Anna Maria Cancelli

Anna Maria is a lifelong dancer, storyteller, and educator whose work bridges the ancient and the modern, the scholarly and the sacred. She holds a BA in Theatre with training in movement and the Alexander Technique, along with a minor in Classical Studies focused on world mythologies and art history. She also earned an MA in Literature and has served as a full-time English professor at a North Carolina community college for over two decades.

With more than 20 years of experience as a dance instructor, Anna Maria has studied and taught a wide range of traditional and cross-cultural dance forms rooted in the ancient world. Her writing appears in several domestic and international entertainment publications, including Zaghareet!, where her numerous articles explore the cultural significance and healing power of dance.

Currently completing her certification in somatic and ecstatic dance—with a focus on chakra alignment and elemental freeform movement—Anna Maria now facilitates sacred dance sessions that invite participants into deeper embodiment, spiritual connection, and expressive liberation. Her upcoming book on sacred dance, grounded in dance ethnology, historical research, interviews, and lived experience, reflects her lifelong devotion to movement as a path of transformation.