\t\t![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6G6A0414-1.1.jpg\")
FSU School of Dance associate professor and alumna nia love has been honored with a “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Choreographer\/Creator. (Chris Cameron)
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_8901-341x512.jpg\")
This marks love\u2019s third Bessie Award; she was previously recognized for Outstanding Musical Composition for love\u2019s \u201cg1(host):lostatsea\u201d production in 2019. (Natalie Fiol)<\/p>\n
nia\u00a0love, an associate professor in Florida State University\u2019s\u00a0School of Dance and an alumna of the university,\u00a0was recognized for her work\u00a0\u201cUNDERcurrents,\u201d\u00a0a multimedia performance installation\u00a0that\u00a0\u201cprobes the seam between the catastrophic history of transatlantic slavery and our quotidian memories\u00a0of people who have lived in this time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a powerful affirmation,\u201d\u00a0love said.\u00a0\u201cThe awards aren\u2019t why you do the work, but you are hoping that within the work that you do, you will be acknowledged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to The\u00a0Bessie\u2019s\u00a0official announcement<\/a>, love received this award \u201cfor a transporting experience, taking the audience through an immersive and sensory journey of live performance and projected visuals. Historical research and personal memories are woven together to pose questions to the audience\u00a0\u2014\u00a0with urgency and compassion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n We are proud to celebrate\u00a0nia\u00a0love on the occasion of her recent Bessie Award,\u201d said James Frazier, dean of the College of Fine Arts.\u00a0\u201cnia\u00a0has spent her adult life working primarily as an independent artist based in New York City, no small feat in the field of dance, and her career exemplifies a sustained, uncompromising commitment to making art. We are honored to claim her both as a distinguished member of our School of Dance faculty and as an alum whose creative practice continues to shape and challenge the field.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cnia has spent her adult life working primarily as an independent artist based in New York City, no small feat in the field of dance, and her career exemplifies a sustained, uncompromising commitment to making art.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 James Frazier, dean of the College of Fine Arts<\/p>\n The Bessie Awards,\u00a0established\u00a0in 1984, are widely considered the highest honor in the independent dance field, often described by industry professionals as the \u201cOscars of dance.\u201d\u00a0This marks love\u2019s\u00a0third\u00a0Bessie Award; she was previously recognized for\u00a0Outstanding Musical\u00a0Composition for love\u2019s\u00a0\u201cg1(host):lostatsea\u201d\u00a0production in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUNDERcurrents\u201d\u00a0is the\u00a0result\u00a0of\u00a0research carried out over several years,\u00a0including significant projects undertaken in Tallahassee, both at the university and throughout the\u00a0Panhandle and\u00a0gulf\u00a0regions.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Building on her deep sea diving experience, love drew inspiration from her research and captured further footage along the Gulf Coast near Cape San Blas. (Chloe Mueller)love, who earned her Master of Fine Arts from FSU in 1992 and returned as faculty in 2024, integrates her research directly into the classroom. (Chris Cameron)<\/p>\n The project was developed in part during love\u2019s\u00a02022 residency at the Maggie\u00a0Allesee\u00a0National Center for Choreography<\/a> (MANCC), a dance research center housed within the FSU School of Dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n love came to MANCC\u00a0as\u00a0a choreographic fellow. During the residency, she\u00a0worked with\u00a0two FSU\u00a0College of Communication and Information<\/a>\u00a0students on the\u00a0collection\u00a0of\u00a0360\u00b0\u00a0and underwater video footage for \u201cUNDERcurrents.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUNDERcurrents\u00a0pivots on this fundamental query: what remains of the Middle Passage as force, gesture and affect?\u201d love said. \u201cThrough the thematic elements of water and doors, the project conjures multiple registers of our living in continual rupture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n love\u00a0earned her deep-sea diving license in 2019 and recorded much of this project in Tobago, West Indies. Building on her experience, she drew inspiration from her research and captured further footage along the Gulf Coast near Cape San Blas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n During the residency, she worked with two FSU College of Communication and Information students on the collection of 360\u00b0 and underwater video footage. (Chloe Mueller)love describes her teaching philosophy as a ‘tabernacle,’ viewing her students not just as learners, but as young artists and collaborators. (Chris Cameron)<\/p>\n The location holds profound personal significance for love; it is near the site where she spread the ashes of her father, the renowned\u00a0sculptor\u00a0and former FSU Visual Arts professor Ed Love, following his passing in 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMANCC allowed me to take the work that I had done before\u2026 and start thinking about these ghostly clues that were left from my father\u2019s passing,\u201d love said. \u201cComing to the ocean became this alchemy of sorts that helped to re-ignite some of the things that I feel like my father passed on to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n love, who earned her Master of Fine Arts from FSU in 1992 and returned as faculty in 2024, integrates her research directly into the classroom. She describes her teaching philosophy as a \u201ctabernacle,\u201d viewing her students not just as learners, but as young artists and collaborators.\u00a0<\/p>\n love is currently preparing for the next iteration of this research, a large-scale exhibition titled \u201cFloating Metal:\u00a0UNDERcurrents\u00a0In\u00a0My Father\u2019s Garden.\u201d The exhibition is scheduled to open in August 2026 at the FSU Museum of Fine Arts<\/a>. It will encompass three galleries and feature a dialogue between love\u2019s performance work and her father\u2019s sculptures,\u00a0paintings\u00a0and photographs.\u00a0<\/p>\n