Mix(tap)ing: A method for sampling the past to envision the future. Issue 1 (1st July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Love, Michael J.
• Is Part Of: Choreographic practices. Volume 12:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 29
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2021-07-01
• Subjects: Dance -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Dance -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Choreography -- Periodicals; 792.82
• DOI: 10.1386/chor_00027_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-5669

Abstract

This article outlines the theoretical and aesthetic considerations of Love's performance-as-research method for developing interdisciplinary tap dance work ‐ a method he identifies as Mix(tap)ing. By first narrating how he arrived to his current practice as a dancemaker and artistic researcher, Love is able to show the ways in which his method samples strategies, voices and traditions from the cultural past to imagine and work towards futuristic locations of liberation and possibility. Ultimately, Mix(tap)ing allows Love to layer intellectual concepts and theatrical conventions in order to design an approach to rhythm tap dance improvisation and choreography that is expressly Black and queer. This article is, in itself, a demonstration of Love's method as it joins written analysis with a performed lecture script to evidence how Love has previously presented one of his Mix(tap)es.