There is a moment during Amy Piantaggini’s independent ballet class when all her 3 and 4-year-old charges fold themselves up into little balls on the ballet floor. Piantaggini then produces a green watering can, and gently pantomimes sprinkling water over these little buds. It could not be more appropriate, because as you watch these little ones in leotards move joyfully throughout the space at Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance on Main Street, you can practically see the ballerina within them starting to grow. They are, quite literally, budding dancers.
The atmosphere in this class is quietly magical, yet bursting with energy. Starting with bubbles wafting around the room and ending in the frenetic shaking of a parachute, the flow of what looks like any child’s ballet class actually has influences ranging from the Montessori program to the theories of Howard Gardner. “Her method with the little ones is unbelievable,” says Polly Kingsbury, Educational Director of the Conservatory. “I’ve been in this business a very long time and what she’s doing is unique and amazing. What the kids learn without realizing it is terrific.”
Piantaggini has been the Executive Director of RCD for a decade, and after teaching for 18 years you still see the sparkle in her eyes and her excitement as she talks about dance, and her students. The kids delight in her presence, swarming her like buzzing bees when getting their ribbons out for the next activity, and she presides over the class with a gentle warmth. Her approach to teaching the littlest of dancers aims to build a strong foundation that can take them through graduation and beyond. There is a recognition that what you learn in the ballet studio has a long tail. “The self-discipline, the organization of your time, the mind-body connection - no matter if kids go on to careers in [any field], I feel like you can take that into whatever you do,” Piantaggini told us. “And that’s the idea - just because you come through our school that doesn’t have to be the end goal. It is for some of our kids, and they take the appropriate classes to get there, but there is room for everybody here and they start as young as one!”
These early connections remain whether students are there for 10 years or 10 months. “I will have kids who will come to me for just one year,” says Piantaggini. And then eight years later I see them over at Deborah Ann’s eating ice cream and it’s a big reunion. It’s the personal connections you make with the parents and the kids. It’s meaningful within this community that there is so much interaction, and the friendships that we see the kids form.”
If you take a peek into the Conservatory’s well-known window on Main Street, you might see kids just learning to walk already dancing with their parents, absorbing the fundamentals of the lessons to come. When kids get their feet under them, so to speak, they start to break out on their own, having fun with Piantaggini and her assistants from some of the more advanced classes. “With the young ones, it’s just the joy. It’s the remembering what dance is all about,” she says. Hiding sneakily behind the joyful abandon, however, are research-based practices of the phase RCD refers to as “pre-ballet.” Piantaggini has even written a curriculum book that other teachers are starting to reference in their own classrooms. “When the school was founded as a non-profit, Howard Turner (also the founder of Ridgefield Academy) understood the importance of a strong educational model, so we’ve tried to carry that with us,” says Piantaggini.
Even though we Ridgefielders walk by their window practically every day, many may not know that Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance is the only dance studio in the surrounding area that operates as a nonprofit. Founded by Patricia Schuster in 1965, the studio was willed to the Ridgefield Playhouse upon her passing in 1999, starting a long-standing partnership that continues to this day. RCD holds its annual (and very popular) production of The Nutcracker at this other Ridgefield institution every year. When five Ridgefield families got together with the vision of incorporating the Conservatory into a non-profit, the Playhouse “acted as a bridge” during the transition. This status has allowed them to both have additional resources from grants, and continue Schuster’s vision of exposing the young people of Ridgefield to the wider world of dance. And not just ballet - RCD has a thriving Modern program, as well as jazz, tap, musical theater, hip hop, and even specialty classes that come through, like Stage Combat.
In a town where the arts and nonprofit culture are deeply ingrained in the fabric of the community, running the Conservatory as a nonprofit is fitting. As Piantaggini puts it, “To me what a nonprofit means … is the give-back to the community. The reinvesting in the people here.” Whether they are engaging in the school systems, collaborating with SPHERE as they did for eight years, or performing at the Aldrich, “doing free, pro bono things for the town is important to us.”
There is also a strong sense of legacy within the RCD community. Says one former student/current parent, “Our family's experience with RCD began in 1984, when I began taking my first classes with Patricia Schuster. I spent countless hours studying ballet under her guidance, all the way through the Ridgefield Civic Ballet, until I graduated from RHS in 2000. In 2014, we came full circle when my oldest daughter started her first ballet classes at RCD. All three of my daughters now study at RCD, and we're so grateful for the community of welcoming, professional teachers who are instilling a love of dance in this next generation of dancers.”
Back in the studio, Piantaggini is taking her charges through a story set in the forest, using each element to emphasize a different movement. The trees are stretching to the sky, the roots keep the tree steady and standing tall. The children delight in placing a unicorn atop their heads, practicing balance and poise. As one mom put it, another former RCD student, “It's abundantly clear that the curriculum is developed to foster a love of dance through movement and play, all the while respecting ballet/dance fundamentals. RCD emphasizes respect for self/others, the studio, and the art of dance - lessons for our little dancers to heed in all aspects of life.”
Piantaggini stresses that the Conservatory is both a rigorous dance program, and a place where everyone is welcome. “It’s a real misnomer that ballet is for one type,” Piantaggini says. “Absolutely not true. We train everybody and we like to think we have a lot of fun doing it.” You can feel that energy with her 3 and 4-year-olds in class that starts with gentle exercises, builds up to a high-energy obstacle course, and relaxes back into calm. Kids leave the studio bouncing and happy, the seeds of dance firmly planted and ready to grow.
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"It’s a real misnomer that ballet is for one type. Absolutely not true. We train everybody and we like to think we have a lot of fun doing it.”
“Her method with the little ones is unbelievable. What the kids learn without realizing it is terrific.”