World champion instruction
Ian Gott, TCRG is a former World Champion who has competed and performed at the highest levels of Irish dance.
Our story
Built by a dance studio, for dance studios.
Ida OS didn’t come out of a boardroom. It came out of Gott-Hughton Irish Dance Academy, a championship-winning studio that got too busy for cheques, e-transfers and WhatsApp threads, and built the software it wished it had.
Where Ida was built, and still runs every night
407 Forge Rd SE, Calgary, AB T2H 0S9
Ian Gott, TCRG
Former World Champion · founder and head instructor
Stage and tour pedigree
Ian performed in the Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games tour before turning to teaching full time.
A real, busy studio
Registered with An Coimisiún le Rince Gaelacha (CLRG), training recreational and championship dancers ages 3 and up.
Founder and head instructor
Ian Gott, TCRG
Ian is a former World Champion Irish dancer. A natural performer, he fulfilled a lifelong dream when the Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games tour asked him to join the cast. He was later invited to join Riverdance in China, but turned it down to pursue a career in finance.
He is a CFA Charterholder and works in financial markets as a Director at CIBC Capital Markets. That mix, elite competitive dancer plus finance operator, is exactly why Ida OS treats tuition, payments and reporting as seriously as it treats the calendar.
- World Champion
- Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games
- TCRG
- CFA Charterholder
From the studio floor to the product
- 2015
Ian retires from competition
After reaching the highest levels of competitive Irish dance as a World Champion, Ian steps off the competitive stage.
- 2017
The academy is founded
Ian earns his TCRG and opens his academy in Calgary to pass competitive Irish dance to the next generation.
- Then
Champions, and a software problem
Regional titles, Top 10 North American and Top 20 World placements, and a back office held together with cheques, e-transfers and WhatsApp.
- Today
Ida OS, for every independent studio
The system the studio built for itself, now running Gott-Hughton and the studios below.
Real studio moments
The studio Ida was built for.
No stock photos. These are Gott-Hughton’s dancers and Ian’s years on tour.
Why we built Ida OS
The studio outgrew its own admin.
By the time the academy had dozens of families, several levels, championship training, studio rentals, private lessons, workshops and competitions to coordinate, the business was thriving, but the back office wasn’t.
No off-the-shelf gym or scheduling tool fit the way a competitive dance studio actually works. So we built the system we needed and turned it into Ida OS for every independent studio fighting the same admin.
Before IdaAt Gott-Hughton now
- TuitionBefore Ida: Post-dated cheques and e-transfersNow: Autopay on the family’s billing day
- The scheduleBefore Ida: Emailed PDFs and WhatsApp threadsNow: A live calendar parents book from
- Parent updatesBefore Ida: One message at a timeNow: One announcement to every family
- CompetitionsBefore Ida: Signups scattered across inboxesNow: Entries billed on the same ledger
Ian Gott, TCRG
Founder & head instructor
The team
Book a demoThe people you’ll meet on a demo.
A small team of studio people and the engineers who build Ida. Every studio’s Messages has a private chat with us. No sales reps, no ticket queue.
Studios already running on Ida
Independent studios, not a sample account.
Running on Ida OS at independent studios
Strike A Pose
Live Dance Create
Ticalie Academy
Gott-Hughton
Michaela Hinds Academy
Goggin-Stewart
“I was handmaking PDF schedules every month. It was terrible. Now parents book the open slots themselves — I haven’t sent a schedule in months.”
Elspeth HughtonOwner, Gott-Hughton Irish Dance Academy“4th time's a charm... ask and you shall receive! I had the pleasure of meeting the Ida OS team, and they helped me design and manifest my dream dance studio software. Nothing cookie cutter, and customizable to pretty much all of my needs. I LOVE my App now, and am very proud of my decision to switch to Ida OS!”
Kiva HollywoodOwner, Live Dance CreateGott-Hughton Irish Dance AcademyA track record, not a pitch deck.
The people building Ida OS are still running classes, coaching championship dancers and answering parent emails. In a short history the academy has earned Western Canadian Regional Championship titles, Top 10 placements at the North American Championships and Top 20 placements at the World Championships.
Book a demo
407 Forge Rd SE, Calgary, AB T2H 0S9
