Draft:LaTasha Barnes

Overview

LaTasha Barnes (born 1981) is an American dancer, educator, coach, tradition-bearer, and cultural ambassador. She is the creator and director of The Jazz Continuum, an African roots-based performance encompassing Lindy Hop, house dance, locking, breaking, voguing, and jazz dance, which draws a direct line from the swing era to the present day. The show debuted at the Guggenheim in 2021, and continues to tour in the U.S.

Barnes has received numerous awards for her work. In 2023, she received the Bessie Outstanding Creator/Choreographer Award for The Jazz Continuum. In 2021, she received a Bessie Award as an outstanding performer for her sustained achievement in dance, and that same year was named a “breakout star” by The New York Times. She has collaborated with Caleb Teicher on his show Swing Out, which has appeared across the U.S. including at the Lincoln Center in New York. Barnes is also Vice President of Marketing and Outreach for the International Lindy Hop Championships, where she is one of the organizers. Barnes currently teaches at Arizona State University in the Dept. of Film, Dance, and Theatre.

Early Years

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia with a dee-jay father, Barnes was exposed to music and dance at home and at family gatherings. She took classes during her elementary years, and later traded moves with her cousins and friends, who brought moves from New York and Washington, DC. After graduating from high school, she enlisted in the Army in 1998 and became a sergeant first class, serving in Belgium. Two years later, she returned to the US, spent three more years in the Army, and was selected for an engineering position at the White House in 2004. Meanwhile, Barnes was also participating in fitness competitions. During a competition, Barnes tore her gluteus muscle and needed a year to heal from the injury. Shortly after her year of rehab, Barnes was hit by a car, injuring her lower back, hip, and breaking her wrist. While coming back from these injuries, Barnes took a popping class and found that it was excellent for regaining her mobility. Her popping teacher recognized her outstanding skill and introduced her to Junious Brickhouse, founder of Urban Artistry company in Washington, DC. Barnes began studying house dance and in time joined the leadership team, which required proficiency in five different styles. In 2011, Barnes and her partner Toyin Sogunro placed first in a well-known dance battle at Juste Debout in Paris. She decided to give notice at her job and make dancing her career.

Performing Career

In the 2010s, Barnes became more interested in jazz dance and its African American origins, and particularly Lindy Hop, realizing it was connected to the house styles she had been doing. She quickly became an expert, and attended the International Lindy Hop Championships, where she earned praise for her dancing. At times, she mingled her house and jazz styles. In 2016, she won a solo dance jazz competition at the Herräng Dance Camp in Sweden, and was a finalist in the Classic Lindy Hop Competition in Asheville, North Carolina. In 2017, her solo jazz team Rhythm Section won first place at the Lindy Hop Championships in Washington, D.C. Barnes continued placing in dance competitions and performing internationally.

She also developed her performing career outside the competition arena. One of the groups she created during this time period was HellaBlackLindyHop, which performed at the International Swing Dance Championships in Houston, Texas in 2018,2021 and 2022, and at Lincoln Center in New York City in 2019. Also in 2018, Barnes began a collaboration with Caleb Teicher & Friends, which eventually resulted in the show “Swing Out,” touring the U.S. This show, rooted in African American dance from the late 1800s and early 1900s, is a mix of tap and vernacular jazz (e.g. the cakewalk, the Charleston, the Black Bottom and the Lindy Hop). Company members dance to a live, onstage band playing tunes from the swing era. Barnes’ triple roles with the company include co-choreographer, researcher, and performer.

Education

Barnes received an Associate’s Degree in Fine Arts (cum laude) from Northern Virginia Community College in 2005, and later in 2014 a BS in Business Management & Entrepreneurship (cum laude) from DeVry University in Arlington, VA. She received her MA in Ethnochoreology, Black Studies, and Performance Studies in 2019 at New York University, Gallatin.

Educator and Cultural Ambassador

While Barnes continues to perform with many different people in a variety of venues, she is also a “carrier of traditions” who educates others about the role of African Americans in developing African diasporic dance forms including hip hop, swing dance, and jazz dance. Barnes is a member of organizations that “strive to give Black dancers greater representation and more access to education and resources.” These groups are the Frankie Manning Foundation, HellaBlackLindyHop, and the Black Lindy Hoppers Fund. In 2016, Barnes was the Frankie Manning Foundation Scholar to Herräng Dance Camp, Herräng, Sweden. She was also a teacher and performer at the Mother City Hop Jazz Festival in Cape Town, South Africa in 2019. In addition to her work abroad, she has taught workshops, judged competitions, given lectures, and served as a consultant throughout the U.S. She has lectured on House Dance at Arizona State University.

In 2017, Barnes began a self-designed master’s program in Ethnochoreology, Black Studies, and Performance Studies at New York University’s Gallatin School in New York City. Barnes interviewed Black dancers for her thesis, “The Absence of Blackness in African-American Social Dance: Cultural Surrogacy and Its Effects.” Her thesis and research bridge the gap between “communities of practice and academic cultural dance research, performance, preservation, and pedagogy.” Building on her embodied experience as a dancer and her life-long knowledge of black dance forms, Barnes published a chapter in the book Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the 21st Century. Her contribution, entitled "Must Be the Music," discusses her family dance and music background, her choreographic process, and her aesthetic philosophy as both a creator and performer. In 2021, Barnes was hired as an Assistant Professor of Dance at the Arizona State University School of Music, Dance, and Theatre. She teaches several courses including all levels of Hip Hop; House dance; Authentic Jazz Dance; Dance in U.S. Popular Culture; Creative Practice, and others. In addition, she co-directs the yearly Sol Power Street Dance Festival in Tempe, Arizona.

The Jazz Continuum

All of her experiences as a performer as well as her academic work for her thesis have served as important precursors to her current show, The Jazz Continuum, an “ongoing project to close the gap between contemporary Black dances and their predecessors.” Barnes’ performance is backed by her scholarly research into a variety of African diasporic forms, and also includes improvisation; Barnes calls it “an offering back to all those people that made us who we are.” She also notes that it is not a traditional show with a sharp separation between the audience and the performers; the show is meant to represent dancing from social spaces including clubs, ballrooms, and parties, and includes “that deep improvisational spirit. This performance has been touring the U.S. at venues including The Guggenheim Museum in New York, Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the University of Michigan, Columbia College in Chicago, and the University of Illinois.

External links

• Official website