COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — It’s Thursday afternoon, and 4-year-old Miranda Schecter has just arrived to her dance lesson.

Twisting and twirling in her lavender leotard, she giggles and jumps around before class.

Her grandmother Gayle Knowles, who will also be instructing Miranda today, helps the girl slip on her wee ballet shoes. Like her granddaughter, Knowles has been dancing since she was a toddler, now sharing her love of ballet by teaching it.

Like all young dancers, concentrating is the most challenging part of each lesson. As Knowles recites ballet positions, Miranda follows along briefly before an occasional distraction takes her away.

But Knowles is patient. Movement is what’s important, especially for Miranda, who is about half the size of an average 4-year-old.

Miranda was born very premature at around 2 pounds and 10 ounces and was in the NICU for just over 40 days. She has a heart problem, and while she has no definitive diagnosis around autism yet, also has a verbal delay.

That doesn’t stop her from delightfully floating across the floor and making a beat with her little tap shoes.

Here at Autistic Wings, dancers can learn without the limitations of traditional studios. At least that’s the goal, according to 13-year-old founder Leta Rundell.

Rundell worked with her mom, Amanda Trisdale, to open the nonprofit dance studio in Fountain in September. The studio caters to students with autism, offering a wide range of small classes to students with different needs.

“It ranges from if students got light sensitivity, we’re going to turn off the lights, if they’ve got sound sensitivity, you’re going to turn down the sounds,” said Trisdale, who is the organization’s president.

The two started throwing around the idea of opening a studio last fall. Rundell, who’s been dancing for about seven years now, was diagnosed with autism at 3. Her favorite type of dance: tap.

“I got to make noise with my feet,” Rundell said. “And my teachers were mad at me because I wouldn’t stop.”

While she enjoyed dance, Rundell often struggled in traditional studio classes. Teachers would try to correct her stimming — repetitive behaviors or movements that often help people with autism self-regulate — as well as encourage her to mask her symptoms, which can have adverse effects.

“We’ve had teachers go, ‘Well, why can’t she just mask that?’ They would feel much more comfortable with her masking,” Trisdale said. “It was even simple things, like she had teachers who thought her not looking them in the eye was being disrespectful.”

Despite instructional challenges, Rundell found that dance helped her express herself. She was predominately nonverbal before starting dance, but the sport gave her a way to open up.

“She was nonverbal when we put her into her first dance class, and her vocabulary came pretty much along with dancing,” Trisdale said. “By her dancing, she was exercising without knowing she was exercising, which is so much more fun than going to speech therapy multiple times a week.”

The studio has Individual Dancer Educational Programs, which lets them to cater to each student’s individual needs like sound and visual sensitivities. Each class is limited to five students so that teachers can provide more individualized instruction. Currently, the studio offers classes for all ages and teaches ballet, jazz, hip-hop and tap. Classes start at $45 a month.

“Being intimately involved with the community, it’s a lot easier to have that sympathy and that empathy,” Trisdale said. “Having that dance IEP (individualized education program), we’re also able to negate a lot of that before it start.”

Different costumes and uniforms can also cause sensory issues for individuals with autism, who can become irritated by seams and textures. Unlike traditional studios, which may require dancers to wear specified shoes and leotards, here the goal is comfort so students can focus on learning.

“We’re not going to force you into something you’re going to have a sensory issue with,” Trisdale said.

Eventually, the pair would like to expand the studio to provide more pre-professional courses. The goal: make dance accessible.

Knowles, who teaches the studio’s ballet classes, has seen her students improve in the months since starting to learn. Dance gives them a voice.

“It increases the kids’ ability to express themselves, because a lot of them are nonverbal — they need an outlet,” she said. “I’ve seen an increase, even over the short time we’ve been doing this, in the amount of cooperation. It’s not always there. It’s like her and tap today, it kind of went away, it’s not always there, but when it’s there, it’s wonderful.”

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