Anthony began his stage activities with the children’s
theater department at Auburn University. Later, his interest for the stage was transferred
to ballet and he began his training with a small organization called Auburn Civic Ballet.
He was introduced to oil painting and sculpture at an early
age and over the years his primary focus has been Japanese art and French Impressionism.
His work as a visual artist and ballet dancer led him to
the Alabama High School of Fine Arts in Birmingham, on scholarship. After his association
with the Fine Arts School he moved on to the University of Alabama in Birmingham to study
a comprehensive Vaganova syllabus under the direction of Stevan Grebel (Mr. Grebel is a
graduate of the Vaganova Choreographic Institute - Kirov Ballet - Leningrad, USSR, under
A. Puskin. He performed as a Principal Guest Artist with the Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow USSR,
under A. Messerer and A. Ermolyev).
Throughout his career as a dancer he maintained a strong
commitment to his visual art. Most of his subject matter is dance related. His sculptures
and paintings have been collected by private individuals and organizations both here in
the U.S. and Europe.
Anthony’s professional career as dancer found him
performing as a guest and member of these and other companies: Ballet UAB in Birmingham
Alabama, Cincinnati / New Orleans City Ballet based in Cincinnati, Berlin Ballet at the
Deutsche Opera in Berlin, Nevada Dance Theatre in Las Vegas, and Ballet Austin in Austin
Texas.
He was a principal guest artist for the Serbian National
Theatre in Yugoslavia, where he was the first American to dance the title role in their
production of Don Quixote.
Throughout his dance career Anthony’s primary focus
was pedagogy. Grabbing every opportunity to study under great teachers and choreographers,
his continuing mission is to develop a road map that will lead dancers around the pot
holes that can hinder the success of their training programs and careers.
By focusing on the techniques used by extraordinary
teachers and coaches he seeks to help instructors develop reproducible and predictably
excellent training programs for their students. Quick to draw on disciplines beyond dance,
he has studied under a number of successful athletic coaches. During his early teens
Anthony was part of an AAU swim team where he experienced Olympic caliber coaching. Having
been raised in a college football town (Auburn, Alabama) he had the opportunity to study
great football coaches. Other coaches he sought out excelled in areas such as soccer,
diving, bike racing, and endurance track and field. Also he has studied the techniques of
many gymnastics coaches, most notably, Bela Karoli, and has developed a unique and
in-depth ballet training program for the gymnasts.
Through this research he gleaned many of the fundamentals
in pedagogy that allows athletes to develop extraordinary results in technique and
artistry and he has incorporated these methods into his ballet training.
Anthony has taught for these professional and academic
organizations: Nevada Dance Theatre School, Tatiana Govsky's Ballet Academy in West Berlin
(official school for Berlin Ballet), Ballet Austin Academy, Conservatory of the Arts - Las
Vegas NV, University of Alabama B.F.A. Dance Program, Ballet Hysell, Berlin Ballet, Ballet
Austin, Serbian National Theatre (Guest Ballet Master in Residence). He also served as
Project Director for the University of Alabama Community Dance Program and was responsible
for developing outreach programs, lecture demonstrations and satellite schools.
Training in the arts