Flo Ankah

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Flo Ankah

Starring in Loving the Silent Tears, sold-out musical at Shrine Auditorium, LA - Oct 2012
Born Florence Annequin
Bourgoin-Jallieu, France
Occupation Actress, Singer, Filmmaker
Website
http://www.floanne.com/

Flo Ankah (born Florence Annequin) is an actress[1] and filmmaker. She is also known as a chanteuse[2] under the mononym Floanne. She was born and raised in France, and has lived in New York City since 2000. Ankah is the founder of Simple Production,[3] an organization committed to the development of new interdisciplinary works that integrate the talent of innovative and "sparkling" artists from various cultures.

Career

Actor

Flo Ankah[4] has appeared in film (Then She Found Me),[5] on television (One Life to Live),[6] in the theater (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Julius Caesar[7]) including at The Public Theater,[8] and has read alongside theater personalities such as Israel Horowitz. Floanne has worked as a voice artist for major feature films (The Limits of Control, What Just Happened[9]) and voice-overs for national television commercials.[10] The webisode Life with Flow[11] features her work in several collaborative short films. She is involved at the Magnet Theater and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

Singer

Floanne is a French chanteuse and songstress.[12] Her repertoire includes French chanson, American classics and her own songs.[13] She has been performing her solo nightclub performances, Floin' to America[14] and Edith Piaf Alive with directors Isengart[15] and Lina Koutrakos at nightclubs such as Joe's Pub, The Metropolitan Room, The Triad Theater, The Harmonie Club, Symphony Space and The New York Botanical Garden. Her interpretation of "Michelle" from The Beatles is the 75th release of The Beatles Complete on Ukulele.[16] She stars in the Broadway-style musical Loving the Silent Tears, directed by Vincent Paterson, alongside Jody Watley, Jon Secada, Liz Callaway, Debbie Gravitte, Kiril Kulish, Mark Janicello and Patti Cohenour. Floanne trains her voice as a coloratura soprano with April Evans.

Dance

Ankah's choreography is drawn from her yoga practice, and integrates movement with the human voice as an instrument.[3] Her creations are collaborative and often include video projections and soundscapes. She has been shown at Movement Research at the Judson Church, the Merce Cunningham Studio, Abrons Arts Center, Dance New Amsterdam and HERE Arts Center, and has performed for artists such as Mina Nishimura,[17][18] Nina Morrison,[19] Meredith Monk (at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum[20]), John Duncan, Michou Szabo and Noémie Lafrance (at the McCarren Park Pool).[21]

Filmmaker

Ankah fuses the mediums of dance/performance art and film, creating experimental films.[22] ONE WAY,[23][24] awarded Best Experimental Film at the 5th Big Apple Film Festival at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York City in 2008,[25] and Waterfront Access?,[26] awarded the 2010 Golden Reel Award for Best Dance Film at the Tiburon International Film Festival,[27] were the result of a collaboration with artist Joe Zolkowski. She is currently developing a feature documentary in French, Le Maréchal et l'Astragale about her father's farm in South-East France, sharing the flavor of a lifestyle that may soon vanish.[28] Ankah writes about experimental short films on thelittlemovie.com.[29]

Stage credits

Year Title Role Theatre Note
2012-2013
Edith Piaf Alive
Edith Piaf
 Joe's Pub, NYC
Recurring Off-Broadway engagement
2013
Love is French
One-Person Show
 Symphony Space, NYC Valentine's Day
2012
Loving the Silent Tears
Accordion

(first principal singer)

 Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles Broadway-scale musical
2012
Water Lily Concert
Solo performance
 New York Botanical Garden
Monet Evenings (sold out)

Biographical background

Raised in Châbons, France, Ankah comes from a farm and has two siblings.[30] She graduated from the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater for improvisation comedy. She also trained in acting at the HB Studio and the School for Film and Television, at the Alvin Ailey school for dance, yin yoga and in opera as a soprano. Upon arrival in New York City, she worked as an assitsant to photographer-filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg, singer/songwriter Frank Simms, sculptor Strong-Cuevas,[31] and author Frances Kazan, to organize the archive of late husband Elia Kazan.

