Bio of Anna Go-Go,
Anna’s Go-Go Academy
Anna is the founder of Australia’s premier Go-Go dancing school, Anna’s Go-Go Academy. Back in 2006, Anna’s Go-Go classes revolutionised dance in Melbourne, creating a space where everybody is welcome to dance, and where pop culture, music videos, and iconic dances are celebrated! Nothing like that existed before and everybody thought she was mad, but her classes have been running weekly since 2006 and her revolutionary methodology has inspired countless others to offer alternative options for people who love to dance, making the world more fun for everyone!
She runs classes full time, plus special classes for major events, corporate functions,parties, and festivals. She is a choreographer specialising in pop culture and era-specific choreography, from the 1920s to today.
Her dreams of becoming a Solid Gold Dancer never fulfilled (due to the axing of the show in the mid eighties), Anna now dreams of amassing her own Go-Go Army. In the last 12 years Anna has taught the greatest dance crazes of history at her classes and special events to over 50,000 people.
Anna is also a writer, comedian, producer, entertainer, and inspirational speaker. Her unique ability to combine comedy and dance in a participatory way means that her skills are highly sought after for festivals, shows, corporate team building, community events, organisations, theatres, and TV. Anna is the only person in Australian history to have successfully led a record breaking 15,000 people in an impromptu mass dance class (for White Night Melbourne).
To enquire about booking Anna for your event, please email theannagogo@gmail.com
"Anna Achia is part jazzercise instructor, part comedian, part soul music historian, part madwoman and all-round one of the funniest people you will ever meet. I went to her Trades Hall classes in the Bella Union Bar for about two years, and despite how I drab I felt when I arrived, after an hour of drinking champagne, learning steps like the Pony, the Madison and the Ann-Margret and screeching with laughter at her anecdotes about her latest perm or thoughts on the election or whatever, I felt like a million bucks."
R. Stewart, Yelp.com.au
"But the main attraction is Anna herself. A modern-day Denise Drysdale*, the only thing bigger than Anna’s hair is her personality. Dressed to kill in vintage mini-dresses and immaculate burlesque bombshell make-up, she keeps up a running commentary throughout the classes, cracking endless jokes, singing along to the music and holding forth on subjects as diverse as perms, bingo wings*, her pet rabbit and Carmen Electra." S.Wilson, Hide and Seek Melbourne
Recent engagements include Sammy J and Randy in Rickett’s Lane (ABC TV) , White Night Melbourne, It’s A Date (ABC TV), The Today Show (Ch 9), The Project (Ch10), The Living Room (Ch10), Les Nouveux Explorateurs for French TV, producing/hosting 1992-1-Oh! for Melbourne Fringe, Shut Up And Dance Melbourne Fringe, inductee in the Melbourne Gold Book of Records (Gold 104FM), Ambassador for the Melbourne Fringe CrowdPlay project, the Falls Festivals (Lorne and Tas), producer Thrill the World Melbourne (2010-present), co-choreographer for the Victoria Park Opening Ceremony, the Suzuki Night Market, the Famous Spiegeltent. Appearances on Spicks and Specks (ABC TV), Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader (Ch10), The Insiders (ABC TV), The Bazura Project (ABC TV), co-hosting So You Drink? You Can Dance! for both the Comedy and Fringe festivals (including winning the Comedy at Trades Comrade award for Best Choreography), choreography for the Die Roten Punkte music video ‘Rock Bang’, and more!
Anna’s Letter to the Photo I Wish Had Never Been Taken can be found in Sincerely, the latest edition of Women of Letters (Penguin Australia).
Anna has appeared on ABC TV, Channel 10, in The Age , Herald Sun and The Australian newspapers, The Age Sunday Life and M magazines, and Melbourne’s ABC774, Triple J, Triple M, Gold 104.3 FM, Nova FM, RRR, and PBS radio stations.
“In a welcome break from
the regular pundits, ABC1's Insiders unveiled go-go dancers as the go-to
people for opinion on the 2020 Summit. Anna Achia, of Anna's Go-Go Academy
in Melbourne, said celebrities at the summit killed the perception it was
just a boring talkfest with "politicians sitting around, eating cheese
and touching their frontbums".”
- James Jeffrey, The Australian
My experience of this Go-Go dance class is that it’s like being invited to a high energy party, at which you’ll be taken care of by the hostess with the mostest! Anna expresses a desire to “amass a go-go army” and by the end of the class I believed she could!”- Lola Macmillan, Melbourne Stage Online
"It's like going to church with a brilliant
teacher each week. The classes are so inspiring. It makes you want to get
out there and practise every night...you get a real endorphin high and it's
fun and you laugh and you're hanging out with your friends."
- Maryanne Bridges, The Age Newspaper
“The winning combination of exercise (enough
to break into a sweat), beer and the lively presence of the noughties very
own go-go queen, Anna Go-go, is enough to make me want to etch this evening
permanently into my calendar.”
- Jayne D’Arcy, The Age M Magazine
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