Spoleto Festival USA announces additional performance of Ayodele Casel’s World premiere at the Woolfe Street Playhouse on Saturday, June 3, at 2:00pm

Due to high demand, Spoleto Festival USA announced today that tap master Ayodele Casel’s world premiere, While I Have the Floor, will receive an additional performance as part of the American Express Woolfe Street series. The performance will take place in the Woolfe Street Playhouse on Saturday, June 3, at 2:00pm. Tickets will be on sale to the general public starting Wednesday, March 1, 2017.

This one-woman, semi-autobiographical work—created and performed by Casel—will offer a window into Casel’s own experiences with cultural displacement, the loss of language, and the determination to find her own voice. Through the discovery of tap—what she considers to be her third language—and her pursuit to master the art form, Casel begins to connect the fragmented pieces of her life, ultimately reclaiming her identity and the ability to fully express herself.

A native New Yorker who has been presenting her own work since 1999, Ayodele Casel has also performed with tap greats Savion Glover, Derick K. Grant, and the late Gregory Hines, who had hailed Casel as “one of the top young tap dancers in the world.” She has performed in such notable venues as the White House, Radio City Music Hall, the Apollo Theater, and Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater.

In addition to Casel’s six performances, the choreographer will sit down with CBS News correspondent Martha Teichner as part of the “Conversations With” series on Friday, June 2, at 5:00pm. While these free discussions (see the full list here) are often held at the Charleston Library Society, Teichner will host her conversation with Casel at the Woolfe Street Playhouse.

Spoleto Festival USA’s 2017 season takes place May 26 to June 11 in Charleston, South Carolina. Tickets to the more than 160 events can be purchased online at spoletousa.org or by phone from the box office at 843.579.3100.