Our mission is to preserve and foster future generations of well-trained dancers. Every aspect of our program supports our core values of good training, hard work, and fun. We are a community school that provides a safe and positive environment while educating students in the many ways a proper dance education can inform their lives.
On September 10th, 1976, I opened Joanne Langione Dance Center at the Rebecca Pomeroy House in Newton. That spring, a small troupe of bright-eyed, toe-pointing young girls tottered onto a nearly colorless stage at Aquinas Jr. College for our very first dance recital. My life since then has been little less than a dream come true. Fortunate to have encountered such a receptive community all those years ago, it is now and has been for more than 40 years your generous and unflagging support in good times and in bad that has given me a place I call home – that has given me JLDC. I am particularly grateful to those pioneering students, teachers, and parents who labored through the “early years” to establish a tradition of excellence. Your legacy endures in every pirouette, in every dancer’s first tutu, in every tear on the face of a departing senior. All that we achieve today at JLDC is indebted to your example and dedicated to your memory.
Today, JLDC’s next generation leadership embraces an enduring tradition of excellence preserving the legacy of this family run school. With the same love and leadership that has sustained and nurtured it for so many years, mother turns thoughtfully to daughter to succeed her while adhering to its founding mission that every student learn in an atmosphere of love and support, to create life-long lovers of dance whether a student dances professionally or for the simple joy of it.
– Joanne Langione
Shawn Mahoney began his ballet, tap, and jazz training at the Joanne Langione Dance Center and his early performing career with Jose Mateo’s Ballet Theatre in Boston, MA. As an apprentice, Shawn danced for American Ballet Theatre before joining Boston Ballet. At Boston Ballet, Shawn performed in Petipa, Balanchine, Kylian, Forsythe, Bejart and others. Shawn performed as a chosen member of “Tharp!”, a national and international touring company directed by Twyla Tharp. Ms. Tharp invited Shawn to be part of the creative and choreographic process for her Broadway hit “Movin’ Out” and performed in Tharp’s “Red, White, and Blues”. Shawn performed with the Suzanne Farrell/Balanchine Project, Sean Curran Company, Washington Ballet, and Bale Estado de Goias. As an educator, Shawn has taught internationally for Festa de Danca in Sao Paulo and Bermuda Civic Ballet. Currently, Shawn is on faculty at Emerson College, instructing dance classes to actors and musical theatre students and is a teacher and lecturer at Days in the Arts. Shawn founded Mahoney Agency, representing dancers for national engagements for the Nutcracker Ballet. Shawn is a sought out mentor for emerging artists and choreographers in ballet and contemporary dance.