The Winger »

Born and raised in Cranston, Rhode Island, VERONICA MORETTI NIEBUHR, affectionately known as “Ms. V”, started her dance training at the age of 7 after being diagnosed with rheumetoid arthritis. The Doctor’s advice was to “keep moving”, and she has. She received her early training from Bette Ann Rossi at Atwood Performing Arts and Festival Ballet of RI. Miss Bette Ann always encouraged her to keep growing, which was difficult in her small town.Veronica began student teaching at 11… well, she sort of announced that she would be teaching the next class! Teaching also became a learning experience for her and she discovered she was a good choreographer. She spent a lot of time in Boston, where at 16 she was the youngest choreographer to participate in the Boston Aids Benefits, alongside Bill T. Jones and Boston Ballet. She also rode a tour bus to NYC on Saturdays for extra classes.

Ms. V’s students, in a promotional shot for “Swingin’ at Club Sweets”, a jazz-era version of The Nutcracker created by Veronica and performed every December in Savannah.

By 18 she was ready to go out on her own, she wanted to dance, become a choreographer and make an impact! She danced in NY with a couple of scholarships, performed with Metropolitan Opera Ballet(in it’s very early stages), did some music videos, made a movie, danced with a fledgling modern company and auditioned for shows she had no interest in dancing in. She wanted to do her own thing.Veronica started working with some of the young children who performed on Broadway and realized, she should be teaching! She took class a lot, always looking for more. Then one day she injured her hip. She tried to keep dancing but realized she needed a break.Then she met her husband and life really started changing! They had a son, Enzo and ended up moving to Savannah, GA. She hadn’t danced in a while and really needed to. Ms. V was hired to run Ballet South-which folded. She had just given birth to her daughter Sofia-and was left wondering what she was going to do-she had to teach.

So she opened her own school, the STUDIO. “Here I can give back. My students enrich my life so much. I have the opportunity to give them the ‘more’ I was looking for. It is quite a search.”