SAU Dance Team

Stanger Named Head Dance Coach

Mar. 12, 2010

St. Ambrose University Director of Athletics Ray Shovlain announced today Danelle Stanger has been named the University's dance coach.

Stanger replaces Lance Corber, who coached the dance team for seven years and is leaving the job to pursue other work-related opportunities.

Stanger has years of experience as a dance performer, instructor and coach and is familiar with the SAU dance program, having served as the assistant coach from 2004-06. She has choreographed award-winning routines at the high school and college levels.

A member and captain of the Knight Kompany Dancers at Davenport Assumption High School, Stanger was the president and co-founder of the nationally-ranked Florida State University Seminole Dance Force Competition Team from 2001-03. She graduated with a degree in Business Marketing from Florida State in 2004 before earning her Masters of Business Administration from St. Ambrose in 2006.

Stanger started her dance instruction for the Davenport Park Board Dance Program from 1997-99 and instructed at Kim's School of Dance in Moline, Ill., from 1998-00. She also spent three years at the Universal Dance Association in Memphis, Tenn., the last as the Head Instructor for Midwest high school dance camps.

In 2003-04, Stanger served as a summer staff instructor for Knights Elite, a junior and senior high pom squad. While working on her master's degree, she was the assistant dance coach at SAU from 2004-06. From the summer of 2004 through the spring of 2009, Stanger was the head varsity dance coach at Assumption High school. During that time, she led the team to 13 first-place team State titles and one individual State title and her 2006 squad placed 13th out of 71 teams at the UDA National Championships in Orlando, Fla.

The SAU dance team is comprised of two squads and performs at halftime of home football and basketball games as well as an annual spring show. Community services, in various forms, are performed by the team throughout the year and the dancers provide mentorship to youth in the community.