“I felt so disconnected from my body after all the cancer treatments. Ballet movement helped me tune back in and explore who I was again.”
— Anna Wassman-Cox, Founder
About the Founder
Anna Wassman-Cox
What ballet means to me:
Returning to the ballet barre while going through breast cancer treatment made me re-learn how to find my joy of movement, dance and love of ballet. It helped me be kind to myself through positive self-talk and learn to be kind to my body by modifying steps in class as I needed.
Some days my body was full of energy and I could easily get through a full class, and other times I would be exhausted after barre and excused myself. It was really about listening to my body while I was in class. But I found the key to helping myself through treatment was to keep moving.
Ballet helped me get back to who I was at my core, a dancer.
Ballet has been an integral part of my life for as long as I can remember, but when my career stopped, I just turned my back on it. Thought I was better off without it. But it’s who I am. It took getting cancer twice to recognize my love for ballet again. I have now developed a more positive relationship with both ballet and my body that I hope to share with everybody to help them find the same.
Background in Ballet
Born and raised in Southern California, Anna Wassman trained in classical ballet across the Orange County area. At age 12 she was awarded a full scholarship to attend the San Francisco Ballet School’s summer intensive, and a few years later at 15 years old, she moved up north to train full time in the San Francisco Ballet School’s year-round program.
After her training, Anna freelanced in LA and OC, performing in shows such as “The Glory of Christmas”, “The Nutcracker”, the Long Beach Opera, “Nixon in China” while auditioning for ballet companies. She was accepted into the Joffrey Ballet, and moved to Chicago to dance with the Joffrey Ballet as a Trainee.
Due to injuries, Anna decided to step away from her professional ballet performance career and went to school at Loyola University Chicago. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing.
After graduating, Anna pursued the business route and joined Bosch, where she worked across different divisions and teams in the company, including an international assignment in Germany. Wanting to get back home to California, Anna moved back in 2020 and started working for the Bosch eBike Systems division.
Returning to Southern California sparked a desire for Anna to get back into ballet, this time for herself and to enjoy the ballet movement. After 8 years of not dancing, she began taking ballet classes again. Anna knew she was being called to create a healing environment for the ballet community.
About Movement Pointe
Movement Pointe started with the simple idea that ballet can be healing. After being diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time, ballet played a huge role Anna’s recovery.
Ballet doesn’t feel like “exercise”. It’s enjoyable and the variety of movement, stretches, and creative expression feels great in the body.
Anna saw that ballet could bring enjoyable exercise into patients and survivors lives and decided to build a nourishing ballet classes to facilitate healing.
We are here to help you find your joy of moment and get back in touch with your body through nourishing ballet movement.