Anne Donnelly

Anne had a long career as a dancer with London Contemporary Dance Theatre, (under the name Anne Went) performing internationally including at the Olympic Arts Festivals at both the Los Angeles 1984 and the Seoul Olympics 1988.Anne left London Contemporary DanceTheatre in 1989 and with the help of a dancers resettlement award studied at the Raworth College of Alternative Medicine and later at the Academy of Sport, pursuing her on-going interest in holistic fitness and physical training. For a shor t while in 1990 she returned to LCDT as a guest dancer and company teacher. Toward the end of 1990 Anne retired from performing to pursue her teaching career, teaching atTheThamesdown School,The Royal Ballet School, Central School of Ballet and Tring Park, Arts Educational School. In 1993 she was asked by John Chesworth to become the Rehearsal Director and company teacher for the NationalYouth Dance Company (NYDC).She continued to work closely with John Chesworth and the NYDC for a further eight years.Anne joined Middlesex University in 1994 to collate her teaching practice. She has served as executive director of DanceUK; board member of the Hertsdance (now DanceDigital); panel member for the Hong Kong Council for Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) and panel member for a number of UK academic validations. She was appointed as the academic staff representative on the Middlesex University Assurance Committee of Academic Board 2013-2016. In 2014 Anne came out of retirement, as a performer, to dance in the Elders Project as part of the Elixir Festival at Sadler’s Wells.The Elders Project was nominated for the 2015 Lawrence Olivier Award (Outstanding Achievement in Dance). Her research coheres around the health and training methods for contemporary dancers with specific focus on the mastery of Professor Robert Cohan’s method of teaching. Robert Cohan teaching: Body of Knowledge: www.rescen.net