Class Dates '08-'09

Aimee Stone

Diane Shields

Leah Harrington

April Bergeron

Diane Shields has been dancing for 48 years in tap, ballet, pointe, jazz, acrobat, lyrical jazz/ballet and most recently in ballroom and liturgical dance and has been teaching dance for over 35 years. She excels at advanced tap and tap technique. Most of her training started with her mother Anita, of Anita’s Dance Studio. Her mother is well known in the dance field and has been called the “teacher of teachers” as many of her students went on to start their own dancing schools, like Carol and Dave Barker, Kathy Barker, Kathy Teirney, Shelley Hack, David Bovat, Lynn Jasmin and Michael Montaro choreographer of the Canadian Cirque du Soleil. Some teachers continue to take advanced tap classes from Anita and Diane. Diane became owner of Anita’s Dance Studio in 1976. Diane continued her dance and drama studies with Frank Hatchett, first locally here in the Springfield area where she was accepted into his advanced/teacher dance classes and eventually was honored with being one of a few of his dance demonstrators at various dance conventions in New York City. She regularly attended classes in New York City at the Hines-Hatchett studio and also studied with Charles Kelley, Steven Boyd, Luigi, Phil Black and Al Gilbert just to name a few. Diane is a former member of Dance Educators of America, Dance Masters and NADAA.

Diane is a dancer, teacher and choreographer. She teaches all levels of dance from pre-school and beginners to adults and advanced. During her competition years, students that performed solos, duets, trios, line and productions numbers won numerous first place awards in competitions in NYC, the Boston area and Connecticut, including her daughter Brittany who is now 24 years old. Some of Diane’s students have gone on to open their own dance studios or teach at other dancing schools such as Nicole Pajer, Tina Moccio, Kim Quinn, Karen Hamel and Aimee Wells. Kim Quinn not only taught dance, but now is an accomplished actress, who starred in the movie Winding Road and recently appeared on Two and

A Half Men and was a major role on Diagnosis Murder for years. Theater is another field for Diane. She performed in numerous plays such as Pippin’ with Frank Hatchett as choreographer, No No Nannette, and A Chorus Line with Callboard Theater where she played a major role as “Judy”. Both performances were held at The Academy of Music in Northampton which was truly an honor for her. She has also performed in A Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, Annie Get Your Gun, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma, Music Man, Carousel, 42nd St. and West Side Story. Diane was sole choreographer for Monson Summer Theater under the direction of Tess Pellisier. She choreographed A Feather In Her Cap, Oliver and The Princess and The Pea and also choreographed Little Orphan Annie with the Westfield Women Group.

Currently, Diane has devoted much of her time teaching dance to young adults and senior adults at various senior centers in the area such as Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Hampden and Northampton. Soon she hopes to be teaching in Southwick and Westfield. She teaches beginner levels to advanced level and her oldest student is 86 years old and performs advanced tap steps with ease. Diane was recently interviewed by Stassi Herropolis from the Republican newspaper and a wonderful article was written about her and her adult classes. Diane’s tap classes also perform for various churches, nursing homes, Shriners Hospitals and special functions. Quite a few of her senior students include former Miss Senior Massachusetts contestants and a few are first place winners! For the last two years, Diane also has been choreographer for the Cameo Women’s Club at the JCC. In July, Diane is getting back into competitive dance competitions by entering several of her tap numbers in a talent competition. We wish them good luck!

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