BIOGRAPHY
Photo by Tarrice Love
Anthony Burrell, a native of Philadelphia, began teaching and choreographing at age 14 as a student at Point Breeze Performing Arts Center. Anthony’s extraordinary talent was evident even then, earning him an emerging choreographer award and later resulting in him being appointed resident choreographer for the school. Anthony attended Franklin Learning Center, where he studied with Horton master Faye Snow. While in high school he danced professionally with Eleone, KTM Extreme, Danco 2 (second company of Philadanco), Koresh, and Prism, in addition to studying at the Pennsylvania Ballet and the National School of Ballet in Lima, Peru. Before entering college, Anthony was a two time local gold medalist, and the 1998 national gold medalist for the NAACP ACT-SO competition in the category of Dance, as well as a guest artist with the Bermuda Dance Company. During his freshman of college at The University of the Arts, where he received The Promising Artist scholarship, Anthony was hand selected by Judith Jamison to join Ailey II, of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. During his time with Ailey II, Anthony taught master classes at Universities and other dance institutions across the country. After a year with Ailey II, he joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and began touring nationally and internationally with the company for five years. During his time with the Alvin Ailey Company, he set choreography on Ailey members and was described by reviewer Jennifer Dunning as a “Choreographer to Watch.”
After achieving his life-long dream of dancing with Alvin Ailey, Anthony went on to experience Commercial success in Los Angeles as a Dancer/Choreographer in the music industry. He appeared in countless television programs and music videos, including Good Morning America and the Oprah Winfrey show. He was a dancer, choreographer and dance captain for some of the industry’s top artist such as Beyonce, Destiny’s Child, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland, Brandy and Mariah Carey. He was also featured as a dancer on DVD recordings such as Jay-z's Fade to Black, Destiny’s Child’s Live in Atlanta, and Beyonce's Live at The Wembly. Anthony was also the dance captain and Assistant Choreographer on "The Beyonce Experience” World Tour.
Soon after Anthony Burrell was scouted by choreographer Hi-Hat to be the featured actor for Mary J. Blige’s Heart of the City tour and later toured with Mary J. Blige’s for “Music Saved My Life Tour.” Completing the tour, he went back to perform with the Ailey Company for two more seasons. After his departure from the Ailey Company, he was featured on "So You Think You Can Dance” top 24. On the show, and was noted by judges as "exquisite", and "the best dancer in New York.” He later went to star as ‘Hank’ in Twyla Tharp’s Broadway Musical ” 1st National tour of “Come Fly Away, and Co-starred in his first film “The Skinny” as ‘Kyle’ directed by Patrick Ian Polk. He recently Co-starred as “Dallas” on GLEE, and can also be seen on “Dance Moms”, “Abby Lee’s Ultimate Dance competition” and Raising Asia on Lifetime Television.
In addition to Anthony’s promising career he has dedicated his mission in the arts and entertainment industry to providing dance training for underserved youth. Anthony’s empathy for young people who may have the heart to dance and not the financial means birthed the vision for Breaking Barriers.