Born out of a life changing loss of a loved one, I introduced DECAdance Competition to the world in 2019. Driven by a slow but steady energy to transmute my grief into something good, I spent four years researching and listening to active participants in the dance competition space - learning new insights that supplemented my own experiences within the industry.

Since 2016, a support network has grown around me to include some of the most innovative experts in our industry and many of those original friends and collaborators still walk (read: hustle) by my side at every event we produce. Our multi-generational team is a unique blend of family members, dance professionals and software engineers with roots in the dance industry, hence our DECAdistinctive scoring system and unique audience cue technology! Plus - most of us are parents to children under the age of 5 (cue DANCE MODE!) This scrappy, artistic, innovative team continuously puts their whole hearts into building the DECAdance Competition + "un"convention experience for everyone who chooses to include us in their season and they've become familiar to returning studios year after year. We have very little turnover on the DECAteam and you'll find that if you attend events with us, you'll recognize the same faces every season. Because although we celebrate six years of service to artists in 2025, this core team has been building DECAdance for close to a decade.

In 2024, we debuted our custom birchwood O’Mara sprung floor at our competitions, introduced live music at our dance “un”convention experiences, and welcomed baby Xander Rhodes O’Neil to the DECAteam! Together with our community, we navigated the loss of our original team member Andrea Mychaels and grew opportunity in her name with our new 110% Award and scholarship. And we celebrated the opportunity to serve more dancers with our DECA in-studio experiences than ever before.

In 2026, our DECA journey continues to evolve! Our scoring breakdown has been updated to reflect judges feedback and the talking points our educators feel is most important for dancers to receive at our events. Our continued celebration of student choreography at DECAdance now ensures that all student choreographers receive their weighted score and live critique from the specialty judge in the genre performed. And we celebrate our induction into the ADCC: The Association of Dance Competitions & Conventions. This membership is only available to dance competition companies who have been in service to the industry for five years or more, and we are so proud to celebrate our sixth season with this membership!

As an educator, a dancer, and a mother of two, I have always felt a deep passion for creating experiences where children feel considered, supported, and celebrated at whatever life cycle they’re in. I want our minis to feel motivated, our juniors to feel jazzed, and our seniors to feel savvy and prepared for their next adventures. I used these aspirations as my driving force for creating the DECAdance experience: our specialty four-judge panel, our distinctive scoring system with weighted technique scores and live critiques, our fully sprung O’mara dance floor, our tenured team, and our educational events for all levels and ages.

We do what we do because of all of you, and we are so grateful to share the DECAdance experience with your dance communities. All of us here at DECAdance extend our heartfelt gratitude to everyone in this industry who makes dance possible.