Since she can recall, Annie has gravitated towards the arts. Whether it be dancing, visual arts, creative writing or photography, she lives and breathes for creative expression. Annie is equally passionate about wholistic health and wellbeing. As a trained dancer and certified yoga teacher, she recognizes the potential for movement practices to impact one’s life on a multidimensional scale. The creativity, physicality and awareness cultivated through dance and yoga practices have catalysed profound healing in Annie’s life over the past 15 years. She now dedicates her time and energy to assist others in realizing meaningful shifts in their own lives.
Annie identifies as Australian, Afro-Latina and beyond this, a caretaker of the earth. Born in the tropical terrain of coastal Ecuador, Annie migrated to Australia with her kin whilst still a babe at her mother’s breast. For twenty years, the vibrant lands of Northern New South Wales have been her abode. The rich community and unique landscapes of Bundjalung & Arakwal country have shaped a vital part of Annie’s identity and instilled her with a deep sense of belonging. Annie currently resides in the Byron Bay hinterland where she is undertaking her final year of a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. She teaches ZenYoga & MOVE IT classes in both online and community settings.
Delia Silvan
An award winning performer who has appeared in film, dance and opera productions, Delia Silvan has worked with leading Australian dance companies Chunky Move, Australian Dance Theatre (ADT), Lucy Guerin Inc., Danceworks and Leigh Warren & Dancers (of which she was a founding member).
She has performed nationally and around the world in venues ranging from the Sydney Opera House & Jacobs Pillow NY to remote outback settlements. Delia continues to contribute to the art form as a dance maker, performer, movement consultant, rehearsal and staging director.
Leigh-Anne Vizer
Leigh-Anne Vizer is a Choreographer and Movement Director who’s experience spans small scale Independent theatre projects, musical theatre, oratorios, ceremonies and large scale events. She has recently returned from New York where she made her Broadway debut for the Global Creatures production of ‘King Kong, Live on Broadway’. Leigh-Anne also worked on the Opening Ceremony of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018, choreographing and rehearsing a mass cast of over 2500 people (including professional dancers, volunteers, and children) and directing 24 puppeteers who bought to life ‘Migaloo’, an inflatable whale of grand proportions. During the Games she also helped to curate Indigenous Ceremonies with over 80 traditional dancers and performers.
Leigh-Anne began her career in the Arts and Entertainment industry as a professional dancer and aerial artist. Growing up in Brisbane, she was a competitive gymnast and trained in all styles of dance before studying a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Dance at QUT and becoming an accredited Pilates Instructor. Her career has taken her to many parts of Australia, Melanesia, Asia, Europe, and eventually to Broadway, New York.
Now settled in Tyalgum, which is situated on the NSW North Coast, Leigh-Anne is thrilled to be joining Philip and Sean and the MOVE IT team in spreading the love of dance, and celebrating the freedom of expression with you all.
Philip Channells
Philip Channells (director / choreographer) is considered one of Australia’s leading disability-inclusive dance practitioners.
He is Creative Director of Dance Integrated Australia, former Artistic Director of Restless Dance Theatre, and has worked in the UK with Candoco, StopGAP and Corali dance companies, Adam Benjamin and the Scottish Dance Theatre.
His choreographic credits include: Off The Record (2016) – a collaboration with Force Majeure, PERFECT (im)PERFECTIONS – stories untold, The Main Event (2014), Skin-deep, Enter & Exit (2013), Second Skin, inPerspective #1, Lythophytes & Epiphytes(2012), Next of Kin (2010).
Through his work in regional NSW, across Australia, the UK, Norway, Finland, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Papua New Guinea, Philip builds a collaborative environment conducive to creativity and social inclusion. He’s committed to developing the cultural landscape of dance through redefining an artistic practice that is inclusive of people from diverse backgrounds, different embodiment and life experience.
Robert Alejandro Tinning
Robert Alejandro Tinning is a Byron Bay based dancer/choreographer/movement director/teacher. He has performed nationally for a number of state bodies and independent creatives such as; Tasdance (Gabrielle Nankivell, Jukstapoz, Liesel Zink; STRUT Dance (re-stagings of Batsheva Dance Company’s ‘Decadance’, both Hofesh Shecter’s ‘Uprising’ and ‘tHE bAD’); Shaun Parker & Co (King). Robert has toured internationally as a freelance artist and performed within his own independent ventures.
His choreographic projects have focused on inter-generational interdisciplinary art exchanges, in collaboration with institutions and artists, in regional and urban cultural centres in Australia and abroad. A recipient of the Ausdance NSW 2020 Innovating Dance Practice Grant, his creative endeavours have also been supported by Tasdance and WA’s the Department of Local Government Sport & Cultural Industries. His projects have been performed in both Australia and the USA, and his collaborations with actor/director Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) have had over 2 million views across multiple social media platforms.
