

280
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,840
Speaker 1: Dancing she wants to bring the art form to a larger,

281
00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:26,040
Speaker 1: audience and she's got a big project that's coming up.

282
00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:29,480
Speaker 1: Now she's one of the tap choreographers for The broadway

283
00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:47,400
Speaker 1: revival Of Funny. Girl this episode was produced By Mari

284
00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:49,000
Speaker 1: esquinka and edited By Mitre.

285
00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:51,200
Speaker 3: Bonshahi it was mixed By Gabrielle A.

286
00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:55,720
Speaker 1: Bias The LATINO usa team Includes Andrea Lopez, Grussado Marta,

287
00:16:55,760 --> 00:17:00,640
Speaker 1: Martinez Daisy, Contredras Mike, Sargent Victoria, Stradra Renaldo Leans, Junior

288
00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:03,160
Speaker 1: patrije S ubaran And Julia, rocha with help From Rawu.

289
00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:06,840
Speaker 1: Perees our editorial director Is Fernandes. Santos our director Of

290
00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:09,720
Speaker 1: engineering Is stephanie The. Bo our senior engineer Is Julia,

291
00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:12,200
Speaker 1: Caruso our associate engineer is Jj.

292
00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,520
Speaker 3: Krumin our marketing manager Is Luis.

293
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:18,160
Speaker 1: Luna Our New York Women's foundation fellow Is Elizabeth Lowenthal.

294
00:17:18,240 --> 00:17:21,760
Speaker 1: Torres our theme music was composed by, Saying, Efribinos i'm

295
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:24,439
Speaker 1: your host and executive Producer maria Jo. Josa join us

296
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:26,919
Speaker 1: again on our next, episode and, meantime look for us

297
00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:27,400
Speaker 1: on all of.

298
00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:30,000
Speaker 3: Your social media and remember always do de.

299
00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:37,560
Speaker 5: Yas LATINO usa is made possible in part by The

300
00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:43,840
Speaker 5: Heising Simons, foundation unlocking, knowledge opportunity and. Possibilities more at

301
00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:49,399
Speaker 5: hsfoundation dot, org The Ford, foundation working with visionaries on

302
00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:54,240
Speaker 5: the front lines of social change, worldwide And New York Women's.

303
00:17:54,280 --> 00:17:58,600
Speaker 5: Foundation The New York Women's foundation funding women leaders that

304
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:03,160
Speaker 5: build solutions in their communities and celebrating thirty years of radical.

305
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:10,399
Speaker 2: Generosity i've really stretched And i'm not proud of, that

306
00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:12,960
Speaker 2: and whoever's listening and wants to be a tab answer

307
00:18:13,040 --> 00:18:13,480
Speaker 2: don't take that.

308
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:15,440
Speaker 4: Advice please stretch and roll