April 24, 2017

Meet Amy Longstaff of Center Stage Dance in Valley Village

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Longstaff.

Originally started by Rosie Gitlin in 1986, Center Stage Dance began providing 3-8 year olds dance classes specializing in Ballet, Tap and Jazz. Since then it has grown to provide a full range of classes and performing opportunities in hip-hop, contemporary, and acrobatics to students up to the age of 18. The studio offers classes for both recreational dancers, and pre-professional dancers.

In 2008, Amy Longstaff moved from London to Los Angeles to continue to pursue her dance career with Bloc. In her down time between jobs with Disney, DreamWorks, and Nickelodeon she began teaching classes at Center Stage. She took over the company program and started to build up the professional training side of the studio.

In 2014, Amy and her husband took over the dance studio from Rosie, who after 28 years decided it was time to pass on her studio to Amy, since then, Amy has continued to grow the company program and technical training side of the studio, as interest quickly grew, Amy found it difficult to offer all of the classes and opportunities to the students in the two studios they had. In the summer of 2015, they expanded and opened a third studio to be able to offer more classes. Since then, they have seen a steady growth in their program.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think every business has its ups and downs when dealing with customers. We have around 300 active students in our program and families that come from every walk of life. Making everyone happy is always tough, if not impossible but we have been fortunate to have created a family-style culture within the studio which makes it a lot easier. We try to keep it simple; offer great dance instruction in a friendly welcoming environment and everything else will work itself out.

Center Stage Dance – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We teach dance classes for children from 2-17 years old. We specialize in Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Contemporary, Hip-Hop, and Acrobatics.

We strive to develop qualities that every child needs to succeed, building self-esteem and confidence in a fun nurturing atmosphere.

We have a strong performing company and competition teams. We offer classes for both recreational dancers who just take class because they like it, and pre-professional dancers who aspire to have a career in dance and performing arts.

We strive to maintain a fun environment as well as ensure that of the fundamentals are being taught. We want them to not only be great but to love doing it.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Seeing the passion and dedication to dance grow in the students. Seeing them want to be in every class because they love it and want to get better.

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