Our Academy

After a decade filled with fun and achievement, The McGough Academy has become a leading dance program in the Northeast. Our mission is to create confident, accomplished children, while simultaneously providing a sense of community and service. Emphasizing the student, The McGough Academy prides itself on small class sizes, providing individualized coaching for different learning styles. We offer a range of programs for children ages 4+ including competitive, performance, and recreational Irish Dance.

The McGough Academy works hard to provide the best opportunities for our dancers to meet their goals and gain new experiences. We have developed self-confident, driven young leaders through our various programs of the buddy system we have developed throughout the years. During the Spring 2020 season amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, our teenage dancers developed an online teaching platform for our younger students to partner up and maintain teaching traditional Irish dancing through Zoom with a program, “Trad Wars” (a spinoff from Star Wars). We had two teams with levels ranging Beginner through Championship and each team helped the younger dancers learn and gain points for the school spirit win. It built a great sense of friendship and support during tough times locked down at home. We are proud to boast we have developed leaders in our program who learned to pivot and brainstorm an online learning platform to keep our beginner dancers engaged during a pandemic, while also maintaining their fitness and love of dancing. 

The McGough Academy has always aimed to dance to give back to the community and we are proud we have raised over $20,000 for various charities throughout the years, including the Katie Gill Foundation, Autism Awareness Foundation and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Our dancers have learned to dance with their heart and share their talents, including volunteering their time to perform at dozens of senior homes during the Saint Patrick’s Day seasons. 

The teaching team at the McGough Academy is interested in molding the student for high motivation to reach for the stars both in and out of the dance studio. Competition is offered, but never required at our school. Every class offers a fitness and stretching component to introduce all encompassing wellness prior to diving into the class. We take great pride in our show opportunities and this is where our competitive and recreational dancers enjoy coming together to share their common love of dance. 

Our TCRG’s (certified teachers with CLRG, World Irish Dance Commission) at the McGough Academy are certified registered nurses, so your children are in wonderful hands when they dance at our academy for optimal safety. One of our registered nurses is also a certified personal trainer, so we have a “one stop shop” to develop your dancer’s wellness, in addition to dance form, with consistent communication with our Director and the team. Our workshop teacher, James McCutcheon, has gained world renowned experience with developing numerous world champions and championship team titles. He also holds the highest certification within the CLRG (World Irish Dance Commission) where he is one of 20 individuals with the SDCRG examiner certification. He is a leader in his field and has always developed new creative pieces to the Irish dance art form, well before his time. As a result, the McGough Academy is home to International, National and Regional Champions. For those who choose the competitive track, our dancers can travel internationally for competition and as a result, gain life experience that a classroom in school could never teach. We are immensely proud of our competition team for their accomplishments but more often for the life experiences that shape them into future leaders.

We have two studios in Eastchester, New York and West Chester, Pennsylvania. Our McGough Academy studios are Irish dance, Ballet and Fitness spaces fully equipped with strengthening tools, props, full length mirrors, sprung and Marley covered dance floors. We offer two rooms in both dance studio spaces for optimal social distancing offerings. 

“I am proud that my school provides an all-encompassing feel of family, community, excellence and fun with continually celebrating the students who make our school a home. Our dancers are encouraged to dance with their mind, spirit and feet while expressing to the world how much they love the art form. I have witnessed dozens of dancers develop into successful, confident leaders and I am happy to know they attribute part of their success to the program we provided at the McGough Academy.”- Meagan McGough, ADCRG, Founder and Director, The McGough Academy