MADISON, Wis.- After bringing Scottish Highland Dancing to Madison back in 2018, the Breckenridge School of Highland Dance is headed back to the birthplace of the sport, for the Madison students to compete and learn.

Morgan O'Connor has racked up more trophies than most 16-year-olds, but ask her and she takes each competition like she takes her sport -- "usually each step."

"Because you have specific steps that you do and like phrases in the music from like thinking of like the corrections that my teachers have told me," she said.

And she's got some pretty good teachers, for one, her mom Sarah.

RELATED: Family brings Scottish Highland dance to Madison

Her Scottish Highland Dancing class has come a long way since we first told you about it in 2018, when it started as a Madison School and Community Recreation (MSCR) class.

Now, Breckenridge School of Highland Dance has about 15 regular students and a brand new studio, after her and her husband moved with their family.

"He had visions of this being a dual garage and dance studio, which were very quickly dashed as this is very much a dance studio and no cars allowed," Sarah said, standing on the hardwood practice floor Friday, surrounded by thousands of medals and trophies belonging to her and Morgan.

"We've...started two dance competitions, so it helps local dancers having to drive great distances and still be able to compete," she said. "We also had U.S. Nationals come to Madison back in 2022."

And Morgan is a back-to-back 4-time National Champion, most recently winning in Boston.

"It was kind of daunting because I was like the younger one in the age group. But yeah, it went pretty well, obviously," she said with a humble chuckle. "It doesn't really affect, like, any of my friendships at all, like within dancing either...I don't really like experience a lot of like people being mean or anything because I'm doing a bit better than tham.

That camaraderie is one of the best parts of the competition for her. "It's a really, like, tight knit community, and it's really fun to know all these different people. Like, I have friends in Scotland, Australia and Canada and of course in the U.S."

Sarah and Morgan found their groove, and worked hard hopping from accomplishment to accomplishment -- similar to how they describe Highland dance.

"It's a very unique like art form because it's a lot of jumping," Morgan said. You can start off and just learn the basic 2 movements that I just did and as you go through the years you'll expand on them but in the beginning it's pretty basic..."I already know what I'm supposed to do, and I work on it over and over again to keep improving."

"We kind of backfill technique so a dancer can learn something very quickly and feel pretty confident about going out performing," Sarah said.

Now Sarah is on to the next dance, taking the whole school -- most kids who have never left the country -- to Dunoon, Scotland to compete in the Highland Games.

"The Highland Games are a like a both a community event and a tourist event, because you'll be next to someone who's like showing their, I don't know, their Clydesdale horse four, maybe five miles down the road, and then a group of Japanese tourists," Sarah said. "They're active participants and meeting kids their own age in Scotland. I think that's really exciting."

At the end of the trip, her family will head to the World Championships where her 8-year-old son Innes will compete for the first time.

"I'm looking forward to get in the lineup to so I can qualify for the finals," he said.

It won't be Morgan's first time on the world stage of 800 dancers, a mix of boys and girls. "It's it's kind of tense because it's like, you know, you don't know what's going to happen, it could go either way."

But on stage and in the zone, everything goes her way: step by step.

"It's like a rush when you're doing it, though," she said.

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Family brings Scottish Highland dance to Madison