Bio

Danelle Langeneckert was introduced as the St. Ambrose University dance coach on March 12, 2010. She became the school's Spirit Coach, in charge of both the dance and cheer programs, on May 10, 2017.

Langeneckert, a three-time NAIA National Competitive Dance Coach of the Year, has led the SAU Dance Team to national acclaim by winning three NAIA Competitive Dance National Championships, the first coming in 2018, the second in 2021 and the most recent coming in 2023. Her 2023 team set an NAIA record with an overall score of 93.40. That year, St. Ambrose became the first program to ever win three Competitive Dance National Titles.

Those came on the heels of claiming back-to-back NAIA Dance National Invitational Championships in 2015 and 2016. The 2012 team won a National Championship at the NDA Collegiate Dance Championships in the NAIA Large Dance category after winning state and regional titles.

Since 2011-12, she has coached 38 St. Ambrose Dance All-Americans and had 27 others earn All-American honorable mention.

Langeneckert 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 collegiate levels.

A member and captain of the Knight Kompany Dancers at Davenport Assumption High School, Langeneckert 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 Master's of Business Administration from St. Ambrose in 2006.

Langeneckert started her dance instruction career with 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, Langeneckert served as a summer staff instructor for Knights Elite, a junior and senior high pom squad. From the summer of 2004 through the spring of 2009, Langeneckert 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.