CHASING MAGIC | BEST OF DANCE PERFORMANCES 2022
Ayodele Casel
Even in a crowded theater, some performances are intimate experiences, between you and the dancers onstage. The stage version of Casel’s “Chasing Magic” — first presented as an digital offering earlier in the pandemic — was about creating a community, an energetic exchange for everyone in the space. “We want to hear you, we want to feel you,” Casel, an extraordinary tap dancer, told the audience at the Joyce Theater. What did the two productions, online and live, both directed by Torya Beard, have in common, beyond great music and dance? Casel’s loose, funny banter, her remarkable feet up close, her transporting presence. She is air — as fresh as it comes.