Robert has led company classes for Shaun Parker & Company and Tasdance, guest taught for WAAPA & STRUT Dance WA, facilitated his own workshops and taught for others in regional Northern NSW. He is also a collaborator for Dance Integrated Australia and a facilitator of their socially engaged classes: MOVE IT for all abilities and age groups.
Robert holds cultural-futuristic movements as his creative practices' biggest inspirations, especially the Afro-Latino cultural diaspora due to his own cultural heritage.
Sean Campbell
Sean studied Fashion Design in the UK before working as a PR Director for a London’s agency, where he managed international clients.. He moved to Australia in 2009.
He worked as the costume designer for Dance Integrated Australia’s Second Nature, Skin-deep, inPerspective #1, Enter & Exit, Dwell – A Triple Bill, The Main Event at ‘The Corner Dance Lab’s 14, 15, 16’ and Beyond Technique Residency #1, #2, and #3. He was also part of the team, who created the ‘look and feel’ of Behind The Façade.
For Dance Integrated Australia he has Project Managed the ‘Beyond Technique Residency’ (2013 –2015) at Bundanon Trust and ‘The Corner Dance Lab’ (2014 – 2016). He also project managed and performed in ‘Beyond Technique Residency [Moscow]’ 2016 and Inside Out (St Petersburg) 2018.
Sean worked as Project Assistant for BlakDance for the Dana Waranara convergence 2015 and again as Project Coordinator for the National Indigenous Dance Forum 2017.
He has been working as a part of the MOVE IT team since the beginning of 2019 and is currently managing and producing Live Online.
Tess Eckert
Tess Eckert is a descendant of German, Swedish and Chickasaw American Indian ancestry. She is an educator and expressive arts practitioner, using dance and other creative modalities for community building, youth empowerment and social justice. Born and raised in the majestic Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA to a pilot father and flight attendant mother (also both passionate dancers) you could say Tess has the love of travel and of movement embedded deep in her bones. This inherited jitter-bug has taken Tess to nearly every continent on the globe, until she found love in the Byron Bay hinterland, rooting her in Australia for the last 7 years.
In 2013, shortly after Tess settled in the Northern Rivers, she met Philip Channells at a dance performance and forged what has come to be one of her most valued relationships and creative collaborations under the guidance of Philip’s highly skilled, loving and encouraging mentorship. Inspired by one another, together they have found a myriad of weird, wonderful and inclusive ways to facilitate connection with people of all ages, abilities, cultures and backgrounds through the universal language of dance.
Tess' artistic practice is strongly informed by many years training in contemporary dance, contact improvisation, 5 rhythms, BodyWeather and community building.
Waangenga Blanco
Waangenga Blanco is a dancer, choreographer and actor, who for the past 13 years has performed as a senior artist at Bangarra Dance Theatre.
A proud indigenous man who descends from the Pajinka wik in Cape York and Meriam Mer the furthest eastern island in the Torres Strait. His desire to learn more about his culture began with his love for dance. After studying at Naisda for 3 years he was invited to dance professionally for Bangarra.
With diverse moonlighting in TVC, Virtual Reality Film, Feature Film, Music Video's and dance film… Waangenga has toured globally and nationally for over a decade. His unwavering passion for his craft lead him to choreograph 'I.B.I.S' for Bangarra's 2015 National Tour where in the same year he won the 'Australian Dance Awards’ prize for 'Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer'.
With numerous nominations throughout his career, Blanco also took home a Green Room Award for Outstanding Male Dancer for his work in Bangarra's 2014 production of Patyegarang.
Xënia Lagune
Xënia Lagune is a holistic bodyworker / dance and yoga instructor originally from Spain. Growing up in a family dance studio based in Barcelona, from an early age she started performing ballroom exhibitions and danced many different genres including Latino, Hip Hop, classical ballet, flamenco and belly dance and has performed in many dance competitions, shows and festivals.
In 2014, Xënia relocated to Byron Bay to study English and continues to build her life and love of dance within the community. In 2018 Xënia became a certified yoga instructor, allowing her to connect more deeply with the body through the embodiment of movement, sound and breath work. Since 2019 she has worked with Sprung Integrated Dance Theatre Inc. in a facilitator role that supports disabled artists to improve their body awareness, mobility and range of movement. Xënia teaches belly dance classes at Circus Arts, Byron Bay and in 2020 joined the MOVE IT Dance Fitness Fun team, which is an initiative of Dance Integrated Australia led by Philip Channells and Sean Campbell.
Xënia aspires to help others connect with their body’s natural expression through movement creating individual positive transformation through the healing art of dance.