Photo: Ian Douglas
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Current city: New York City - Harlem
Age: 54
Attended an arts high school? Yes - Duke Ellington School of the Arts
College and degree: Howard University - BS and BFA
Graduate school and degree: Florida State University, graduated at 28 years old
Website: www.nia-love.com
How you pay the bills: My choreographic work, and adjunct proffer teaching at Queens College, Hunter College and The New School
All of the dance hats you wear: Yes, I am a dancer, choreographer, and teacher
Non-dance work you do or have done in the past: Teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, Midwife, life-counselor, student, gardener and lay-herpetologist, vet technician
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Describe your dance life….
20s: As a result of spending 90% of my early teenage years as a professional apprentice with Ballet National de Cuba and my later teens as an exchange student in Cali and Medellin, Columbia, I was extremely isolated in my early twenties. Coming back to the US after those intense social and political experiences blew my mind wide open. I attended Howard University for undergrad and was completely inspired by my father Ed Love (sculptor/educator); I built dance work side-by-side with my father’s installations. I, too, was majorly inspired by the so-called post-modern Butoh movement of Japan. It was in my 20s when I choreographed my first solo work, had my first child, and started graduate school at Florida State.
30s: After receiving my graduate degree, I moved to New York City with my now 30 year partner, and we had our second daughter. I began to choreograph more work group work with friends, worked with Min Tanaka in Japan, taught at Bates Dance Festival, and started extensively serving in more guest artist positions all over the US. I taught at Smith College-5 college consortium for 7 years off an on, where I met my mentor/professor/author/confidant Dr. Yvonne Daniel.
40s: Began to teach all over the world, awarded twice as a Fulbright lecturer and researcher to Ghana West Africa. My son (our third child) was born. I created a fully equipped dance program in the Bronx under the New York City Board of Education, an intergenerational summer dance program called Dance Without Walls, and co-founded Love|Forté with Marjani Forté-Saunders. Towards my late 40s I continued to balance motherhood, art and the mid-life body. It was this period in my life that I began to move deeper into the examination race, sex, power, and politics in choreography and performance.
50s: Here I am pushing against dancing and creating work as a mid-career artist, a grandmother of two amazing wonders of the world, and beginning to receive more accolades - at this period in my life. I received a Bessie along with 21 other womyn, non-conforming artists, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa. Residencies through the Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) and Movement Research. I am also BAX’s racial and equity advisor and AIR advisor.
g1(host)lostatsea/a study, Skirball NYU 2017. Photo by Ian Douglas.
What is on your calendar for the 2017-2018 academic year (teaching, choreographing, performing)?
-I will be teaching at UCLA MRX (exchange artist/choreographer) spring 2018
-Performing and growing my latest work entitled g1(hosts) alongside 7 incredible team members - Thomas DeFrantz, Christian Sharpe, Orion Gordan, Benin Ford, Veleda Roehl, Jesse Phillips-Fein, and Antoine Roney
-Fall 2018 I will be a guest artist at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
How was the summer at ADF? Advice to young dancers about going to an iconic festival like ADF, Bates, or Jacob’s Pillow….
I believe that dance festivals like ADF, Jacob's Pillow, and Bates are an opportunity to grow the serious nature of your rigor as a professional artist. At festivals young people are able to expand on the notions of what is art, and what does it look like to be in a commune-like sort of place among other serious minded artists. I believe that ADF is a platform where deep critical analysis and evaluation of one’s praxis are revealed. And you as a thinking person is procured. Young people get a chance to bond with like minds, international views and cultural differences get massaged, and serious political and social discourses are created by both students and teachers. Since I have been a part of ADF under the artistic directorship of Leah Cox, I have been able to bring to the table ideas on pedagogy, expand the value of praxis, co-teach with other major artist/teachers, and grow my so-called site-specific course which I affectionately call Occupy Space. For me, summer at ADF means participating in and with others who are making a new world.
Photo: Ciceley Fullylove
Thoughts and advice on higher ed teaching --- the adjunct life, job searches, job stability…
I think everyone is different and has different needs and visions about what does success look like. So as we consider ways to make money as artists, we must consider partnership with organizations, and institutions. Some folks can go in hard core on political and social referendums by participating in all kinds of round tables, conferences, and being on tons of committees, while others may feel like they can change social ills from the sidelines...whatever your place or stance is - that’s it...own it and try like hell not to compare yourself with others.
I am still working on being honest with myself, who am I, what do I need, and where and how do I want to live. Working as a teacher is not for everyone, and teaching in higher ed is not necessarily the place for all artists. Adjunct positions are beneficial if you are an artist with a family and want to work your own hours and not have to devote your entire commitment to the many duties of a full time professor. You also don't get the benefits as an adjunct professor...but it works for me.
You MUST always be current with your teaching ability, re-examine your pedagogy, and rewrite your syllabus constantly as you develop new ideas from previous students and classes. The job search is real and dancers must be very, very creative with ways that we see ourselves in the world. New avenues of employment in the dance world, which I believe are fertile are: social media management, lighting designer, technical director, curators, advisorships, and administrative work for a company or small arts organizations. Internships of all kinds (yoga certification, visual and media, museum, galleries), both non-paying and paying, are both great opportunities that pave the way into experience. The job search is real and can be a head trip if you’re not creative. We live in a time when we can create our own jobs, but it's going to take a lot of research and imagining a new world that can assist others, create safe spaces and spaces too where folks can rest, recharge and recalibrate. So the looking for work looks at what you need to sustain your own health and your own power stance that is beneficial to your mental, physical and spiritual health.
Current training practices and care of the body:
I am a practitioner of African spirituality, a sister of the Aconodi Shrine, and I believe in institution of plant and herbal medicines. I am also a practioner of Hatha yoga for over 43 years. My father introduced me to yoga when I was 12 years old, and has been my saving grace — to get on the mat! I have also begun being instructed by Marjorie Liebert, in floor barre.
What are the skills a modern dancer needs in 2017?
Be open, non-judgemental, take classes everywhere - especially places that are not necessarily popular. Attend classes where you are challenged, where your safe-space is also challenged. Begin asking critical questions about the world and your place in it. READ READ READ.
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Related posts:
Leah Cox, Dean of the American Dance Festival
My Dance Week: Marya Warshaw, Founding/Executive Director of Brooklyn Arts Exchange
2017 in Review: New Books on Dance
2017 in Review: Resources for Undergraduate and Graduate School Courses
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