Ten years ago, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors for performing arts classes in the Rose Miniaci Arts Education Center. Now a decade later, JaVonda Carter, who walked into a teen singing class is now teaching others to perform.
In the past decade, more than 20,000 students and adults have taken fee-based classes at the Rose Miniaci Arts Education Center and thousands of students have participated in free school-day and community workshops from local teaching artists and Broadway professionals, according to Jan Goodheart, Broward Center’s vice president of external affairs. A few of those students, like Carter, have gone on to become teaching artists in the education program.
“I haven’t found anything else like the Broward Center. There is just something so special about it. You can take a class and then walk five steps and see this gigantic theater that holds thousands of people and see professionals performing on stage the same night you took a class. It’s just this special kind of place that makes you want to create, to perform and to be on stage, and to do more,” says Carter.
In addition to its fee-based classes, the Broward Center’s education program offers workshops, master classes, performances, camps, and lectures for children, teens, and adults. The facility includes classrooms, a coaching studio, and the JM Family Studio Theater. The center, in partnership with Broward County Public Schools, also offers free classes and programs for public, private, and home school students.
Tammy Holder, music director, teaching artist, and Artist-in-Residence at the Broward Center, has been at the Broward Center for 10 years and has seen the progression of students in the program firsthand.
“I always joke that I came with the new building. I, literally, interviewed with the current director of education, Sharon Brooks, the day they broke ground on the new Rose Miniaci Arts Education Center,” says Holder of the building, which faces Avenue of the Arts at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts’ main campus.
When Holder first met Brooks, she told her about her 20-year career as a teaching artist and music director in New York City and asked if there were any job opportunities at the Broward Center.
“She looked at me with a twinkle in her eye, and she said, ‘Not yet.’ Little did I know what the next 10 years would entail. I have been so fortunate to, initially with Sharon, to imagine, conceive, and develop the classes and the programming that goes on here in the Education Center.”
Holder, who says working at the Broward Center has felt like a kid in a candy shop for the last decade, says that she has the “very cool” perspective of watching students who grew up in the program go on to become part of today’s professional arts community.
In fact, Holder taught the singing class that Carter participated in on opening night.
“I could tell, as a teacher, that this kid’s got it. She had done a lot of work with the South Florida Girls Choir, so she was a very strong musician. She was engaged immediately,” says Holder.
Holder started Spotlights, a performing vocal ensemble for students in grades 6 through 12 that represents the Broward Center’s education department at events such as the Holiday Magic Soiree at the Bonnet House and the Bakery Bash at Archibalds Village Bakery in Fort Lauderdale, which Carter participated in as a student. After graduating from Dillard High School, she majored in musical theater at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. She graduated during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and returned home to Lauderdale Lakes. It was then she began helping Holder at the center.
“Her big plan was to move to New York after graduation, but she was like, ‘I can’t go to New York right now, what can I do?’’’ recalls Holder. “So, she started helping me out with administration stuff and then students would go to her for help and support and when I saw her in this kind of leadership role. She was amazing.”
Carter started managing some of the shows. It was then, Holder says, she realized that Carter was more than a good performer – she had strong management and teaching skills, too.
“I started a new teaching artist training program and I told her that I thought she should join. ‘If nothing else, you can learn some skills as a teacher. And, then if you moved to New York, you could make a living,’” she told her.
Holder drew from her own experience. “When I lived in New York, I never had to wait tables because I was always teaching,” says Holder.
Carter, who has performed in “Sister Act” and “The Full Monty” at Lauderhill Performing Arts Center, joined the training program in 2022 and is now one of the primary teaching artists at the Broward Center.
Another Star Is Born
She isn’t the only student from that first week of classes to become a teaching artist at the Broward Center. Dancer Lily Coniglio of Weston attended the center’s first Saturday class 10 years ago and now teaches in the program. She doesn’t remember the exact name of her first class, but it was an audition workshop class with Holder.
“I was around 12 years old when that happened and then I started taking the summer and winter intensives. I did, maybe, a handful of them. Michael Stanek (a guest choreographer at the Broward Center), was always the choreographer who came in. It would be Tammy Holder and Michael Stanek and they both wanted me to become the dance captain. So, I did that and then eventually that just kind of turned into them asking me to assist. . . and that’s how I started really becoming more of a teacher.”
Holder says that Coniglio was always quick to pick up choreography.
“. . . She was always a resource for the students in the class who needed a little extra help. She just continued to grow and grow and assisted all the people that we would bring in from Broadway,” says Holder. “She’s been so smart in how she’s been able to absorb all of these different techniques of teaching all these different styles of dance.”
When Teaching Artist TJ Tekurio left the Broward Center in 2023 for a director and choreographer position with Disney Live Entertainment, Holder began looking for someone to replace him.
“Lily was his assistant and when I started looking for a new main choreographer, I was like, I have one right here,” says Holder, who named Coniglio the lead teaching artist for the dance program in 2024.
Coniglio, who comes from a family of educators, teaches Spotlights, an advanced musical theater workshop, and a course she developed called advanced Broadway dance skills.
“I always knew dance was going to be a part of my life, but the Broward Center made this career come alive,” says Coniglio. “Tammy really saw something in me, and she gave me this opportunity. The Broward Center has given me a career at a young age, which I’m so grateful for. And I plan to continue here and keep going.”
Although she’s always loved dancing, she didn’t realize how much she would be drawn to teaching.
“When I would just be backstage, I was like, wow, I’m really proud of these kids. And that feeling was more fulfilling than being on stage,” says Coniglio.
While not currently performing, Coniglio travels to New York City often for training.
“The style on Broadway is always changing,” she says. “So, I really want to stay informed and connected to the dance world so that I can come back and keep the students connected because the style is always evolving.”
Both Coniglio and Carter want their students to find joy in whatever they choose to do.
“I hope they go on to do wonderful things, not just in the arts, but in life,” says Carter. “I hope they can call back on all of the things they learned in our classes and in our shows and apply it to everyday life, because I know I do.”
