Australia Dancing - Smith, Anna (1966

Smith, Anna (1966 - )

Lohrey, Jason: Portrait of Anna Smith, 2001

Born in Melbourne Anna Smith took her first dance classes with a local teacher who taught a wide range of dance styles including tap, ballet, modern, creative, folk and song and dance. Later with another teacher she concentrated solely on ballet for a number of years. She then completed a Bachelor of Education degree majoring in dance and drama at Rusden College (now Deakin University).

After graduating Smith worked briefly as a teacher with Stephanie Burridge's Canberra Dance Ensemble (now Theatre) before joining TasDance under the direction of Jenny Kinder in 1989. At TasDance she worked with a number of choreographers including Neil Adams, Nanette Hassall, Helen Herbertson, Beth Shelton, Sandra Parker and Leigh Warren. She also received her first choreographic commission while at TasDance, which resulted in Cry me a river for the company's education program.

After leaving TasDance in 1991 she worked out of Melbourne with the dance in education group Dance Focus before moving to Montreal in 1995 to live and work. In Montreal she created her first solo piece, Wavetrain, which she later developed into a group piece for fourteen dancers. In 1995 she also began a masters degree in choreography under the direction of Don Asker at the Victorian College of the Arts, which she pursued by long distance while in Canada and which she completed in 1997. In 1998 she made Equilibre for performances in Montreal.

Smith founded a smalll company, co.motion, in 1997 and for its inaugural performance in 1998 she restaged Wavetrain. The season also featured Simon Ellis' Touch and a new work by Smith, Fivefold. Smith received the Victorian Green Room Award for original choreography in 1999 and again in 2001. She has been a research associate, investigating choreographic processes with the Unspoken Knowledges research project (1999-2001) and also with Conceiving Connections (2002-). As a result of the demands of these Australian Research Council funded projects, Smith has developed an interest in the use of the camera as an intrinsic part of her choreography.

Bibliography:

Anna Smith's involvement with the Unspoken Knowledges project, and in particular the evolution of her Red Rain, is a focus in Catherine Stevens, Stephen Malloch and Shirley McKechnie, 'Moving mind: the cognitive psychology of contemporary dance' in Brolga 15 (December 2001), pp. 55-67.

Research Materials

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Other resources

Find more about Smith, Anna in:

Internet - Google
Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
Pictures - Picture Australia