Business Q&A: Leggz

Since her teenage years, dance has been a big part of Joan MacNaughton’s life. In 1967, a 19-year-old MacNaughton opened Leggz LTD in Rockville Centre and began to pass on her love of the craft to eager students. Located at 486 Sunrise Highway, the studio is as successful as ever, producing students who perform all over the country. Here, MacNaughton explains the many benefits of becoming a Leggz, LTD dancer. 

What type of classes do you offer?

(We offer) classical ballet, pointe, tap, street jazz, hip hop, Broadway theatre jazz, modern, lyrical, Irish dance (t.c.r.g) and kids ballroom.

When should students sign up for your fall classes?

Registration is accepted now. The sooner, the better. (If you wait too long) dancers end up getting closed out of the classes and teachers of their choice.

Why did you decided to found Leggz in 1967?

I was a dancer. (I was) training and performing in NYC and the dance studio that I grew up taking classes (in) became available because the owner passed away. I decided to purchase the studio. I made the choice to open a business doing something that I love.

What makes Leggz unique?

Our focus is teaching the dancers traditional dance techniques to enable them to go on and pursue real dance in college, as careers on Broadway, in dance companies, or for their own personal enrichment of correct dance techniques. We are not a competition school. Leggz is a NYC dance school on Long Island. Our teachers commute from the city to Leggz to teach the dancers and offer them the most current dance forms and styles. Dancers don’t need to travel to NYC, they just come to Leggz. For example; our classical ballet faculty are soloists from ABT, the Bolshoi, Chicago Ballet, Allegheny Ballet and on faculty at the Joffrey School. We also get plenty of performance opportunities all over the East Coast to showcase our dance students. We are the only dance school that has been invited to perform at Walt Disney World for 18 consecutive years! We have been featured multiple times on NBC Today Show, Fox 5 Good Day NY and News 12. We have also been featured in all the major dance magazines.

Where does Leggz perform?

We are the official dance school for the Brooklyn Cyclones and World Team Tennis at Randall's Island. We are the featured dancers performing every summer at both of those venues along with the Long Island Ducks, and more. We have been selected for the past four years to host the Radio City Rockettes at Leggz and become their official dance studio. We kicked off the Sesame Street Live tour in NYC at Broadway Dance with "Zoe" and we won the Dance Teacher Magazine Video of the Month. We perform throughout the East Coast all year long. Our full length Nutcracker is the only Nutcracker ballet on Long Island to have a live orchestra (the South Shore Symphony and RVC Guild For The Arts) and professional guest artists dancing the principal roles.