I danced for 5 years in junior high and high school, and my senior year I led my team to a championship title in the AA Kick division as captain! This will be my 7th year officiating. I look forward to another season of top notch dancing and continuing to advance my skills as an IHSA Competitive Dance Official!

The 2022-2023 season will be my 7th consecutive season as an IHSA dance official. I am involved with both AIDA and IDOA groups for maximum growth and training opportunities. My dance background consists of teaching, choreographing and dancing at a local dance studio in Iowa from ages 5-20 prior to moving to Illinois. I love being involved in the sport of dance and seeing the growth and talent change over the years!

Dance has been part of Amie’s life since she was 5 years old. Growing up, she trained in tap, jazz, modern and the Cecchetti method of ballet. In high school, she was a member of the competitive dance team. Since then, she has worked as a dance coach at a St. Louis area junior high and as a color guard dance tech for a St. Louis area award winning marching band. Amie judges with numerous organizations and has been a state level official with Illinois Drill Team Association (IDTA), Illinois High School Association (IHSA), and the Missouri Dance Team Association (MDTA). She serves on the board of directors as the southern representative for AIDA as well as on the judging committee with IDTA.

I have been dancing and in the dance world since 3 years old. I danced for the Stevenson Patriettes in high school and the Vitality Dance Team at the University of Illinois. I coached high school dance for 7 years and have been judging for IHSA since 2018.

My love of dance started at a young age with tap, ballet, jazz and pointe. I was on my high school dance team and competed in IDTA. When I got my job as a teacher in 2002, I began coaching the Varsity Dance team at my school. As a successful coach, and after winning several state championships in IDTA, I stopped coaching to focus on my family in 2008 and began officiating for several different dance organizations before coming to the IHSA in 2013. I knew how important the feedback and scoring that coaches receive is and wanted to give back to the sport that brought so much joy to my life. Seeing how much the sport of dance has grown in the past 10 years has been amazing. My experience in IHSA includes: State final on air commentator 2015 & 2016 and Sectional and State official 2017 - 2022.

I am 5-year IHSA Competitive Dance Official and AIDA member. I recently coached at all levels: studio, middle school and high School. Additionally, I have judged high school, studio and middle school level competitions and tryouts. Last year I focused on my skills as a “Tech” Judge for IHSA but will continue to grow as a “Panel” official as well!

I have been a Dance Official for 4 years now. It has been a wonderful experience thus far, and I truly enjoy being a part of such a great (and FUN!) organization. I look forward to every competition, and cant wait to see the performances… and the other Officials as well. I’m excited for this upcoming season, and future seasons to come!

Cori is going in to her tenth season as an IHSA Competitive Dance official including four years as a state final official. Cori has danced through her whole life and continued her career with the dance team at Illinois State University and as a cheerleader for the Peoria Pirates arena football team. Cori coached the Jacobs High School dance team for three years, and she also spent time choreographing for high school musicals and show choirs.

Courtney Vanderheiden has been a highly respected dance adjudicator since 2008, judging for multiple circuits including the Illinois High School Association, Indiana High School Dance Team Association, Varsity All Star, UDA, TDI, and is an adjudicator member of the National Dance Coaches Association. While she’s trained in ballet, tap, and jazz, her expertise lies in the artistic realm of competitive dance. Other experience includes coaching the West Oak Middle School dance team to a State Championship, and also starting Beyond the Score, a dance team consultation company. Courtney currently serves as the President of AIDA.

Cyndi Kraemer currently holds a leadership position with the Illinois Drill Team Association as Vice President in charge of judge training and contest organization. She is also a recognized dance official and clinician with the Illinois High School Association and has officiated the state dance series since the inaugural series in 2013 and was also named the IHSA Dance Official of the Year for 2015. She also served on the Officials Advisory Committee for 3 years. Cyndi has been involved with competitive dance for 34 years - 10 years coaching and 24 years judging for various organizations in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and DTU (Dance Team Union).