Works

Ankah winning Best experimental film at the Tribeca Cinemas, 2008

One-Person Show[32]

  • Floin' to America - (2011) 1.5 hour, cabaret performance of French and American tunes[33]
  • Edith Piaf Alive - (2012) 1 hour, a musical play: modern twist to vintage tunes.[34]

Experimental film[22]

  • Imprints - (2007) 4 minutes
  • ONE WAY - (2008) 10 minutes [35] Winner, Best Experimental film - 5th Big Apple Film Festival.[23]
  • Kirk Light - (2009) 4 minutes[36]
  • Waterfront Access? - (2009) 10 minutes [26] Winner, Golden Reel Award for Best Dance Film - Tiburon International Film Festival.[27]
  • Boudoir Chit-Chat - (2013) 14 minutes

Choreography work[37]

  • Rambling Thoughts - (2004) 5 minutes, video projection with soundscape, spoken word, 1 dancer
  • Vibraform - (2005) 10 minutes, soundscape, five dancers using voice
  • echO - (2006) 15 minutes, video projection, two dancers using voice[38]
  • Conversation - (2007) 10 minutes, video projection, soundscape, three dancers using voice
  • WEEP - (2009) 15 minutes, three dancers, one digeridoo[39]

Photographic exhibition[40]

  • Regards Croisés (1998)
  • Le Quotidien Des Rails (1999)
  • Where Are You Going? (2005)

References

  1. ↑ "French Actress New York". 
  2. ↑ "French Singer Chanteuse". 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "SiMPLE production: artistic endeavors". 
  4. ↑ Flo Ankah at the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ Then She Found Me at the Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ One Life to Live at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ "Inwood Shakespeare Festival". 
  8. ↑ "Church at the NYC Public Theatre". 
  9. ↑ What Just Happened at the Internet Movie Database
  10. ↑ "French voice-overs". 
  11. ↑ "Life with Flow, the webisode". 
  12. ↑ "French Songstress Floanne Ankah". 
  13. ↑ "Floanne Music French Voice". 
  14. ↑ "La Bohème de Floanne Ankah". 
  15. ↑ "No Strings Attached by Floanne Ankah". 
  16. ↑ "Michelle on The Beatles Complete on ukulele". 
  17. ↑ "Timmy's Idea in Time Out NY". Time Out NY. Retrieved 2009-10-06. 
  18. ↑ La Rocco, Claudia (2009-10-10). "Timmy's Idea in the New York Times". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-09. 
  19. ↑ "Nina Morrison's Girl Adventure". 
  20. ↑ Kourlas, Gia (2009-03-07). "Ascension Variations in NYTimes". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-03-06. 
  21. ↑ "Noemie Lafrance's Agora II". 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "SIMPLE production: art films". 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "ONE WAY, experimental film". 
  24. ↑ One Way at the Internet Movie Database
  25. ↑ "5th Big Apple Film Festival winners". 
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 "Waterfront Access?, experimental film". 
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Tiburon Film Festival 2010 Winners". Retrieved 2010-03-27. 
  28. ↑ "Le Maréchal et l'Astragale, official blog". 
  29. ↑ "The Little Movie.com, articles by Flo Ankah". 
  30. ↑ "Official actor website, biography". 
  31. ↑ "Assistant to Strong-Cuevas". 
  32. ↑ "French Chanteuse Classic Music". 
  33. ↑ "An anthology of French and American tunes". Timeout NY. Retrieved 2011-07-13. 
  34. ↑ "Edith Piaf revival". 
  35. ↑ "ONE WAY review in France-Amérique". France-Amérique. Retrieved 2008-11-21. 
  36. ↑ "Kirk Light, dance film". 
  37. ↑ "SIMPLE production: dance repertoire". 
  38. ↑ "Review of echO in France-Amérique". France-Amérique. Retrieved 2006-06-01. 
  39. ↑ "Movement Research listing in NY Times". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-03-06. 
  40. ↑ "SIMPLE production: photography". 

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