From Broadway phases to worldwide arenas, Mattie Love’s dancing is electrifying. She has an uncanny skill to maneuver by way of choreography fluidly however with punchy accents and a uncooked, earthy high quality. Though having such a particular fashion of transferring might need intimidated her at first, it’s change into her superpower, main her into a number of the most coveted gigs, together with performing as Madonna’s doppelgänger in her Celebration Tour.
Present undertaking: Madonna’s The Celebration Tour
Age: 30
Hometown: Layton, Utah
Coaching: Dance Impressions (Farmington, Utah), New York Metropolis Dance Alliance, Marymount Manhattan School
Accolades: Chita Rivera Award for Excellent Dancer in a Broadway Present, for Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’
Inspiring others: Andy Pellick vividly remembers noticing Love’s “particular sauce” when she was round 12 years outdated taking his jazz class at NYCDA. Over time since, when engaged on choreography “she provides you what you didn’t know you needed,” he says. “She conjures up a choreographer or a instructor or one other dancer by doing strikes in a method that you just didn’t even know was potential. She’s capable of be a muse for lots of people, myself included.”
Swing success: Love was an ensemble dancer within the nationwide tour of Depraved earlier than the pandemic shutdown, and when the present returned, she rejoined as a swing. “The extra tracks I realized, it was really simpler to recollect all of them, as a result of I might perceive the place everybody was at any given time,” she says. “Swinging virtually appears like an out-of-body expertise. I can see issues in gradual movement.”
Dancin’ goals: Love gained a Chita Rivera Award for final yr’s Broadway run of Bob Fosse’s DANCIN’. “That present is the dancer’s dream,” she says. “It’s so visceral but additionally nuanced, and it captured all of the essences of what I wish to be and painting.” She additionally cherished her castmates. “It’s a recreation changer once you like everybody you’re employed with and there’s a actual camaraderie. That’s the primary present the place I totally received to be myself. All of us did.”
Exploring the world: When Love joined Madonna’s world tour—at present working by way of April, with 79 stops throughout Europe and North America—it took time to get used to the schedule, which typically contains rehearsals till 2 or 3 am. (The choreography is credited to a who’s who of inventive minds, together with (LA)HORDE, Valeree Younger, Matt Cady, Damien Jalet, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Mecnun Giasar, Megan Lawson, and Nicolas Huchard.) Now that she’s up to the mark, she takes full benefit of immersing herself in new cultures on tour. “I like to go to health studios, and I’ve been taking lessons in numerous languages,” she says. “I’m additionally very excited by physique language, so it’s been fascinating to take a seat in espresso outlets and study from the folks in entrance of me.”
Greater than garments: Love paperwork her funky, enjoyable private fashion on social media, and he or she’s discovered consolation in utilizing style as one other mode of expressing herself. She’s excited by ultimately bringing a few of that sensibility into costume design.
Rising and trusting: “Dance has saved me many occasions, gotten me by way of many heartbreaks,” says Love. “I’m now discovering my voice extra. I do know I’ve issues to supply, and I discover that they’re being obtained. I’m trusting that despite the fact that I could not at all times really feel like I slot in, I do know that I belong.”
