As the director of On Your Toes at the Saratoga Community Center for the past 18 years, Taaffe has been teaching ballet, jazz, and tap classes for a total of 25 years. She now runs four studios in Saratoga, Sacramento and Sunnyvale, with a staff of professional dancers teaching the ropes to local children ages 3 to 13.

Growing up in Saratoga, Taaffe began dance classes when she was 3 years old and was instantly hooked. "Dance was something I always loved," Taaffe says. "That's where I got my self-confidence. I was very shy when I was a kid, which is why my mom put me in dance. Thank God she did!"

Taaffe quickly went from recreation classes to private studio sessions, specializing in ballet and then jazz dance. She began teaching in 1979, the same year she won the title of Miss Saratoga.

By 1982 Taaffe had graduated from San José State University with a double major in communication and theater arts, nabbed the title of Miss Congeniality in the Miss America Pageant, and began teaching more than eight dance classes a day.

After expanding her instruction to Saratoga High School and the Saratoga Union School District, Taaffe decided to set up On Your Toes at the Saratoga Community Center. Taaffe says she selected the recreation department to keep costs down for families and to maintain a sense of community.

"Everybody knows each other, and during class the parents talk and end up being friends," she says. "It's just the sense of community that I really like. And that's what parks and recreation is all about."

Saratoga parents also seem to appreciate a chance to meet one another and have their children become friends. Resident Rina Shah recently enrolled her 5-year-old daughter, Karishma, in ballet class at the center. She says she enjoys meeting other mothers and that her "daughter likes the class very much." Shah also enrolls her daughter in Indian dance in Santa Clara. "She enjoys music and all kinds of dance. I think it's good exposure for her to learn different types of dance."

After establishing On Your Toes in Saratoga, Taaffe expanded her studios to Campbell, Roseville, Auburn, and Sunnyvale. By 2002 she opened three more studios in Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Roseville, and was teaching from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with a half-hour lunch break. "I used to teach all of the classes myself, but then I got too busy," she says. Taaffe decided to hire a staff of instructors who shared her similar principles—creating an energetic, positive experience for students of all ages.

"I want to make it fun for them, not pressured," she says. "I want the kids to get out there and feel self-confident. At staff meetings we discuss that each teacher should compliment every child on something they did that day, because that might be the only compliment they got all day or week."

Class sessions are divided into three seasons, with each segment becoming more focused on specific dance routines in preparation for a spring recital at West Valley College. Taaffe provides her instructors with a rough outline of moves to teach, but leaves much of the choreography to them.

"I enjoy setting my own curriculum because I get to explore what the kids respond to," says instructor Kimberly Davey, a former principal ballerina for the San Francisco and Pacific Northwest ballet companies. Davey has been teaching with On Your Toes for slightly over a year. "I'm a much different teacher than I was a year ago. You are always growing and learning. It's been great for me to remember what I was learning at that age."

Davey took an early retirement from dancing at 31 years old to focus on finishing her degree at Santa Clara University, and decided it would be a good time to teach developing dancers.

"I really enjoy teaching at the community center because classes can become very serious in smaller ballet schools. And if the kids are not on the road to a professional career, there is no reason why it should be," Davey says. "You should teach discipline and movement, but you need to teach them the joy of dance. It's such a gift to be able to dance. Dancing always brought me such happiness, and I think it's a really great thing to be able to share that."

For more information or to enroll in On Your Toes, call 408.271.7123 or visit the Saratoga Community Center at 19655 Allendale Ave.