About Oreste Alitto

I started dancing at nine years old and was teaching by sixteen. Ballroom dance has been the center of my life for as long as I can remember — first as a competitor, then as a teacher, and eventually as someone building a business around it.

The Hard Years

A few years ago, everything I'd built around my competitive career stopped at once. I went through a difficult divorce, found myself roughly $35,000 in credit card debt, and — as an Italian living in the United States, far from family — I felt genuinely alone. It wasn't only about the money. I lost my sense of who I was and questioned what came next.

Rebuilding

The first thing I did was go back to basics: take better care of the students I already had. As I improved their experience, I noticed my own business start to improve. From there, I pushed myself outside dance entirely — I spent time in network marketing just to get comfortable being uncomfortable around sales, and I invested heavily in learning from business coaches outside the dance world, studying how expertise becomes a real, sellable offer.

That work led to my first online coaching program, which generated more than $20,000 in its first couple of weeks — and to a realization that changed how I saw myself: business works a lot like dancing. There are fundamentals. There are techniques. You learn them, you practice them, and you get better on purpose. I wasn't just a dancer. I was a Dancepreneur — someone who could take real expertise and turn it into something that helps other people.

Where I Am Today

Today I'm the founder of DanceDiscover and The Dancepreneur Method. Over my career I've built an independent ballroom business from the ground up, generated millions of dollars through Pro-Am dancing, and done more than $1 million in dance-related product and service sales — everything from fashion and image consulting to courses built for other dance professionals. I retired from competitive dancing a few years ago to focus on this work full time, and I've since helped dozens of ballroom professionals across the United States, Europe, and Canada grow their income and their businesses.

I still invest in my own coaches and my own education, and I bring what works back to the dancers and studio owners I work with. I live in Southern California with my wife and stepson, and the work I do now exists because of the years that didn't feel like they were leading anywhere.

Why This Work Matters to Me

Dancers and artists are told, in a hundred quiet ways, that business isn't really "for them." I don't believe that. Understanding emotion, performance, and human connection is a business advantage, not a distraction from artistry. When you combine that with real business skill, you can build something extraordinary — and reach a lot more people while you're at it.

— Oreste Alitto

Want to know more? Email [email protected].