Amy Piantaggini has been the Executive Director of Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance since 2013, where she has taught since 2006.  She trained at the Boston Conservatory and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, where she received scholarships from the Gregory Peck Foundation and as a Finalist for the Coca-Cola Award for Artistic Excellence. As a performer, Ms. Piantaggini is a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble, in which she danced many soloist roles including “Satyric Festival Song” and “Conversation of Lovers”. Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times said that Amy “made a luminous New York debut in Graham’s abstract view…” October 7, 1998. Amy has danced for the companies of Javier Dzul, Richard Move, and James Robey, and currently dances for Edgar Cortes Dance Theater. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College with a focus in early American Modern Dance and Embodiment Studies.

Amy’s teaching experience includes numerous schools including the Hartt School/University of Hartford, and as a guest teacher at Central Michigan University, Barnard College, Webster University, Dean College, and Endicott College.

At Ridgefield Conservatory, Amy has led volunteer high school dancers in biweekly dance classes with SPHERE of Connecticut since 2014.  Ms. Piantaggini established RCD as a charter for National Honors Society for Dance Arts in 2016.  Her popular pre-ballet program has more than quadrupled since her directorship began. At the same time, she established a class assistant program, where older dancers mentor young aspiring dancers in weekly classes. In 2018, she received the Nancy Comstock Andrews Superlative Teaching/Mentoring Award for her extensive collaborations between the Conservatory and countless Ridgefield arts organizations.  She has directed and choreographed for elite performing ensembles at the Conservatory each year, with performances regularly including Somers Holocaust Memorial Commission’s Yom Hashoah event, Ann’s Place’s Festival of Trees for cancer support services, Downtown Ridgefield’s Holiday and Spring Stroll events, and for area festivals, nursing homes, and more.  Her students have performed at the Palace’s Young Choreographers Festival and DanceFest, Dancers Responding to AIDS, and have even performed Martha Graham’s Steps in the Streets through a special arrangement with the Martha Graham Dance Company, as staged by Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch and herself.  Her students have gone on to BFA and BA Dance programs and professional dance careers.