This year’s project looks at the central theme of rhythm, viewed through the perspectives of four celebrated guest artists from different backgrounds: Max Pollak, Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard, and Jamar Roberts.
Each guest artist will have four weeks apiece with the Dance Lab ensemble over the course of the development process.
The project culminates in two public performances at The Crescent Underground, Morse and Stiles Colleges, 304 York Street, on February 7, 2026 at 1 pm and 4 pm.
Tickets will be announced shortly. If you have any questions, please reach out to the Yale Dance Lab Operations and Production Manager, Aubrey Ellis aubrey.ellis@yale.edu
Zoe Chun ‘29
Julia Hedquist
Clementine Kline ‘29
Mia Kohn ‘27
Charissa Lee YDS ‘26
Belle Li YLS
Irving Morris ‘26
Diana Shyshkova ‘28
Kris St Louis ‘26
(In order of appearance)
Max Pollak, a 2008 fellow in Choreography from the New York Foundation of the Arts, is one of the most prestigious names on the international tap scene today. He is recognized worldwide for his highly individual style as the first person to merge authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance with American rhythm tap and body music to create RumbaTap. Originator of Cuba’s first tap festival (Arts International Grant 2001), he has been teaching and performing there since 1998, and has worked with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Cuba’s top-ranked Rumba group, Chucho Valdés, Lila Downs and jazz legends Ray Brown, Phil Woods, Paquito D’Rivera, Slide Hampton and Danilo Perez. On faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, he travels the world with his company and is about to release his first music CD: RumbaTap.
Ayodele Casel is a Doris Duke Artist, award-winning tap dancer, choreographer, and writer known for her deeply narrative and culturally rooted work. Hailed by the New York Times as one of the “biggest breakout stars of 2019,” her works—including Chasing Magic, While I Have the Floor, Diary of a Tap Dancer, and The Remix—have been Critic’s Picks and consistently named to the Times’ Best of Dance lists since 2019. She is the 2022 Drama Desk-nominated tap choreographer for Broadway’s Funny Girl and winner of Outstanding Choreography at the 42nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards. Currently, she is developing the next chapter of her acclaimed work Freedom…In Progress through residencies at Kaatsbaan and Guggenheim’s Works & Process. Casel, who is featured on a USPS Forever Stamp, is a former Harvard Radcliffe Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and serves on the board of New York City Center. She is co-director of Operation Tap and DLNY Tap Dance Project.
Torya Beard is a New York-based director, creative consultant, curator, choreographer, and producer specializing in dance and theater. For over 25 years, Torya Beard has supported performing artists through all manners of administrative and producorial support, including but not limited to general operations, public relations, marketing, creative consulting, and producing. She is the 2022 recipient of the APAP’s Inaugural CIPA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Producing and was featured, along with Ayodele Casel and Idina Menzel, in Variety and Lifetime’s ‘Power of Women: The Changemakers’ Special for her work with the arts-based youth development organization, A BroaderWay Foundation. 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, ALL ARTS’ Past, Present, Future Film Festival; Bessie Award-winning dance film, and subsequent stage production, Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic; Freedom… In Progress, Max Roach 100; Ayodele Casel + Arturo O’Farrill.
Jamar Roberts was the Resident Choreographer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater from 2019-2022. Mr. Roberts made five works on the Company, all to critical acclaim: Members Don’t Get Weary (2016), Ode (2019), A Jam Session for Troubling Times(2020), Holding Space (2021), and In a Sentimental Mood (2022). He also set Gemeos on Ailey II. Mr. Roberts is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts and the Ailey School and has danced for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, and Complexions. Mr. Roberts won the 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer and has performed as a guest artist with the Royal Ballet in London. Commissions include Vail Dance Festival, Fall for Dance, The Juilliard School, BalletX, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, ABT Studio Company, Parsons Dance, Martha Graham Dance Co., Miami City Ballet, St Louis Dance Theater and Works and Process at the Guggenheim where he created the film Cooped. Mr. Roberts was a Director’s Fellow at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, Creative Associate at the Juilliard School in 2023, and was recently featured on the cover of Dance Magazine, previously having been on the cover in June 2013 and having been named one of “25 to Watch” in 2007.