Top of page
Skip to main content
Main content

Anna LeoAssociate Professor Emerita

Education

MFA, dance, The Ohio State University

Biography

Before joining the Emory faculty in 1993, Anna Leo taught at Ohio Wesleyan University and Kenyon College. Prior to receiving her master of fine arts degree at The Ohio State University, she lived in New York City for thirteen years, where she danced with choreographers Sharon Kinney, Kenneth Rinker and Bebe Miller.

Her choreography has been produced in New York City, and she has taught and choreographed at colleges and universities in the U.S., and in studios and theaters in Canada and Germany. She has been a National Endowment for the Arts Choreography fellowship recipient, and in 1997 received the Emory College Excellence in Teaching Award.

Her dedication to the practice of yoga has taken her to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, India to further her studies. She incorporates yoga principles into much of her studio teaching. Her current teaching areas include modern and ballet techniques, dance history, solo composition, and yoga for dancers and athletes.

Teaching Statement

As a movement teacher, I am ever-honing my skill to observe students, that I might successfully meet their learning needs. I seek avenues by which students can enjoy successes. A sense of self-worth and self-importance allow a student to move forward in investigations with confidence. Through example, I hope to teach others to know and love the body, and to appreciate its capabilities – whatever they may be.

Althea Simmons of the NAACP stated: "Even though a person is a genius, if he lacks compassion, it distorts reality and cripples objectivity." In both the studio and classroom, I look to create a climate that is challenging and at the same time nurturing. In all that I do, scholarly, creatively, and as a teacher, I look inside myself for patience and compassion, and hope to pass this important lesson of humanity on to my students by example.

Research

At the heart of my choreography is the pleasure and satisfaction of observing and experiencing the intricacies and heightened physicality of movement – creating from an infinite range of dynamics – delicate, minute gesture to full body abandon. My creative process is informed by all that I do, from my study of various movement disciplines to the routine actions of a day. Stories and movement about family are a recurring theme for me, and external forms, especially poetry forms, often provide a structural base of works.

Translation – structural forms to movement, ballet to contemporary genres, classical themes to the popular forms – is also indicative of my work. Using the choreographic process to move from chaos to order and order to chaos and back again; to construct and deconstruct and reconstruct and deconstruct again and again – all delight.

I made The Architecture of After following the death of my daughter, Vita. In my mind, the work seeks to reconfigure and navigate in a world that is forever changed. The piece begins in what I call the mourning circle, and then builds through the manipulation of two main phrases: a floor phrase and a phrase in 5/4 time. The nine Emory dancers are integral to the work, constructing their own phrases based on verbal prompts. Kendall Simpson's score weaves together the structure and textures of the piece.