Giordanna has been performing and competing in dance since early childhood. Throughout school, this also included Poms Teams, Orchesis, and coaching Youth Cheerleading. Her technical dance training encompasses all dance forms, with specialty in Modern and Jazz. She has spent the past 16 years educating and choreographing at various studios throughout the Chicagoland area. Her judging experience includes Illinois and Wisconsin, ranging from minis through collegiate level. Giordanna is also a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and an IHSA Competitive Dance Official.

Hannah Bohn has over 27 years of dance experience, receiving training in ballet, pointe, jazz, lyrical, character, contemporary and hip hop. She has danced many lead roles in various productions over the course of her career. For over 10 years, she has choreographed multiple pieces for productions and competitions. From 2012 to 2019, Hannah was the Head Choreographer for the Miss Illinois Scholarship Pageant. She choreographed the Teen & Miss Opening numbers, special performance entertainment routines, and set the walking patterns and fitness routines for the contestants. Hannah has now coached high school competitive dance in Illinois for 10 years. Each year, she has choreographed the routines for the team. Hannah is now the Illinois & Wisconsin Coach Liaison for DTU, where she works first hand with incredible dance teams across the Midwest!

Jessica Denham - With over 25 years of progressive dance training to her credit, Jessica has studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, tap and hip hop at several studios in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. She is a former member of her High School and College Dance Team, where she served as captain and assisted with team choreography and technique. Jessica has performed for several dance companies and professional sports teams around the United States and has created choreography for nationally televised performances. Furthermore, Jessica is involved in musical theater, performing professionally in several productions at both the local and national level. After completing her undergraduate studies, Jessica become head coach of a successful varsity dance team, as well as a casting director, selecting dancers for several national appearances, including recording artist Nelly’s “Up Close and Personal” tour. Jessica continues to choreograph for numerous high school and college teams and teaches jazz, ballet and pom classes at multiple dance studios and conventions around the country.

Growing up, Jill danced at Kathy's Studio of Dance in Fox Lake, IL and The Ker-Jan Dance Studio in McHenry, IL. While in high school she taught jazz, tap, ballet, and was a featured dancer in several musicals. While in college, she was a member of the WSU dance team for four years and a choreographer for two years. In her spare time, she danced for WSU's children's theater performing throughout southwest Minnesota. Jill became an IHSA dance judge in 2016 and specializes in the technical side of things. Over the last several years, she has judged throughout Illinois at competitions, conference championships, sectionals, and at the State Tournament.

Kacey Valentine O'Keeffe graduated from Illinois State University with a B.S. in Dance Education. Her dance training includes Bataille Academie of the Danse, American Dance Festival, Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, Visceral Dance Center, and Beyond Words Dance Center. Kacey has choreographed and taught at a variety of dance studios, universities, and dance intensives all throughout Illinois.  Over the past 10 years, Kacey has been a dance company member with Rodriguez Dance Theatre, Meraki Dance Company, Outlet Dance Company, Interweave Dance Theatre (Boulder, Colorado), and the Kate Jablonski Statement. In July of 2022, Kacey will be performing with The Kate Jablonski Statement in Croatia at the Sibenik Dance Festival. Professionally, Kacey has created and grown the Dance Program at Carmel Catholic High School since 2013.  Currently, Kacey teaches dance at Carmel full time, serves as Artistic Director for the Carmel Catholic Orchesis Dance Company. This will be Kacey’s 11th year as an IHSA Dance Official. She has been a Dance State official in 2021 and 2022. In 2018, 2019, and 2020 Kacey provided the commentary over the live feed for the IHSA Dance State Series. Kacey looks forward to witnessing every IHSA dance team grow throughout this upcoming year!

