Contemporary dancer Anna Gichan has enthralled many worldwide with her phenomenal performances, including Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle. Gichan had the honor to perform for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when the ensemble she dances with, based in Berkley, Calif., was invited to participate in the Invictus Games’ opening ceremony in Germany in 2023.
Gichan, who is deaf, was thrilled to present a piece, named “Dawn,” with the ensemble for the Invictus Games, which Prince Harry founded to provide an opportunity for military veterans from around the world to recover from physical and mental injuries by competing in different sports. AXIS Dance Company, founded in 1987, features and supports dancers with a spectrum of disabilities.
Gichan, a native of Pittstown, also has performed in Mexico, toured with a circus, and collaborated with another deaf dancer for a piece featured at the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. This April, Gichan will be on stage at the Lincoln Center in New York City with Axis Dance Company.
Although she has always loved to dance, Gichan’s passion for the art developed further when she enrolled in the dance program at Somerset County Vocational and Technical Schools (SCVTS). She said her education at SCVTS gave her the confidence and skills to pursue her dreams.
“I learned a lot about being a professional dancer at SCVTS,” said Gichan. “I would not be the dancer I am today without my education and the support of the teachers there.”
Gichan graduated from SCVTS in 2013 and then earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts.
“One of my first classes at SCVTS was an improvisation class, which petrified me,” said Gichan. “My limbs moved awkwardly as my peers watched, and I wiggled uncertainly through abstract movement concepts. But my teachers consistently encouraged us to move through the unknown. They instilled us with rigor and curiosity.”
She continued, “Four years later, my college audition solo was a partially improvised movement score to a Robert Frost poem that I recited aloud and performed without music,” she said. “This was also a prompt from one of my teachers at SCVTS. This training at SCVTS helped get me into the Rutgers BFA Dance program.”
The SCVTS dance program introduces students to many different dance professions such as dance teacher, choreographer and performer. Gichan said the variety of experiences gained through the program are beneficial to discovering a student’s true career ambition.
“Sometimes it is challenging to know if you’re on the right path,” she said. “But staying honest about what lights you up within your passion helps clarify the road.”
