Trumbull Performing Dance Academy
Trumbull Performing Dance Academy offers a warm and welcoming environment for dancers from all backgrounds. Our school offers a timeless curriculum across a variety of dance disciplines. And for those dancers that want to go the extra distance: we offer our talented and award-winning Competition program.
Since the school’s founding, Trumbull Performing Dance Academy has catered to many different families and students. We pride ourselves on the diversity of those within our walls, and we’re happy to offer a little bit of everything.
More than anything, Trumbull Performing Dance Academy that the performing arts are as much a sport as soccer, football, or basketball. As such, our teachers are committed to teaching technique that guarantees results and protects the dancers from personal injury. We use the Twinkle Star Dance™ method to further standardize our instruction so that all young dancers are getting the same technique-focused excellent instruction.
Miss Lara
Director and Founder
Miss Lara has been studying dance since her childhood. She has taught and studied at numerous schools throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties, teaching across all ages and levels for over 25 years. She has trained many instructors as well as teaching assistants aspiring to be instructors. Teaching is Miss Lara’s passion and teaching the youth in particular comes naturally to her.
Miss Lara's break into the world of dance school entrepreneurship began at Stratford Connecticut's Sterling House in 2001, where she reinvigorated a dormant dance program. At the onset of her independent practice, Lara began with only multipurpose rooms, no mirrors, no barres, and no list of students to speak of. She grew the program to 50-plus students before eventually moving her practice to Colonial Square Plaza where TPDA resided for over a decade later, retaining three separate studios at one point.
Lara has studied under a number of Connecticut dance luminaries including the late Janice Wilke of Fairfield and Lisa Denaro of Monroe. In addition to her pursuits in dance, she has given fifteen years in the field of professional social work, holding degrees in both social work and dance studies. Throughout the years, Lara has taken classes in the tristate area and regularly attends teacher workshops and conferences, including the traveling Dance Teacher Summit, Rhee Gold, Dance Teacher Web and Broadway Dance Center Dance Teacher workshops. Lara, takes ballet classes in New York weekly.
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Miss Brooke
Teacher
Brooke comes to TPDA with a wealth of knowledge of dance and the performing arts. Having started dance at age 3 and theater at 7 she has experience in all different facets of the performing arts. She recently was the Music Teacher at St.Mary St. Michael School and was on scholarship at LIU working towards a BFA in Theatre. She’s very excited to join the TPDA family!
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Miss Becca
Teacher and Competition Coach
TPDA alumnae Becca Picone is a recent graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, having received her Bachelor’s degree in dance education. Becca’s work coaching competition students has netted her several first place awards in choreography categories. We’re excited that Miss Becca will be choreographing again for both our competition dancers—our minis, and petites. Becca also teaches a technique class at Sacred Heart University.
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Miss Bri
Teacher
Brianna Gill was born and raised in Stamford, CT where she would feel the beat and move naturally whenever she heard music. At 10 years old, she began working and performing with choreographer Alexander Cobb, and performed around the tri-state area. Brianna also became a choreographer and by 2017, she put together her own dance company. Under Brianna's direction, the company danced in shows around Connecticut and New York with great success. In May 2019, Brianna decided to take the leap and auditioned for Generation 8 of Team Leggoo, a professional dance company in Connecticut directed by Paul Herman. She loves the push of training and performing with the company and being a part of music and concept videos with up and coming artists. Her ultimate goal is to work towards owning her own studio and company one day .
In addition to working at Tpda, Miss Bri is also an instructor at Darien Arts Center, and Dance On the DL offering hip hop classes for ages ranging from 3 years old to 30+ years old.
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Miss Megan
Teacher
Megan Loiz has been training for 20 years and was a member of Kicks Dance Center for fourteen years where she studied tap, ballet, pointe, jazz, and hip hop, in addition to other disciplines. Megan has teaching experience at other studios throughout Fairfield County. She has taken Broadway workshops, Rockette workshops, and was taught daily by a Rockette outside of Kicks for three years. Miss Megan has a B.S. at the the University of New Haven as a criminal justice investigative services major.
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Miss Morgan
Teacher
Miss Morgan was born and raised in Monroe, CT where she started dancing when she was three years old. Morgan started her studies in dance at CT Dance of Monroe. She furthered her dance education at The Regional Center for the Arts in Trumbull, CT, and at Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY. Morgan is a graduate from Manhattanville College with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance.
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Miss Pam
Teacher
Miss Pam first started dancing at the age of three at Andrea Smith Stratford’s dance studio. She studied tap, ballet, jazz, Irish Step (hard shoe and soft shoe), pointe, hip hop, and modern dance. Miss Pam continued her dance education at Dean College, where she performed in the college's company throughout her school years. There she worked with with Laura Young and Jeremy Howes in Pointe and Jean Wenzel, Todd Shanks, and Charles Holbrook in tap; she also worked with Gregory King on the Horton Technique, Rose Pasquarello Beauchamp in contemporary, Jill Silverman in ballet, and Ricardo Foster in hip hop. Pamela has also studied ballroom dancing, both smooth and rhythm. She is now a company member of Aries In Flight jazz dance Company performing and rehearsing in New York City.