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WHO'S WHO IN THE COMPANY TORYA BEARD (Co-Creator/Director) Broadway: Funny Girl (Assistant Director), Waitress (Assistant Director), The Lion King (Swing, Dance Captain). Regional: Diary Of A Tap Dancer, A.R.T. (Director); Educational: Sophisticated Ladies, University of Michigan (Co-Director/ Choreographer), Pippin, Syracuse University (Director). Other: Jesus Christ Superstar: Highlights from the All-Female Studio Cast Recording (Executive Producer), 2023 Bessie Awards (Creative Producer). Torya's creative partnership with Ayodele Casel has been a significant collaboration. The pair has developed numerous projects. Among them, While I Have The Floor, Rooted for ALL ARTS' Past, Present, Future Film Festival, Bessie Award-winning dance film, and subsequent stage production, Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic, Freedom... In Progress for Max Roach 100, Ayodele Casel + Arturo O'Farrill. New York City Center commissions include the digital series Diary of a Tap Dancer V.6: Us, Where We Dwell, the inaugural five-borough tour of On The Move, and Ayodele Casel | Artists At The Center. Beard and Casel are Resident Directors of Dance Lab New York's Tap Project and were co-curators of the Little Island Dance Festival. Torya is the recipient of APAP's Inaugural CIPA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Producing, studied dance at The University of Michigan, is Artistic Director at Excellence Community Schools, Co-Founder of the social enterprise tall poPpy (with Darren Biggart and Jeanine Tesori) and sits on the boards of Earl Mosley's Diversity of Dance, percussive dance company Sole Defined and Raja Feather Kelly's dance-theatre-media company, the feath3r theory (TF3T). Learn more about Torya at toryabeard.com. @thatgirltorya. AYODELE CASEL (Co-Creator/Choreographer), a Doris Duke Artist in the dance category, is an award-winning and critically acclaimed tap dancer and choreographer. Born in The Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, her practice centers on highly narrative works rooted in expressions of selfhood, culture, and legacy. Casel is hailed as a "tap dancer and choreographer of extraordinary depth" (The New York Times) and is known for her skilled and imaginative improvisation. Casel's projects include her concert and Bessie Award-winning film Chasing Magic, Drama Desk-nominated work as tap choreographer for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. In 2024, Casel wrote, choreographed, and performed Diary of a Tap Dancer (dir. Torya Beard), at the American Repertory Theater. Ayodele co-directed with Torya Beard, a short film Rooted for PBS' ALL ARTS channel. In Rooted, Ayodele Casel reflects on the historical figures and events that have shaped society through an oral history with civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill and features performances from a multi-generational/multi-cultural group of artists. Casel was a 2019-2020 fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, an artist-in-residence at Harvard University, and is the recipient of a United States Artist Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award, Doris Duke Artists award, and Hoofer and Flo-Bert award. In 2021, Casel was depicted on a U.S. Postal Service Forever Stamp celebrating tap dance. Casel is an alumna of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and The William Esper Studio. Her origins in theater and love for storytelling and tap dance have significantly contributed to the narrative nature of her work. A dance educator for over 25 years, Casel is the co-director of Operation Tap, an online tap dance educational platform, DLNY Tap Dance Project, and serves on the Board of New York City Center. ayodelecasel.com, @ayolives