PIVOTAL MOMENT IN YOUR CAREER

There are so many because my dance pathway has taken so many turns I think there are two different points where I figured out what my real calling was I was working as an NHL Cheerleader for the Rams and working with a lot of community organizations It was the moment I decided to go back to grad school in 2017, to get my MFA in dance I started reading all of these books and nerding out on dance Having those two years to look inward and evaluate what I have been doing and try to see what else I can do I took time to focus on my craft and get some feedback from my mentors

I worked with a woman named Joan Lipkin She is an active community leader in St Louis and I was able to work with her and she is the one that inspired me to merge my social activism with my dancing This changed the trajectory of the Ashleyliane dance company

We found each other very randomly, I had only been in business for roughly a year I'm not exactly sure how Joan found out about me but we met at a random gathering through a mutual friend in the arts Joan ended up giving me her info and hired me to choreograph a piece for her upcoming event When she asked me to come on for this really big social activism project I was taken out of my element As before I primarily choreographed for entertainment purposes and now I was moving into creating more activism pieces. It was with my mentor that I found my creative process.

My time as an NFL Cheerleader for the St. Louis Rams was a super exciting gig I cheered from 2005 to 2008 I've always been a dance team girl I had just graduated college and was still in that mindset. I never saw myself being an NFL Cheerleader.

I went to auditions because all they can do is tell me no Back then there were hundreds of people auditioning. We started by learning a game day routine and the next day doing a pom, jazz hybrid You had to do direct camera interaction and answer personal and professional questions It was a two-week process before finding out if you made the team. You really had to think about aesthetics and beauty on the field. This made me really realize how important shapes and lines are because when you are in the game you never know where the cameras are

I stepped into a captain role in my second and third years on the team and that helped me get started in my leadership skills I was able to learn different teaching and learning methods, travel all over the country, and hang out with different types of people

The misconception is that we just dance and go to games but a lot of our time was spent connecting with people, engaging in community service, and giving back to the community