For Stephanie Bonaventura, teaching dance at her Let’s Dance Albertson studio for 20 years has been a labor of love.
“They make you feel terrific. They look up to you. They give you unconditional love,” Bonaventura said of her students. “They put everything in perspective.”
Bonaventura, 50, first became a dance instructor 32 years ago, working for studios in Queens while she sought work as a dancer after graduating high school.
Her training was in musical theater, tap and jazz dancing. And she performed briefly with the Rockettes in Radio City Music Hall, and danced with the legendary troupe in the 1983 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. She also did some off Broadway work
But after five years of living the life of a dancer she decided to do something else.
“When you go from audition to audition and you don’t get called back, you need to make a living. And I wasn’t into waitressing,” Bonaventura said.
Bonaventura, who attended the BOCES Long Island Performing Arts School in Syosset and graduating from Garden City High School, said she started her own school after 12 years of working in other studios because she saw the things other dance schools did and “wanted to do them in a more friendly manner.”
And the Let’s Dance location at 9 Albertson Ave. in Albertson seemed like the right the environment for a dance school, she said.
“It was just a great neighborhood. It’s a wonderfully family-oriented community,” she said.
That family orientation has been evident in her business, as younger sisters follow their older siblings in taking dance classes. And now she said, she sometimes teaches the children of former students.
Bonaventura said what she likes most about her work is “just being able to give to them everything that I’ve learned. And they give back to me so much.”
When she started the business, she said the classes she offered concentrated on ballet, tap dancing and jazz. Over the past several years, jazz has evolved in hip-hop. And contemporary and lyrical dance, a combination of jazz and ballet has become increasingly popular.
“It’s not as structured, based on inner feeling,” Bonaventura said.
Let’s Dance also started offering “Glee” classes two years ago, driven by the popularity of the TV show. The “Glee” phenomenon also prompted Bonaventura to hire a singing coach.
Ballet remains the “foundation” for her students, who start at two years old. But she said tap remains in the “forefront” as other styles of dance continue to develop. In addition to children, Bonaventura said adults also take classes at Let’s Dance.
The emergence of hip-hop has prompted a demographic shift among her students, as boys now enroll in greater numbers than in years past.
“Now it’s cool for boys to dance,” Bonaventura said.
The school currently has five instructors, including her, and approximately 300 students who she said attend classes between September and June. The cost of the hour-long classes depends on the level.
She said 60 percent of students come from the Willistons and Mineola, with the balance coming from Albertson, Roslyn, New Hyde Park, Herricks and Searingtown.
Some parents enroll their children to get them into a healthful pastime, she said. Some kids take dance classes for fun and then take it more seriously.
“It starts out with having fun. And for some of them, it becomes a way of life,” Bonaventura said.
Some of her students have gone on to the LaGuardia Performing Arts High School in New York City and some have become dance majors in college and gone on to work off Broadway.
While she’s seen ebbs and flows in the business, she said it has remained fairly constant over the years.
“It holds its own. Parents try to give their children all opportunities,” she said.
Let’s Dance holds classes on weekdays and Saturdays for different age groups, and this year’s class schedule begins on Sept. 9.
Bonaventura currently lives in Floral Park with her husband, Anthony, who she met and married shortly after starting her business in Albertson.
“He’s been my support,” she said.