Karen started studying dance over 30 years ago in suburban Chicago and continued at the University of Illinois. After graduation, she continued to study throughout Chicago with various studios and performances including working with Disney and the Magnificent Mile Parade. She has taught, choreographed and directed dance programs for over 20 years and choreographed many award-winning competitive routines. Currently, she is teaching and choreographing in suburban Chicago and judging for the IHSA, Indiana High School Dance Team Association, American Athletic Union and United States All Star Federation. Her judging began with Team Dance Illinois in 2009 and continued with the IHSA when Dance became an official sport in 2013. She is on the Board of Directors for the Alliance of Illinois Dance Adjudicators as well as has worked with various dance teams in the Chicago area to improve their technique and performance. She also judges in the studio world for Beyond the Stars/Breakout dance competitions and Impact Dance Adjudicators. Karen serves on the Board of Directors for the Cheer and Dance Industry Professionals Judiciary Committee and Dancing for Dancers, a non-profit organization. She also is a member of the Illinois Dance Officials Association, the National Dance Education Association, the National Association of Dance and Affiliated Arts and has completed all the judging credentialing levels through the National Dance Coaches Association. Dance is truly a wonderful outlet for expression no matter how old or how young you are! Karen lives in Lake Zurich with her husband and 3 young children.

Katie Kaczanko grew up dancing since the age of 5. She was exposed to many different styles of dance and ultimately fell in love with ballet and jazz. Katie cheered and danced on many school teams including Canton Middle School, Driscoll Catholic HS, Bartlett HS and Monmouth College. Throughout college, Katie began coaching middle school Poms and loved working with that age group. They were always eager to learn and grow as athletes and dancers. Katie also coached cheerleading at Geneva HS for 3 years before becoming an IHSA Competitive Cheer Official in 2009. She then became an IHSA Competitive Dance Official during its inaugural year in 2011. Katie has had the honor and privilege of officiating every dance sectional and state competition for the past 10 years. She has also been a Head Official at the Sectional and State level for several years in both 1A and 2A. In addition to officiating for the IHSA, Katie was selected to judge at The Dance Summit, Georgia High School dance and other Varsity events. Katie, along with several other IHSA dance officials, started the Illinois Dance Officials Association in 2018 and has served on the Board of Directors since then. Katie is passionate about working with new and veteran dance officials as they navigate the IHSA rubric and rules book. She has led several sessions on writing effective comments, understanding the IHSA rubric and tech calls/legalities.

Kristen Varrassi has been an IHSA Official for 7 years. As a past coach and current studio owner, Kristen brings a well rounded background to the dance arena. Kristen not only attends trainings each year, but has also taught at trainings provided by AIDA. Kristen has worked many regional competitions, as well as Sectionals and State!

Laura has been judging dance for 13 years. She started in 2009 with Team Dance Illinois, where she worked as a technical judge, ready line official, and timing/penalties official. She also served as a Head Contest Official at multiple contests, including the State Championship. She has officiated with IHSA since 2015 and achieved her certified status in 2020. Laura is a highly sought out official who is well experienced on panel, providing coaches and teams with detailed, meaningful feedback. She is most frequently called upon for her technical officiating abilities. She prides herself on her understanding of the rule book and educating coaches and teams. She has had the honor of being selected as an IHSA Sectional official for several years in a row. Laura enjoys all varieties of dance, but particularly enjoys watching Hip Hop, Pom, and Contemporary. Prior to her officiating experience, Laura danced for Starlight Dance Studio and her competitive high school dance team.

Lauren is a Lake Park dance team alumn (2008-2012) where she achieved 2 state titles in the TDI program. She then went on to dance at Purdue University as a member of the Golduster Dance Team. Following graduation Lauren served as the head coach at IC Catholic Prep in Elmhurst from 2012-2022. Lauren is best known for her choreography with school such as Sycamore (3rd place in 1A 2013) and York (state champions 3A 2018). Lauren is currently the head coach at Loyola University Chicago.

