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A summer dare from Anthony's sister propelled him into the arts. He was twenty-something, enrolled in his hometown university, and becoming a bit desperate in his search for his desired career path. Anthony had not yet considered the concept of a career calling, a vocation, but that was indeed what he was in search of. Prior to that time, he cannot recall a meaningful exposure to the arts. He was a first generation college student and his father's desired career choice for him was based solely upon financial stability. Anthony's intuition, however, told him he was destined to follow another path, without any clue what that path might be. Thanks to his intuition, persistence and patience, Anthony discovered dance. Almost a decade after accepting my sister’s dare (thanks, Reece!), and with a good deal of hard work, sacrifice, fortunate opportunities and thoughtful mentors who assisted him along the way, Anthony was a full-time professional dancer in company based almost 2,000 miles from where his journey began. While Anthony's path was challenging and complicated on many levels, it was also very enjoyable, engaging and rewarding. After he had been dancing professionally for about two years, he was forced to pause when the epiphany that he really was a dance artist finally hit him. Dance, as a career, was not a conscious choice for Anthony, but one that he was compelled to pursue. Anthony unofficially came to St. Olaf College in 1994. While teaching at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN that same year, he also spent weekends guiding a ragtag, but enthusiastic, group of St. Olaf men through the fundamentals of beginning modern dance. For many of these men, this process simply involved learning how to walk on the beat of the music. This engaging process led to Anthony's first piece of choreography at St. Olaf, Jock-ularity, which was also performed by this same group of guys (and Anthony) at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 1995. He was hired at St. Olaf the following year to teach the intermediate and advanced ballet classes. Anthony currently teaches modern dance technique, the senior capstone course, and a course he designed that integrates modern dance and screendance. He also choreographs annually as co-artistic director of St. Olaf’s modern dance company, Companydance. Anthony has performed nationally and internationally with Repertory Dance Theatre and Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, both located in Salt Lake City, Utah; Sharir Dance Company in Austin, Texas; and the Jacob's Pillow's Men Dancers (a project touring internationally to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ted Shawn's birth). His professional performance repertoire includes works by historic and contemporary dance artists including: Isadora Duncan, Ted Shawn, Helen Tamiris, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Jose Limón, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cunningham, Douglas Dunn, Bill Evans, David Parsons, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, Yacov Sharir, Garth Fagan, Douglas Nielsen, Shapiro and Smith and others. He is extremely proud of playing one of the mice in Colorado Ballet’s Nutcracker, where he darn near gnawed the nutcracker’s cheesy foot in two. Anthony earned a BFA in Ballet Performance from the University of Utah and an MFA in Dance with a Dance Technology Emphasis from Arizona State University, Tempe. |