Give The Gift of Dance All Yearlong

Imagine being a young tap dancer and working with some of the best choreographers in the world. Imagine dancing with dancers most people only see on the silver screen. Imagine being mentored by some of the best to ever live. Imagine flying out to do performances and then coming back to your home studio just to be told that your autism meant you would never be a tap dancer. That you weren't worth a teacher working with, because you would never be on a video shoot or working with your mentors. That was what happened to our founder, Leta, on a regular basis. One moment she was on stage with her mentors. The next she was in dance class being told her autism meant she would never be worth of taking classes with her mentors.

When she was 12 years old, Leta decided she had enough. She felt like if this was happening to her it was happening to other autistic dancers. Autistic dancers that didn't have Emmy-Nominated choreographers as their cheerleaders. So, Leta decided to open a dance studio dedicated to training autistic dancers for the world of entertainment. She knew the costs of classes would make it almost impossible for many parents to pay. So, she founded the studio as a nonprofit, with a promise that no dancer would ever be turned away because classes were too expensive.

From extremely humble beginnings, Autistic Wings has started to grow into a bustling dance studio. Autistic Wings has just made the jump from renting space from another studio in town, to leasing a space of their own. They have gone from having classes just a couple hours a week, to expanding to four days a week in February 2026. Each class has 1-4 dancers, and is designed especially for those dancers. Whether that is dimming the lights, letting a dancer dance with their hair down, bringing AAC devices into class, or adding ribbons to a class, every class is about meeting our dancers where they are.

All of this is thanks to our amazing supporters and their generous gifts. Your gift today helps continue our mission to make dance accessible, and allows us to expand and start offering programs like a Pre-Professional Program for our dancers who dream of stepping into those bright lights with Leta. And down the road, a Professional Dance Company, to show the world what autistic dancers can do.