Lauren Napolitano is an accomplished judge, coach, and dancer, specializing in hip hop, pom, and kick technique. Since 2012, Lauren has judged nationwide for Illinois High School Association (IHSA), JAMFest, and Varsity. During her time at ASU, she was a member and later an Assistant Coach of the ASU Hip Hop Coalition where she had the opportunity to study under well-known hip hop artists including Napoleon and Tabitha D’umo, Luther Brown, and Kevin Maher. Her team was also selected to perform at The CARNIVAL Choreographer’s Ball in Hollywood. While in Arizona, Lauren served as Head Coach for a school dance team outside of Phoenix. In addition to coaching, Lauren was a member of her nationally ranked Illinois high school dance team and chosen as a captain her junior and senior years. She successfully led her team to its highest national placement, at the time, in school history in two different categories. When not judging, Lauren is the Assistant Director for Events and Programming at Columbia College Chicago and enjoys spending time with her dog, Piggy.

Linnea Mason is a seasoned dance official with over a decade experience judging for brands including IHSA, IHSDTA, JAMfest, WACPC, Varsity, and TDI. During her tenure as an IHSA Dance Official, she has had the privilege of being selected as an IHSA Sectional Official since 2016 and IHSA Competitive Dance State Official since 2017. She was recently awarded the “IHSA Official of the Year” by her peers in 2021. Prior to judging, she has led two local high school dance teams to a State Championship and National qualifying finisher. She is currently a founding member of the Alliance of Illinois Dance Adjudicators (AIDA) association and the Vice President of their Board of Directors. Ms. Mason resides in Chicago and enjoys checking out the Chicago food scene, running on Lake Shore Drive or seeing a Broadway show.

Lisa Dajani's professional entertainment career stretches over 20 years as a performer, director, choreographer, instructor, and adjudicator. Lisa began her professional dance career as a Chicago Luvabull for the Bull's 6th Championship season. As a Principal Performer and Dance Captain for Irwin Productions Las Vegas & San Diego, Lisa performed in showcases, corporate events, and televised events across the country for Coca Cola, Phillip Morris, Gateway, Kraft, The MGM Grand and Venetian Hotels in Las Vegas. Lisa Performed at the MTV Video Music Awards as well as performances with Usher, The Dixie Chicks, Shakira, and the New Years Spectacular with Pitbull & Maroon 5. Lisa has gone on to choreograph not only for Irwin Productions but various television commercials and productions world wide including casting and choreographing for I Heart Radio. Lisa has been an adjudicator for the UDA, IHSA, Legacy Dance Championships, The Dance Summit, Groove National Dance Competition, CRU National Dance Competition, Varsity All Star, and has been selected as a Master Judge and Judge Trainer. She also continues to sit on the audition panel for various NBA & NFL Sports Entertainment Teams. Lisa Continues to work as a Performance & Technique Trainer for Pro Teams and Dance Professionals nation wide and is passionate about her continued work in the Entertainment Industry.

I have been an IHSA Competitive Dance Official for about 8 years. I am also an Official in Cheerleading and Track and Field.

Megan Voitik graduated from Neuqua Valley in 2009 where she was a two-year captain and four-year member of the Varsity Dance Team. She went on to study dance at the University of Iowa and was a dance team member for the 2010-2011 school year. From 2013-2020 she was the head coach of the Waubonsie Dance Team. Megan has always had a passion for helping aspiring dancers to grow. This is her third year judging and she is credentialed through NDCA.

Natalie Kaplan has over 20 years experience as a dancer, instructor, and choreographer. She has been trained in and studied Ballet, Lyrical, Tap, Jazz, Modern, Musical Theatre, and Hip Hop. She is a Dance Masters of America certified instructor and has taught at several Illinois studios. She has coached and choreographed for competition teams of all levels and genres such as Jazz, Pom, and Lyrical that have won top awards at many regional dance competitions. She continues her dance education by attending conventions, workshops and master classes from some of the nation’s top teachers and choreographers. Natalie is honored to serve as an adjudicator on the roster of dance competition judges with IHSA, NDCA and WACPC.

