Sterling Harris/Photo: William Frederking
What is love? Is it a feeling—something that happens to us? Or is it something we do, a thing that comes into existence through our actions? In her 1999 book “All About Love: New Visions,” bell hooks writes, “the word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.” Hooks embraces a definition of love from psychiatrist M. Scott Peck: “Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.”
This view of love—as an intention, an action, a choice—is foundational to Sterling Harris’ new piece for Chicago Tap Theatre, “For All We Know,” premiering June 5-8 at The Edge Theater. Harris came across “All About Love” in a bookstore in California while on tour. “It was a lightbulb moment,” he says. “I’m reading this book on the plane, and it was connecting all these pieces I was considering. The definition she offers of love I could so easily put in the same context of what I’m practicing in dance: it’s a continual practice that benefits myself and those around me, and it’s rooted in love.”
Harris was expanding on ideas from “Synesthete,” his 2023 piece for CTT that explores intersections of artistic mediums. At one point in that show, Harris tap dances paint onto a white sheet, toying with both the visual effect of his feet as brushes and the tonal qualities imparted by paint and cloth on tap shoes. Harris says he wanted to continue to expand on the capacities of tap dance in “For All We Know,” finding new pathways in the form as a method of communication. For instance, “If a dancer is assigned a topic of care, how do you convey a story of care or a time when you didn’t have care? And how does that happen in context of someone else investigating a topic of trust?”
Using what Harris describes as a “heavily notated” copy of hooks’ book, he and the CTT company members journaled from prompts that were then translated into dance—and music. Music director Emma Blau composed the score, which will be performed live—as is the custom in CTT shows—in tandem with the movement. Harris says the co-development of music and dance was an intense, intimate process. “It was a real treasure working with [Blau] in rehearsals,” he says.
The title of the piece is from a jazz ballad that has long resonated with Harris. “I first started sitting with the Donny Hathaway version when I was at Jacob’s Pillow as a student,” he recalls. “That was a big moment for me reaffirming, ‘Yes, I want to be a tap dancer.’ That song was heavy on my rotation at the time. When I think about these topics, that song is playing in my mind. If we don’t have tomorrow, what do we focus on today?”
Chicago Tap Theatre’s “For All We Know” at The Edge Theater, 5451 North Broadway. June 5-8, Thursday & Friday at 7pm, Saturday & Sunday at 2pm. $35-$65. Tickets and info at chicagotaptheatre.com.
