St. Charles North grad does collegiate competitive dancing

If a law was passed increasing the number of hours in a day to 25, or perhaps 26, St. Charles North graduate Megan O'Malley would be a staunch supporter of it.

Since leaving North in 2012, O'Malley has been quite busy as a student and competitive dancer at the University of Tennessee. That's on top of her side businesses of teaching at local dance studios and operating a successful music mixing enterprise.

"I've had a lot of opportunities here that have kept me busy," she said. "It's been a long ride, but it's been great."

O'Malley, the daughter of Dan and Jill O'Malley of St. Charles, is part of the Tennessee competitive dance team that won its second UDA college national dance title in a row earlier this year in Orlando, Florida. Tennessee, under the direction of coach Kelley Tafazzoli, won the national jazz title in Division 1A. In addition to the back-to-back titles, Tennessee also took second in the country in 2014.

The UDA nationals feature competitions in three different categories: jazz, pom and hip-hop. Tennessee competed in jazz and hip-hop. It won the jazz national title and took eighth in hip-hop.

"It's a big competition," O'Malley said. "There are more than 50 teams there from schools all over the country. It's really intense."

O'Malley labeled Tennessee's performance as a "hard-hitting jazz routine." The routine was performed to the song "Ready or Not" by Mischa Book Chillak, featuring Esthero.

Tennessee finished ahead of second-place Minnesota. "We have kind of a healthy rivalry with the University of Minnesota," she said. "It's been back and forth with us. We won it three years in a row and then they won it five years in a row and we took it back two years ago. It was a great experience."

Tennessee's dance team is part of the school's spirit squad, which performs at Volunteer basketball and football games, home and away. The spirit squad also comprises the school mascot and the actual live mascot, Smokey X, a bluetick coonhound.

In addition to competitions and performing at school events, the spirit squad is involved in a variety of community appearances and aids in local philanthropic efforts.

"I've been all around the country doing this," said O'Malley.

O'Malley's dance roots date back to her early childhood. She was a member of the Perseverance Dance Co. based out of Hanover Park her freshmen through senior years. O'Malley did not cheer or dance at St. Charles North.

"I started dancing when I was 3 or 4," she said. "I've been trained in jazz, hip-hop, ballet and contemporary - a lot of different styles," she said. "We would travel a little bit and then every summer go to nationals. You compete all year and work your way up to nationals."

O'Malley gave huge praise to Perseverance owner Melissa Ridgway.

"All my dance training is from her," she said. "She inspired me to continue dancing in college. She is a big mentor in my life."

O'Malley transferred to Tennessee from Illinois State University after her freshman year. She said the process to get onto the Tennessee team is a competitive one.

"You have to audition every year to regain your spot here," she said. "All the training I did in high school is what prepared me to be on this team."

A huge thrill for O'Malley took place this past Thanksgiving when the Tennessee spirit squad was invited to perform at a rugby event in Dubai.

"We were there for 10 days-plus and got to experience the city," she said. "It was awesome."

In what little spare time she has, O'Malley also teaches at two local dance studios in the Knoxville area (Revolution Dance owned by Julie Barton and Danse et plus owned by Shelley Hall). This is in addition to her other sideline - her own music mixing business.

"Growing up, we needed edits to our music and the dance teacher asked me if I wanted to edit all the competition music," she said.

"I did that through high school for the company I danced for (Perseverance) and have done it for nationals. With nationals, your music is so important because all you have is that song and it has to be good. Your music makes a huge impact. I started playing with things and playing with music programs. I decided to take responsibility and put my name out there."

These days O'Malley not only mixes music for local Knoxville dance studios, but also for colleges across the country, including Penn State.

"The colleges are hard because I can't do any music for anybody that competes against us," she said. "I've done mixes for a ton of high schools. I have to give credit to one of our choreographers (Patrice Barakat; UT's other choreographer is Mark Meismer) here who does our routine, and to Missy Ridgway. They put my name out there and that gives me business."

With all the dancing and music duties on her plate, O'Malley still finds time for her UT studies. O'Malley is a mathematics major at Tennessee, with a minor in secondary education. She is slated to do her student-teaching in the fall and is on track to graduate in December.

"I want to be a high school math teacher, for sure," she said.

As far as continuing as a competitive dancer, O'Malley revealed she recently underwent surgery to repair one of her shoulders. Her availability to the dance team ends this spring based on her student-teaching commitments this fall.

"I do want to continue to teach dance," she said. "I would like to own my own dance company one day, either here in Knoxville or in Nashville. Dancing always has been a passion of mine. I've never lost interest in it and I want to continue to be part of it. My plan is to teach math as my day job, keep teaching dance and do my music. I love what I'm doing down here."