For the past 18 years, Steve Sirico and Angela D’Valda Sirico have led Dance Teacher Web (DTW) and the hugely popular Dance Teacher Web Conference & Expo. DTW is an online platform for dance teachers and studio owners around the world. Participants can find a plethora of videos, lesson plans, teaching tips, and articles with information to help their teaching pedagogy and business ventures, and the annual conference and expo held in Vegas brings the resource to life with four days of unparalleled learning, connection and inspiration.
Assemblé is DTW’s newest creation, an in-person event to be held January 3-5, 2027, in Cape Coral, Florida. This “speed dating” style gathering will bring together roughly 50 studio owners and 50 brand partners into one room.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before in our industry,” says Steve. “I think it is going to take the industry by storm.” This is a “hosted buyers” event as studio owners are selected through an application process and brands pay to attend. A $250 registration fee is required for studio owners, and they receive a $300 gift card upon completion of the event. Questions on the application for studio owners include length of time in business, location, student and teacher counts, product/services they are looking for, major challenges faced, and gross revenue. For participating brands, there will be different levels of participation. Brands can be an industry partner or have the opportunity to sponsor events such as a breakfast or opening night reception.
“The studio owners are not just Assemblé’s guests; they are everybody’s guests,” Steve explains. It is an exciting event for both studio owners and brands alike to find a new level of connection.
Companies attending will meet both prospective clients and repeat customers. Hosts have the opportunity to share their products and tailor their conversation to the studio owners. Unlike traditional speed dating, each company will get details about the studios before they meet. Information such as size of studio, location and model will help personalize the 10-minute conversation. For repeat customers, “You want to be able to have that face-to-face meeting where you get a chance to talk to people and really find out everything that they know about your company,” says Steve. These conversations can be incredibly valuable, as feedback is one of the best ways to improve both products and customer interface.
In a world of online browsing and purchasing, Assemblé offers a unique opportunity to interact with brands in person. Individuals are craving this connection. “They want to be seen. They want to be heard. They want to know someone from that company,” Steve adds. Angela comments that having a real one-on-one conversation can be hard at large events where there are so many individuals and commotion. A deep human connection is really what strengthens business relationships and therefore a sense of loyalty. “That is why we feel (Assemblé) is so valuable for our industry,” Angela says.
The ability to have studio owners and businesses connect on a deeper level is of great importance for the founders of Assemblé. “All the best relationships in business are through meeting people, and knowing one another, and feeling that confidence,” Angela remarks. The event will allow for a unique kind of networking, connection and relationship building in a way that is unlike previous events of DTW.
Alongside relationship building, dance studio owners will have the opportunity to share their feedback with brands that they love and use often. “People don’t know what they don’t know,” Steve adds in regards to his vision for this event. He strives for studio owners to feel supported by the industry at large and connect with other individuals that have created products to help support the studio. Steve envisions that Assemblé is going to be a powerful experience to get studio owners and teachers all together in the same room. “We want to bring the best products and services in the industry, in the room that is curated with people in the industry who own studios, who want to improve, who want to learn the latest and greatest,” Steve adds. It will be an exciting opportunity for qll parties to broaden and expand their networks.
For both Steve and Angela, seeing both studio owners and companies succeed is where they find their sense of purpose. “We want to see them do well, we want to see them succeed, we want to see them build, thrive, and grow and have a vibrant, successful studio,” says Steve.
This kind of success has a circular effect. If studios do well, then they can buy more products. If products do well, they can continue to help more studios. “It is a vibrant community all around, and we want to keep it that way,” Angela adds. The founders describe their work for this event as both “energizing and exciting.” Overjoyed with the amount of interest they have already received, they look forward to building the next chapter of DTW.
For more information on Dance Teacher Web’s Assemblé event, head to www.assembleconnect.dance.
By Rachel Marchica of Dance Informa.
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