People | Anthony Morgan |
 Contemporary Dance, Composition
email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Anthony received his introduction to dance in Canada while completing a degree in Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Dance soon displaced engineering and he attended summer schools in dance at York University and Toronto Dance Theatre. From 1973 to 1976 he did the certificate program at The London School of Contemporary Dance where he danced in the Lecture Demonstration Group and later with Basic Space Dance Theatre touring throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Teachers who most influenced his work included Jane Dudley, Nina Fonaroff, Robert Cohan and, at Covent Garden, Johnny O’Brien. Then came the New York years. Anthony studied extensively at the Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey Schools as well as with Viola Farber, Jennifer Muller and others for modern dance and Finis Jung, David Howard and, especially, Alfredo Corvino for ballet. His contemporary dance technique classes are based on the techniques of Martha Graham, inflected by a sense of humour and spirituality. He performed with many companies including those of Martha Graham, Pearl Lang, Bertram Ross, Rudy Perez, Susan Marshall, Linda Diamond, Larry Richardson, Philip Grosser, Kelly Hogan, Artis Barry Smith and Judith Garay. One of his first dances while a student received an award for most promising choreographer. He first showed his choreography in New York City in 1978 and directed The Anthony Morgan Dance Company there from 1985 to 1992 at which time he relocated to Vancouver. In addition to touring engagements the company gave regular New York seasons and received numerous good reviews from the New York press. Anthony also choreographed and performed for Double Dancing, a duet repertory with partner Judith Garay which toured theatres from Miami to Calgary to Rotterdam. His works have been performed by groups in London, Mexico City, Brussels, Dallas, Lynchburg, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Gainesville and, in Canada: Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and across British Columbia. In 1997 Anthony produced, choreographed and performed in a short film Punctuated Equilibrium which played on Canadian television and screened at more than twenty international film. In 2002 The Suzanne Farrell Ballet performed his A Farewell to Music at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater. Dancers Dancing, a professional contemporary dance company based in Vancouver has performed three of his dances in Vancouver seasons and on tour in British Columbia. He has taught at numerous schools and universities across North America in addition to teaching residencies in Mexico and Europe. Since 1983 he has been on faculty at Florida State University each Fall semester and since 1993 has been a frequent guest at Simon Fraser University and Main Dance Place in Vancouver, Canada. He was promoted to Professor in 2004 and won a University Teaching Award in 2006. Now in his fifties, he continues an active life as a choreographer, dancer and rehearsal director. |