Know Your Neighbor: Kathleen Fitzgerald, Retired Ballerina/Dance Teacher, Mt. Kisco

Kathleen Fitzgerald spent her childhood moving all over the United States with her family, and even spent time in Australia.

As a ballet dancer after college, Fitzgerald performed throughout Europe, first as a soloist and later as assistant director for the Netherlands Dance Theater before heading to the Frankfurt Ballet.

Returning to the United States and settling in Mount Kisco about 16 years ago, the Steffi Nossen School of Dance became her home.

On Saturday, Apr. 2, Fitzgerald will be honored by the White Plains-based dance school during its annual Benefit Gala at the SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center. Each year, Steffi Nossen recognizes someone connected with the school who has had a lasting impact on its programs and students. With her retirement as its director last year after more than a decade in that position, Fitzgerald was an easy choice to be recognized and is “flabbergasted” at the honor.

“I think it was meant to be,” Fitzgerald explained of her time at Steffi Nossen. “I had a beautiful career in Europe, an amazing career. I was so grateful for the years that I had there.”

She returned to the U.S. in 1999 mainly because her daughter, Jessica Rose, has special needs. At the time, Fitzgerald had no house and no job. She stayed with a friend from her days at the North Carolina School of the Arts, who lived in Mount Kisco.

A chance conversation with a librarian at the Mount Kisco Public Library led Fitzgerald to learn about the Steffi Nossen School of Dance. She went for an interview and got a job in 2000 teaching the Saturday morning classes – modern dance and jazz – to various age groups, with some of the children as young as three and four years old.

Fitzgerald, who turns 66 next week, said that having gone to an arts school exposed her to all forms of dance, even though she had been a ballerina professionally. She also needed to get used to teaching children, but reasoned that if she demonstrated her love of dance, many of the children would show similar enthusiasm.

“The vast majority of them will never become dancers but they will be wonderful audience members and they’re going to appreciate the arts and they’re going to feel good about their bodies, no matter what shape they are,” she said. “That’s really important.”

Fitzgerald understood what it meant have a less than perfect physique. Admittedly uncoordinated as a young child, Fitzgerald was nine years old when a doctor suggested that she would benefit from dance classes.

By the time she got into the studio for her first session near where they lived at the time in Washington State, she knew what she wanted to do.

“I could not believe how at home I felt,” Fitzgerald said. “My long arms and my skinny legs were exactly the right thing to have, and I got in the car afterwards and I said, ‘Mommy, I’m going to be a dancer.’”

The family would move repeatedly because of her father’s job as a construction engineer for Alcoa Aluminum. They also lived in Texas, Indiana and for a time in Australia. Despite the relocations, Fitzgerald credited her mother with always finding excellent dance instructors and schools.

“She was good at finding the right teacher and I think I benefitted from that,” Fitzgerald said. “You can learn something from every teacher. I tell the kids that if they don’t like a certain teacher or maybe they don’t want to learn jazz.”

Fitzgerald applied to the North Carolina School of the Arts, a school that had recently opened and had quickly earned a stellar reputation. It also exposed her to different dance forms and preparing a theater for performances.

After college, Fitzgerald danced professionally in North Carolina for a short time, then auditioned for the Netherlands Dance Theater. She joined that group, moved to Europe in 1974 and would dance there for about 12 years before moving to the Frankfurt Ballet for another six years. In that time, she worked with some of the most accomplished European choreographers of the day.

After moving back to the U.S., Fitzgerald would buy a house in Mount Kisco and be an active member of the community, including serving as production manager at Merestead.

While mainly retired, Fitzgerald continues to lead Tuesday evening classes at Steffi Nossen, acknowledging that the adjustment to having more time takes getting used to. But teaching still works for her.

“I think that’s what teaching children does for you,” she said. “It wears you out but it keeps you young.”