Miss Anna has been playing piano since 1987. She has studied under Carol George, David Witten, Mark Pakman and Ruth Rendleman. She studied Music Theory and Composition at Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ). While at Montclair she participated in Chorale, Band and the Harry Partch Ensemble, and has played piano, guitar, drums and various Partch instruments in various performances both in college and in the public sector. She has debuted the works of Charles Corey, Howard Shore and Harry Partch. To request a complete resume, please email missannalawrence@gmail.com.

Miss Anna has only recently discovered the joyous flailing dance of Shiva, although it’s taken awhile.  She had been an avid reader of Havi Brooks’ blog for a few years.  It wasn’t until early Spring of 2011 that she started to delve into the twisty dance, which is both a challenge for the arms and for the brain.  In short, the “dance” patterns actually help your brain create new neural connections.. which is great, because we lose a few thousand every day due to aging.  For more on the science aspect of it (and more of the physical benefits), visit Rose’s blog.  Not only is she a talented shiva nata teacher, but she is also, just in general, a very cool chick, and, incidentally, actually studying neuroscience in school.

A note from Miss Anna…

It is my hope that I can use shiva nata to gain more insight into my music and my teaching, but there are so many benefits I really cannot wait to share the dance with my students and with friends.  Shiva nata isn’t really going to make me smarter, but it’s going to help me know what I know even better, inside out and upside down, and I’ve always said that is one of the things I try to do as a teacher.  Because if one way to explain a concept doesn’t work for a particular student, I have to figure out an alternative method very quickly.

And what the heck is a MissAdventure?  It’s a thing I do.  It’s my life.  Go to my website home page and what do you see?  MissAdventures in Music.  Go to my music blog and..? MissAdventures.. as they happen!  A misadventure is generally some sort of crazy caper where something bad happens.  Well, when the Miss in question is ME.. the only MissAdventures that happen are exciting ones!

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