This is Samantha’s third year as an IHSA official for competitive dance, and she is so excited for the upcoming season. Before becoming an official, she coached Varsity and JV teams at high schools in the northern suburbs of Chicago. She loves being an official because it gives her the opportunity to provide feedback to teams across the state and celebrate their growth throughout the season. She appreciates the athleticism, creativity, and dedication of the dancers in Illinois, and she is thankful to play a small part in their competitive dance journey.

Sara Flanigan has been involved dance for over 35 years as an athlete, coach, choreographer and judge. Sara is an officials clinician for the Illinois High School Association for competitive cheer and dance. Sara has been an IHSA series official for dance since its inception. In 2015 Sara received the IHSA Distinguished Service Award. Sara is the Assistant Athletic Director/Student Activities Director for Wauconda High School in Illinois.

Sharon graduated from Mundelein High School in 2000, where she was a member and captain of the MHS Pom Squad. After receiving her Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from DePaul University, she returned to Mundelein High School in 2004 to serve as Assistant Director of the Orchesis program. In 2005, she became the Head Coach of the Varsity and Junior Varsity Dance Team programs, leading them to qualify for UDA’s National Championship and the Illinois Drill Team Association State Championship, where the team placed 3rd in Dance and 5th in Hip Hop. In 2008, Sharon certified with TeamDance Illinois (TDI) as an Artistic Dance Judge. Beginning in 2012, she served as the TDI Artistic Judging Director, Assistant Director of the State Championship, and Interim Board Member on TDI’s Board of Directors. In 2013, Sharon became a licensed Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Dance Official for Competitive Dance, and is also currently a member of the Illinois Spirit Officials Association and the Alliance of Illinois Dance Adjudicators. She has been a guest judge at numerous Varsity Spirit events, TeamDance USA competitions, and Indiana High School Dance Team Association contests. She has also taught a number of dance classes in conjunction with Dance Academy of Libertyville, and enjoys judging local schools’ dance team tryouts each season. Sharon is married and has 3 children, ages 12, 9, and 7. She is a dedicated runner, group fitness instructor, and health coach, and likes to spend time cooking, playing Just Dance with her kids, and reading.

Studied Ballet with a teacher certified through the Royal Academy of Dance as well as other competitive studio training focusing in jazz, lyrical, and modern. As a high school dance team captain, competed at the state and national levels winning an NDA Top Gun Award. In college, competed nationally with the Illinois State University competitive team while also coaching all star teams at the national level. Past judging experience includes execution judge for IDTA since 2003, IDTA judge committee member, technical judge for the former TDI, and 11 years official for Illinois High School Association including 5 state series assignments, Most recently, commentator for NFHS broadcast of IHSA state dance series, and currently serving as the dance representative on the IHSA athletic officials advisory committee.

My dance experience started as most, in dance class as a young girl. In high school, I went on to be a dance team member, a co-captain and choreographer for 3 years. Our team was awarded Grand Champion of the Badgerette Pom Pon summer program. After high school graduation, I joined the Badgerette staff for 4 years achieving camp administrator during my 4th year. Along with being a certified IHSA dance official since dance became an IHSA sport, I continue to guest judge for Badgerette at their annual Midwest Championship. I thoroughly enjoy watching dance performances and helping teams improve with meaningful feedback.

Vicki began formal dance training as a young child and has continued to take classes in a wide genre of dance ever since. She previously danced with the Gainesville (Florida) Civic Ballet company and with the University Dance Theater at Illinois State University. Vicki has also choreographed musicals at the high school and college level. For many years, she was the coach of the Jersey Community High School Dance Team who earned five IDTA State Championships under her guidance. Since 2008, she has been a judge and official for various dance organizations at the regional, sectional, and state levels in Illinois and Missouri. Vicki is a certified IHSA Dance Official and an IDTA Legality Judge. She is a retired educator and avid traveler who especially enjoys adventures with her grandchildren.