a blacksmith’s daughter
A Deeper Look
nia love. Choreographer, dancer, instillation artist, activist, mother, grandmother, warrior and educator, contintues to expand and destabilize conversations on intersectionality, transnationalism, Blackness and tools of embodied memory.
At the very early part of her career, Love was invited to apprentice with the world renowned Ballet Nacional de Cuba in Havana, Cuba ('78). She is a graduate of Howard University with a BFA and an MFA from Florida State University, with honors and distinctions for her acedemic and artistic excellence. Love worked in Japan with Min Tanka, one of the most celebrated Butoh masters on his Poe Project, written and concieved by Susan Sontag. In 2001, Nia was awarded the Fullbright Fellowship (2001-2003) as a lecturer/researcher in Ghana, Mali and Togo. Her own work has been presented at Black Choreographers Moving Towards the 21st Century, Bates Dance Festival, Alvin Ailey under the NDCL as the 2013 choreographer awardee, Harlem Stage, Tanzanian- Time 2 Dance Festival in conjunction with the Suitcase Fund and many others.
Love Teaches, performs and guest lectures at some of the most distinguished art and educational institutions and festivals throughout the USA and abroad, including American Dance Festival, Fordham/Ailey BFA, BARD, Queens College, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, The New School, UCLA World Arts and Cultures, Texas Woman's University, Princeton Hunter College, NYU Tish School of The Arts, Visa2Dance- Dar Es Salaam- Tanzanian Dance Festival, Williams College, Smith College, Sarah Lawrence College, Florida A&M, Florida State University, Columbia University, Barnard College, the University of Ghana at Legon. Love continues to perform, create work, teach and research nationally and internationally. Her Newly investigated and performed project entitled S(oil) was made possible, in part, by the Africa and Middle East Cultural Partnerships Program of the Suitcase Fund, an initiative of New York Live Arts and most recently a CUNY Dance Initative Grant (CDI-'14). She was awarded the Movement Research Artist-in-Residence (2016-2017) and is presently Asst. professor at Hunter College, Queens College of New York and The New School.
Love's continues to explore the power of femenisim, the BLM movement, critical construction through racical theory, gesture and semiotics as a way to expand her own personhood and cultural acuity.
Major
Works
2021 Finalist for New England Foundation of the Arts National Dance Project (NDP)
2020 MAP FUND Grant
2020 Artist Relief Grant, United States Artists, COVID-19
2018 CUNY Incubator Grant for research on g1(host)
2015-16 New York State Council on the Arts Grant for Movement Research Artist-In Residence
A W A R D S
2021 Bessie Award for Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design for
g1(host):lostatsea
2017 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer in “Skeleton Architecture...we been here “
2013-14 Alvin Ailey New Directions Lab Choreographer Award
F E L L O W S H I P S
2021-23 Antiracism Arts Initiative (AAI) Fellowship, Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
2019-21 Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative Fellow
2000-02 Fulbright Foundation Fellow Ghana, West Africa
C H O R E O G R A P H I C
RESIDENCIES & PROJECTS
2021-22 Movement Research Rosin Fund Residency, NY
2021 EYABALA Space Grant Award/Gibney Dance, NY
2021 Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) Residency, FL
2020-21 Centering Critical Blackness Residency, Bryn Mawr College, PA
2019 Dance-in-Process Residency, Gibney Dance, NY
2016 Dancing While Black Residency, Contemporary Arts Center,
New Orleans, LA
2015-16 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence, NY
2014-15 CUNY Dance Harkness Initiative at Hunter College Choreographic Residency, NY
2015 Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX
2014 Hollins University Guest Artist/Teaching Residency, Roanoke, VA
2013-14 Ailey/Fordham New Directions Lab Choreographer, NY
2013-14 Brooklyn Arts Exchange/BAX Artist-in-Residence (AIR), Brooklyn, NY
2011-12 Brooklyn Arts Exchange/BAX Artist-in-Residence (AIR), Brooklyn, NY
2009-12 Dance New Amsterdam Choreographic Investigation Course (CIC) workshops, NY
2007-08 University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO
2005-08 Dance New Amsterdam Gene Pool Selected Choreographer,
New York, NY
2000-01 Movement Research Artist Residency, NY
1996-97 Min Tanaka/Body Weather Farm (New York City Selected Artist)
Hákshū, Japan
2021 UNDERcurrents, Drexciya Redux: An Afrofuturist Cabaret, New York Live Arts,
2021 The Porch, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA.
2021 UNDERcurrents, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, New York Live Arts
2021 UNDERcurrents, Harriet’s Gun:Shape-shifting Towards A Radically Imagined Black Future Virtual Performance Festival, Dance Mission, San Francisco, CA.
2019 g1(host):lostatsea - iteration #10, Gibney Presents, Gibney Dance,
New York, NY.
2019 g1(host):lostatsea - iteration #9, Dancing 50: Moving Forward/Looking Back, Krannert Center, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL.
2018 g1(host):lostatsea - iteration #8 MoMA at Movement Research,
New York, NY.
2017 g1(host):lostatsea iterations #6&7, Movement Research at Judson, NY
& UCLAGlorya Kaufman Dance Theater, Los Angeles, CA.
2017 g1(host) iteration #5 Theater for the New City, New York, NY. Estrogenius Festival at The Kraine Theater, New York, NY.
2016 g1(host) iteration #4 AUNTS@ NYU/Skirball Theater, New York, NY.
2016 under construction: Dancing While Black: On Fertile Ground,
Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, LA.
2016 being Here...in Memory (Love|Forté a Collective). Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn, NY.
2016 g1(host) - iterations #2 & 3 Movement Research at Judson Church, NY
& Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, Staten Island, NY.
2015 g1(host) - iteration #1 Friday's at Noon|Dancing on the Shoulders: Radical Black Presence in American Dance at 92nd St Y, New York, NY.
2015 S(oil) LEHMANN MAUPIN Sunday series, Goldstein Theater, Queens College, Queens, NY. Alvin Ailey New Directions Lab, New York, NY.
& Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX. & Nafasi Art Space,Tanzania.
2015 The View From Here (LOVE| FORTÉ a Collective) E-Moves at Harlem Stage,
New York, NY.
2011-2015 Memory Withholdings (LOVE| FORTÉ a Collective) Pillsbury House and Theatre, Minneapolis, MN. Brooklyn Arts Exchange/BAX, Brooklyn, NY. Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance! (BAAD!), Bronx, NY & DanceNOW Joe’s Pub, NY.
2014 Music Of Transformation with Vijay Iyer BAM Harvey Theater, Brooklyn, NY.
2012 Memory: This Side of Paradise (LOVE| FORTÉ a Collective) Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) Bronx, NY. Andrew Freeman Home, New York, NY.
2010 Meet Me in Okemah Dance Theatre Workshop, New York, NY.
2009 Crossing Channels (NiaLove|BSDdance Co,) PS122, New York, NY.
2006-2007 Let The Eagle Scream: The Lynching Project (NiaLove|BSDdance Co.) Symphony Space, New York, NY & Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts Brooklyn, NY.
M U S E U M S AND I N S T A L L A T I O N S
2017 g1(host): lostatsea Choreographer/Performer. Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) / Judson Dance Theater Reassembled. New York, NY.
2016 Grandma Elsie’s Parlor Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art. Brooklyn, NY.