Nia Love is a dancer and choreographer based in New York City. She is a radical thinker, artist, performer and professor that focuses on Modern dance, Post-Modern dance, and West African dance. She is known for her spiritual relationships to movement and performance,[1] as well as her personal work that is critical of structural racism and examines the role of women in dance through her poetry, movement and art.[2]
Love was raised in Florida, where her father Ed was a professor at Florida State University (FSU). Love apprenticed with the Cuban National Ballet in Havana, Cuba in 1978 and 1986.[3] She received her MFA in Dance at FSU in 1992.[4] Love's dance style draws inspiration from Butoh, Modern dance forms, and traditional African dance.[5] While at FSU, she integrated live drumming into her classes and performances.[4] Regarding her work's individuality, she has cited inspiration from her father and her emphasis on family, as well as traditional Japanese dance influences, having studied Butoh under Min Tanaka.