The Body as Archive is part of MOCA’s Legacy Series: Archive as Practice, a collaborative curated project with Black Miami-Dade, a history and creative studio founded by local historian Nadege Green.
This workshop explores the body as a living archive and figure drawing as a way of recording movement, memory, and presence. Centered on a live dancer in motion and stillness, participants will examine how our bodies carry history through gesture, rhythm, and rest.
Model: Clinton "Tazz" Harris
Clinton “Tazz” Harris is a Miami-based dancer and performing artist currently performing with the Peter London Global Dance Company. He has appeared in works choreographed by Mammie Green, Mike Tyus, Jamar Roberts, Adele Myers, and Justin Rapaport, performing on stages including the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Beach Bandshell, African American Cultural Arts Center, Superblue, and internationally in Trinidad and Martinique. Harris was selected as a 2024 Miami Dance Maker, where he premiered his original work i see red people, and has been awarded a mini grant from The MAP Foundation. He has also taught dance at institutions including BBHarts Performing Arts, XpressitDance Center, Dance Center of Florida, and Diamond Mind Leadership Academy.
Teaching Artist: Melanie Oliva
Melanie Oliva is a Miami-based artist and teaching artist whose work centers on painting, mixed media, and collective creative practice. Her ongoing “After-image” series explores environmental and cultural fragility through imagery inspired by the Miami landscape and broader ecological concerns, highlighting how memory and place coalesce in visual form. Oliva’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions, including at The Frank Gallery in Pembroke Pines and at TAG Gallery and Art Share in Los Angeles, and is included in the HistoryMiami Museum's archive. She has taught and led workshops with ProjectArt, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Arts Warehouse, The Bass Museum, and Miami-Dade and Broward County libraries, and in 2023 received an Individual Artist Grant from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and was named a 2025 Ellies Creator Award Winner by Oolite Arts.