About Nina

I started dancing at age 3. I was under the tutelage of Olive Godwin, from Durham, N.C.  She made a profound impact on my life. We danced all over North Carolina.  At age 16, I stayed in NYC for six weeks, and attended the Dance Educators of America, dance teacher training school. Mrs. Godwin lined me up to do summer stock with the Radio City Rockettes, but I would not move from home. I finished the training school in
4 years, and completed the Masters Program, with affiliation to New York University. 

I went to North Carolina State University and opened Nina’s School of Dance in 1974. Summers were spent with dance study, Gus Giordano, Chicago and American Dance Festival. Nina’s School of Dance opened another location in Durham, N.C. in 1980. Numerous dance competitions, many national titles, and thousands of students, never did I think I would become the choreographer of the Miss North Carolina Scholarship Pageant, and then a few years later the producer of the State Pageant. I was never so honored as to get the call from Elon University in 1997 to teach jazz dance. Upon teaching at Elon, just a mere 8 years later and I got a call from Duke University to start teaching jazz there too. I have been blessed to teach young and old students, beginners and adults. I am thankful to make each child better than before, and I constantly want to motivate and nurture them. I want children to love to learn new things and want to work hard to achieve whatever they set their mind to. This is why I was put on this earth, and I take great pride in what I do. God has given me a gift and I intend on sharing it with all of my students. I hope they realize how lucky we all are to do what we do and where we do it.  Life is precious!

Nina's School of Dance is celebrating 44 years of DANCE and enjoys giving back to the community. Nina feels it's very important to learn about philanthropy; when giving to others, you gain so much in return.  Character, integrity, honesty, dedication, and loyalty.  5 very important parts of one’s life.