Hello! My name is Annie and I’ve been teaching exotic dance since 2004. I received my national exotic dance training immediately after attaining a degree in Dance Education from Winthrop University. I’ve taught in several exotic dance studios in the region. I was Co-Artistic Director of a small modern dance company from 2005-2014. I am also an award winning burlesque performer. I won Best Burlesque Performer (critic’s choice) in Creative Loafing’s Best of Charlotte! Go me!
As much as the entertainer in me is alive and well and I thrive as a storyteller, I will admit that my soul is content with just the simple pleasures in life like exploring a small town, snooping around an antique mall or just going for walks. I love making swarovski crystal pasties. Playing the violin is therapeutic for me and a strong passion of mine. I go swing dancing when I can and I also have a black belt in mixed martial arts. I get to the beach when I can and the mountains when I can. I love my cat, Dalton. (Professor 2007-2023)
For several years (perhaps since college), I thought I had to set my biological clock to everyone else’s sense of timing. That I had to have a certain job, please important people, and fit it into a prefabricated mold. I had folded my wings, and I had stopped focusing on teaching exotic dance. I had become a cocoon, living as the constricting sac, instead of the butterfly that I am.
So much for planning and living like everyone else: My relationship ended suddenly, my career transformed, and I had to experience a great deal of diminishing of my spirit. It was exotic dance that gave me confidence again. I suddenly remembered what I wanted to do with my life. I experienced my own metamorphosis. Moving my hips, being expressive, and having fun was, in a sense, me shrugging off the cocoon and releasing myself. I had found a true love again…teaching exotic dance and soon after I opened AFV Exotic Arts in 2012.
UPDATE! The Plaza Midwood studio closed in January of 2022. I am now available for private lessons in the South Park area and you can book me for in-home/hotel parties (women only). I am also available for wedding dance choreography for couples. Monthly burlesque workshops too!