Anita Giovengo has been called a lot of things during her dance career -- short, stocky and always fierce.

Even today, she is a straight-shooting, no-holds-barred dance teacher with a passion big enough to fill the Benedum Center. Her students at Just Dance Conservatory in North Fayette always know where they stand -- or move -- with her. They also know that she cares.

Giovengo cares deeply about the art form that she chose so early in life when she attended the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre school. But ballet wasn't in the cards, so she switched to the Civic Light Opera and later Point Park College, where she studied jazz and modern dance.

The Scott native gave New York a try and spent a couple of years with the American Dance Machine and the Jamison Project, an early choreographic effort by Judith Jamison, who famously took over the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

On a visit back to Pittsburgh, she met Tomi Cousin and it opened up a whole new world. He did dance theater, equal parts of two exciting art forms with his company, the Physical Theater Project. It was art with an edge and it held appeal for her.

When Cousin landed a role on Broadway in "Contact" and headed off to New York, Giovengo did something she never thought she'd do -- she opened a dance studio.

Her first attempt at Just Dance, located near Burgettstown, was, on the surface, highly successful. In just a few years she had several hundred students, a dozen staff members who were some of Pittsburgh's finest -- such as Karen Simmons, Tom Downing and Allie Greene -- and a warehouse space that grew from 1,000 square feet to 4,000 square feet.

But Giovengo was unhappy. "My studio lost all its heart," she said simply. She said she sat in a parking lot and cried.

But not for long. Giovengo quickly came to the realization that it wasn't about the money, "it was about the kids." So she downsized and located a small basement studio and invited some of her students to start over with her.

It was the right move.

These days Giovengo teaches the majority of the students herself, except for tap ("tap and I just don't get along") and delights in "giving them the best possible training I can. I'm excited again," she said firmly. "And I'm glad to share it with my kids."

She also shares her love of dance theater with them -- no regular recital with a stream of numbers for her. It had been Simmons who suggested, "Why don't you use some kind of theme?"

So Giovengo poured her heavy-duty passion into it -- "Alice in Wonderland" for her first try, with a "Cinderella" who went to a big dance audition in a yellow taxi the next year. "Wizard of Oz" pretty much stayed the same, but then Giovengo started to "get crazier" with "Candyland," based on the classic board game.

Giovengo, assistant Kelly Chappell and some of the students wrote a dance-oriented script with a few speaking roles over a night of pizza and refreshments.

They were eager to include the students' other talents, such as playing an instrument; just about anything goes at Just Dance. And each class, instead of simply dancing, has a character.