EDGE Interview: Liberty Styles on Liberating Tap in ART's 'Diary of a Tap Dancer'

The world premiere of Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard's new work, "Diary of a Tap Dancer," is enjoying a run right now at the American Repertory Theater in Harvard Square. It runs through January 4 at the Loeb Drama Center. For more information, follow this link.

A much-needed corrective of how the contributions of women of color in tap dance have been glossed over, the show is also a look at Casel's own career, recounting her "life from her roots in The Bronx and Puerto Rico while celebrating the extraordinary and often-overlooked women tap dancers who paved the way."

The "electric new play weaves together dance, narrative, and song to reveal the power of reclaiming language, culture, and one's own identity," a release from the A.R.T. says,

There's more to the topic than a single work of theater can address, but the A.R.T. is enhancing the experience with a partnership with the nearby Brattle Theatre that allows patrons to enjoy a "Tap in Film" series of Friday matinee screenings. Also, a special post-show conversation, "Legacy of Women in Tap," slated for Dec. 21, will let the audience engage with tap icon Diane Walker, performer Naomi Funaki, and Ayodele Casel as they "share their relationships with the art form, journeys as tap dancers, and the legacies they hope to carry forward with A.R.T. Advisor Priscilla H. Douglas" (per the A.R.T.'s website).

The A.R.T. cautions the show "contains racial slurs, discusses domestic violence and drug use, and includes historical references to enslaved and oppressed people. It also contains haze and flashing lights." It is "recommended for ages 13+."

Dancer Liberty Styles, who identifies as genderfluid and uses she/they pronouns, chatted with EDGE about the show – and her own journey – in a recent phone conversation.

EDGE: Liberty is a great name. Is it a stage name or chosen name?

Liberty Styles: Ironically, Liberty Styles is my given name at birth. I spent quite a while going by Libby, and then I was like, "What am I doing? I love it!" I'm very grateful my parents gave me the name they did. They definitely shouldn't be surprised that I'm an artist, given that they gave me that name.

EDGE: I notice you go by she/they pronouns. Do you consider yourself part of the non-binary community?

Liberty Styles: Yeah, I consider myself a non-binary person, and also a woman. It's like both, and I think I've been coming into my myself and my own with the more work I've done the past few years with my gender fluidity. So, who knows – it may change, but "she" or "they." Preferably both, but not at the same time.

EDGE: Do you see a relationship between gender fluidity and dance?

Liberty Styles: Oh yeah. I think it's definitely related. I think that from the time I was young I have always enjoyed gender performance – like, the performance of gender. I did flamenco for a long time before I started doing tap, and while I was doing that I gravitated towards masculine presentations in that cultural form, which looks quite a bit different than masculinity in tap to dance. It looks different in each dance form, obviously, but I find it interesting to play with gender in movement.

I've also been doing quite a bit of drag in the past couple of years, experimenting with drag. I took a class with a drag performer and got to meet a lot of other performers, many of them non-binary, who were doing drag and also bringing in their other skills. That also really helped empower me to lean into femininity. Seeing drag as performance has allowed me to embrace the gender energy in performance more fully, because I haven't always had that experience in the past of being in certain circles. There's more of a binary, a stricter idea of who gets to do what on stage. But there's a lot of playing with gender in embodying different types of characters, different types of people, through movement.

Watch this rehearsal video of "Diary of a Tap Dancer"

EDGE: You mean in this production specifically, or tap in general?

Liberty Styles: In this particular production there's a lot of fluidity in terms of what role we're taking in any given scene. We're not necessarily particular characters. We are in some senses, but we're really flowing in the story to create how we're there for the storytelling. We're embodying different characters, and some of them are very masculine, while some of them are more feminine. That's fun for me.

EDGE: Is this a biography of Ayodele Casel, as the title suggests, or is it more an illustration of themes that Ayodele wants to examine in the work?

Liberty Styles: I think both. She's telling her story, and as the play progresses it becomes a vehicle for other themes, illustrating some experiences that are shared among women dancers of color. There's a lot of different points that are made and stories that are told. She's reclaiming her narrative, and within the story, as it goes into her career as a tap dancer, that's where we, as actors, are able to bring in our own stories. It also touches a lot on the history of women who were overlooked and queer people who were overlooked, including non-binary and trans people.

It's got a lot of layers, like an onion. The more it goes along, the more it unfurls in terms of whose story it is. It starts in [the biographical] format, and then it kaleidoscopes. But the theme is very much about honoring people who may not have gotten their flowers when they were alive, and narrative justice around who gets to tell their stories. It touches on why things are erased, lost in history. It's pretty deep, and it's also got tap dance in it, so it's really fun and very vibrant, and gives people who maybe don't know about tap dance culture a look into what those experiences are like behind the stage. It gives a little more context, which is cool because I think this is enabling people to see tap dancers in a more holistic way, and the story really is about tap. I've never been part of a production like that, so I've been enjoying the vibe.

EDGE: Tap dance used to be something people would see a lot in the movies, and maybe on stage as well, but now it seems like you don't see it or hear about it as much. Do you feel like tap dance has become more of a niche or specialized art form?

Liberty Styles: Yeah, it's interesting. There's been a lot of different branches on the tree of tap, if that makes sense. You just spoke to one, which was my first reference point – like, seeing Gene Kelly in the movies. There were certain eras where there was a boom in awareness about tap, like in the movies. Also, like the Harlem Renaissance – everyone had a tap dance, and 20 themes and different movements. It's interesting how that has played out in terms of who gets to be seen.

Just to bring it back to what this role is really about, when things went into the movies, it was harder for Black folks to be seen in the movies. There was a lot of whitewashing that came with the commercialization in the movie industry, in the TV industry. And now there's people dancing in music videos and TV; it still shows up in the movies, sometimes. But there's also quite a bit of musical theater; there's a whole branch of dancers who maybe are more aligned with musicians that have been playing more with jazz bands or other bands, and there are dance companies, as well. There's dance concert, where a lot of people have made a living in a dance company in that format. So, there's a lot of stuff, but I think in a lot of ways tap has always been something where it requires some entrepreneurship, because you've got to get yourself in there. It's carving the space that you take up. Maybe that makes it a bit niche.

This production is interesting for me, because it's not the first thing I think of when I think of musical theater. It's not quite that. I don't really know how to categorize it, but bringing it into the theater is something that excites me, and it feels like it opens up possibilities. It's challenging me in all the right ways.

I think it's an exciting time for tap. There's a little bit more freedom than in the past, since the pandemic, maybe, around people owning their own stories a bit more. What Ayodele is doing is really interesting and pushing the sorts of the possibilities for what, where, and how tap can fit into a story. We'll see what happens from here. I hope it can grow even more as a whole.

"Diary of a Tap Dancer" continues at the A.R.T. in Harvard Square through Jan. 4. For tickets and more information, follow this link.