As an elementary school teacher in Amado in the 1970s, Lisa DiGiacomo would push the desks to the edges of her classroom after the last bell, making space for impromptu dance lessons in a part of Pima County where artistic outlets were few and far between for many.
“I really felt like there was a need,” she said of those years. “The children didn’t have a lot down there.”
DiGiacomo, now 62, started dancing as a young girl in Texas, and would eventually learn under some of the leading lights of classical ballet in the United States, including Frederic Franklin and George Zoritch.
In Southern Arizona, she found a way to put those years of learning and practice back to work, an endeavor her husband, Guy DiGiacamo, has been a part of since its earliest days.
From the informal setting of her classroom, what are now the Ballet Continental Dance Company and Young Artists Community Ballet Academy of Dance moved into the historic Continental School nearly four decades ago.
Pima County owns the nearly century-old structure near Green Valley, where Lisa and Guy are the principal tenants. The school has grown to roughly 140 students and the company has around 20 members.
With parents and other close family needing more of their time, and the physical demands of dance getting more challenging, Lisa and Guy, who serves as president of the company’s board, have started handing over the reigns to the next generation.
Nicholas McClain, a former student and Sahuarita native, took over the academy in the summer, and this December’s production of “The Nutcracker” will be the first with performers taught by a new director.
Lisa remains the creative director of the company, which puts on “The Nutcracker” and other productions, and likely will continue in that role for several more years. However, the plan is to eventually let McClain, 34, take over the entire operation — with Lisa on hand as a “mentor” of course.
“It’s been in my heart forever. I founded all this stuff,” Lisa said of the school and company. “It’s my baby still, and I wanted it to go the right person.”
McClain, who started dancing at the school when he was 8 years old, said he hopes to carry on the heavy emphasis on classical ballet that was so important to him as a young dancer.
He’s also juggling a full-time job in Tucson, as well as an online business program with the University of Phoenix.
“It’s critical from the arts perspective,” he said. “Something that can expose people to a different side of the world that they might not otherwise have gotten a chance to experience or see.”
“I do want to focus on clean technique and classical technique, and ensuring the dance company remains a classical ballet company,” he said.
That focus is what has kept longtime student Erika Schmidt coming back. Schmidt, 18, is now a University of Arizona freshman, but still involved in the company. She said Lisa, universally known to students and parents as “Ms. Lisa,” has become a “second mother.”
“It’s kind of a dying art. So I feel that giving students the experience of classical ballet and being in a performing company is very important to keeping the art alive,” she said, adding that she thinks McClain is a good candidate for maintaining that tradition.
Parents Leslie Righetti, who has two daughters at the school, and Susanne McQuade, who has one, said the school has also been an invaluable resource, one that they didn’t necessarily expect to find in a rural setting like Continental.
Righetti praised the school for being “committed to a small community to provide the arts, provide access to the arts.”
As to the transition underway, McQuade said she expects it to be seamless, though she said she does appreciate McClain transitioning to email newsletters and other evidence of his “tech proficiency.”
“The reason I think (Nick’s) such a good person to lead is that he really sees the same vision,” she added. “It’s a very classical, beautiful vision of ballet that I believe they share.”
The company’s production of “The Nutcracker” will run from Dec. 2-4 at the Sahuarita Auditorium. More information can be found at balletcontinental.com
