Bridget's Dance Conservatory

What We Offer
We offer classes in; *New* Belly Dancing, Ballet, Pointe, Tap, Jazz, Hip-hop, & Modern to age 3 &
up. Toddler & Me classes are offered to age 18-36 months. Private lessons are also available for
competitive & non-competitive purposes; however, during the school year when scheduling
competitive soloists, & duets/trios have priorety over non-competitive private lessons.
Competitive students or those that wish to take private lessons also study various styles of dance
such as; musical theater, hip-hop, lyrical, & contemporary/modern. We perform two recitals per
year and attend 3 competitions during the spring. There are also many other performance
opportunities during the summer & the school year. B.D.C., also offers themed Summer Dance
Camps during the summer. We just remodeled our entire studio! Now we have two dance studio's
with brand new flooring, one of the studio's even has a viewing window. Our studio's have
beautiful wood floors, full length mirrors, & ballet barres.

Our History
Our studio opened in Sept. 2001. We started with around 45 students in a small studio located in
Austin by "Buffy the Cow." In the summer of 2002 we moved to our new & current location on
Main Street. In 2004 our business was nominated by the Austin Chamber of Commerce for
business of the year. This is our 11th year of offering dance classes to the families of Austin &
surrounding areas. We currently have around 100 students enrolled in dance classes.

Our Teaching Methods & Philosophy-
Instilling a love/passion, strong technique, & hard work ethic is most important to
B.D.C. We pride ourselves in creating a fun, energized, & structured atmosphere for
our classes. Each student is able to learn at their own pace, with instructors
constantly correcting & encouraging students.   It is also very important to teach each
dancer how to perform on stage with style, personality, confidence, & energy. To
dance with all of your heart & soul, and to let go and have a blast. Music, costumes,
& choreography are always age appropriate. We offer recreational & competitive
dance training. To accommodate those dancers who just want to have fun, and others
who want to become a professional. There are many benefits to taking dance classes,
it increases; flexibility, coordination, grace, posture, poise, rhythm, memory, & self
esteem.

About the Instructors;
Owner; Ms. Bridget- Bridget started her dance training at the age of four at Joyce Matthies Dance Centre
located in Albert Lea MN. There she was a member of the dance ensemble for 5 years and a principal dancer for
3 years. She first started teaching and choreographing for Joyce's competitive junior jazz ensemble, solo's, duets,
& hip-hop routines, which won several awards; such as, first place at a nationals.   Bridget went on to study
dance at the prestigious Point Park University in Pittsburgh PA. Focusing on ballet, jazz, & modern. Point
Park University is one of the best dance schools in the nation training with top instructors such as; Douglas
Bentz, Judith Leifer, Ron Tassone, Susan Stowe, Marion Petrov, and several others. Then she began teaching at
“Mirror Image Dance Academy” in West Bend Wisconsin, which is one of the largest dance studio‘s in the
Midwest. Their she taught classes to children preschool through advanced. Bridget started her own dance
school “Bridget’s Dance Conservatory” in the fall of 2001. She choreographs around 80 dance routines per year,
attends three competitions, produced a full-length Nutcracker, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Alice In Wonderland, &
spring recital. Bridget attends two workshops annually, constantly striving to improve and learn more. Some of
the workshops she has attended in the past include; Radio City Music Hall Rockette Experience, Dance
Olympus, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater master classes, Gus Giordano‘s Jazz Dance World Congress, The Pulse,
with; Mia Michaels, Shane Sparks, Dave Scott, Brian Friedman, & Chris Judd. She has also studied one on one
with ex-Larkin dancer Trump Card. Her combined experience dancing, choreographing, & teaching total over
27 years. Her platinum winning choreography is very cutting edge, creative, fun. Her students &
choreography has won numerous high score awards, cash prizes, and several special awards such as; fabulous
feet (tap,) best showmanship, best technique, most entertaining, most classy, best intensity, emotional
execution, best precision, most age appropriate, dare to be different, & best creative character. Ms. Bridget
instructs; Petite Company, Senior Company Lyrical/Tap/Jazz, Tinkerbells, Pointe, Hip-hop, Production, &
Toddler & Me. She also instructs the competitive solo's, duets, & trio's.

Ms. Kaitlin- Ms. Kaitlin came from 11 years of training at Julianne's Dance Studio Center in South St Paul,
moved to Mankato State University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Dance, she worked with
artists such as Julie Kerr-Berry, Daniel Stark, Paul Finocchiaro and Gabriel Manson . While attending
Mankato, she also got to opportunity to have one of her choreographed pieces selected into the Kansas dance
conference to be performed in their open house showing. She also worked in the Zenon scholarship program in
the summer of 2009 and danced in their summer show with piece's by Carrie Lande. After graduation she
worked at two different studios in the cities, DD's dance studio in Eagan and 5 Star dance in Woodbury. Both
studios provided a learning environment and great place to enjoy and teach dance. Her future goal is to one day
own and run her own dance studio! This is Kaitlin's 2nd year of teaching at Bridget's, she teaches Modern,
Dazzlers Intermediate ballet/tap/jazz, Dragonflies level 3-4, & Junior Company Tap.

Ms. Maggie- She's a very talented, fun, & motivating teacher! For 15 years she's trained in ballet,
tap, jazz, pointe, lyrical/modern, musical theater, & hip-hop. She currently competes on B.D.C.'s
Senior Company. Maggie has danced the lead roles of Russian, Chinese, & Doll Dancer in The
Nutcracker and Tiger Lilly in Peter Pan. She's been teaching with Ms. Bridget for the past 5 years,
and completed the teachers training program in 2008. Maggie attends dance workshops annually
constantly striving to improve and learn more. Maggie's award winning choreography has lead the
Petite Company to six high golds & a Platinum award at nationals. As well as most entertaining
award & several high score awards. Maggie is the choreographer & instructor for the Junior
Company Jazz.

Ms. Barbara- She's Back!!! One of the favorite B.D.C. teachers is back again. She has over 7 years
of experience teaching dance and has studied dance for 14 years. Some of the disiplines she has
studied and learned are; tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, modern, yoga, pilates, musical theater, hip-hop,
lyrical, & zumba. She competed on the junior & senior company while dancing at B.D.C. and
danced such lead roles as Dew Drop in the Nutcracker. She's so fun, patient, & kind and just a
wonderful teacher and mentor to all the students. We are so excited to have her back! Ms. Barbara
teaches the Twinklestars Level 1.

Ms. Farah- My stage name is Farah (Arabic for Joyful). I have been studying Belly Dance for almost
seven years now. I started out my journey on a curiosity streak of wanting to try Belly Dance and
signing up for my very first beginning belly dance class at the Nutrition Shop in Rochester MN.
Home to the Blue Lotus Belly Dancers. This was the spark that set my soul on fire and continues to
burn inside today. Over time, I have taken many classes and workshops and have found my
dancer’s roots in Tribal Fusion Style Belly Dance. I am a student at Rochester International Dance
Studio. Owner and instructor Terri Allred, who has been a great mentor to my overall growth as a
belly dancer.   This six week session will introduce you to the very beginning movements that you
see many professional Tribal Fusion dancers performing. We will work on isolations of different
parts of the body. Drops and locks, basic hip movement, shimmies, and do some traveling with
these basic movements. I will teach a very basic choreography that will include many of the
movements taught in class.

2010-2011 Teachers Assistants;
Kelsey Poshusta, Victoria Ryg, Meghan Burroughs, Rachael Bernand, Madison Klein, Carma Sheehan, & Johanna Shamp