We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashanti Mclaurin-Smith . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashanti below.

Hi Ashanti, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

My legacy would be a continuation of my grandmother‘s legacy. My grandmother was a wife, a mother, a dancer, a mentor and a great choreographer within the Chicago area. My grandmother emphasize the importance of dance education and outreach experiences. Through those two essential components my grandmother was able to build wealthy bonds that allowed with her students. These bonds allowed her to build a legacy. I’m here today to continue her effort and even more! Teaching the love of movement expression through various forms of dance genres is a pure joy. But also bringing the emphasis on outreach (sharing with community) and education to children/young adults. Modeling and teaching my dancers the importance of movement, building healthy habits, mentally and emotional stability are all important, as we take on this path of life. There will be times we’re breath and movement is needed to take it course to relieve the tensions in our brain and body. So when Im gone, I want my dancers, community, and family members to know how to “move through there movement bravely, affectively, and expressively. I want to remembered for my encouragement in movement and how it is needed for a healthy soul!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1991. After having many health issues, my grandmother adopted me and insured I received the best quality of health care I could. At the age of five I began my dance career under the direction of my grandmother, the Midwest renown Mclaurin. I realize that early age that dance was a creative form of expression for me that I really enjoyed and mimic just like my grandmother. I decided very early on that I was going to continue my grandmother‘s legacy. Even after my grandmother passing at a young age, I still continued to find a way to dance.

I attended Southeastern Louisiana University, where I obtained my bachelors in Liberal Arts with a minor and Dance. There I fell head over heels in the interpretation and contemporary genres of dance forms. After receiving several awards for her creative achievements and serving as President of the Dance Department, Ashanti started a family and continue to obtain masters from Grand Canyon University. Aside from me obtaining the role as an educator. I also coached and taught various dance locations within the North Shore area. I also trained and coached two elementary dance teams in St. John the Baptist Parish. In 2021 I finalize my LLC for The McLaurin Academy of Contemporary Art and in 2022 I started working as a performer arts instructor at Hammond Eastside international baccalaureate Elementary school. After having my third baby girl in 2021, I decided to continue to carry on the path of opening my own dance Academy. In the summer of 2023 I started working with a location partnership with You Can Dance ballroom. I started with conducting four workshops that summer. The workshops were positively inspiring and showed a true testament of my capabilities and leadership.

The McLaurin Academy of Contemporary Art has already strive to provide a cultural community of outreach and dance education opportunities. The Academy creates a well discipline studio that dedicates its focus, on helping dancers develop their own dance abilities and autistic language, and performance potential. Overall my students will authentically evolve and mature within their own artistic dance efforts.

Since we’ve officially been open August 2023, we have been in the newspaper twice and we have consistently asked to perform in various events and venues throughout the NorthShore area. As I continue to grow my dance Academy, I intend providing monthly outreach opportunities for my Dancers. For example, and December we had a “breakfast with ballerinas”event. We also plan to have a nutritionist come and speak with our students about health and a teacher who wrote a book about the empowerment of dancing.

So if there’s one thing that is going to set me aside from other studios in the Northshore area is our educational efforts, outreach involvement, reasonably prices, we offer different genres of dance then most (ballet, jazz, African, contemporary, hip-Hop, and Lyrical. My goal is a run my dance academy like an “academy” not a studio… there a difference.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Knowing when it’s not about the quantity but the quality of your worth and efficiency in all you do.
I’ve been an educator for 13 years now and the power of being able to respect, teach, and motivate the youth is such a powerful force. Everyday my goal is to reach one kid and empower them to believe in themselves. However I learn that trust must be built and sometimes based on a child’s background, trust may have to be built over a period of time. Yet thats the glory of teaching, the unspoken commitment to building these relationships and bonds. No, not with everyone, will be ready not willing to receive your assistance. (mine is teaching student how to express themselves through appropriate movement)

In dance I may not have the ability to teach 50 students and at the end of the class all 50 would be committed or comfortable to get on stage. However the 30 that are willing are the student I’ve reached and they are the dancers that are meant to perform at the given time….

This October I was able to witness 40 of my pervious students dance with the schools teams. In addition, I brought serval dancers from my studio to perform as well. The level of movement we provided was astounding and the 8 dancers were able to express through movement (5-6 min song.) And the lack of repetitiveness was at a minimum. I realized then that with my 8 compared to my pervious 40. That, my 8 was all I need for this impactful experience

That’s when I realize the power in quality over quantity.

(I hope this makes sense)

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My life has always consisted of dance, no matter how many surgeries I’ve receive as a child, the adoptions, the heartache of seeing my mother struggle with addictions and the challenges I dealt with a young adult in relation to understanding how to acknowledge and heal from childhood trauma.

Dance has been my path of resilience, silence, healing, and growth.

One cute story I love to tell my kids is how my professor in college invited me to join the Hammond Nutcracker ballet. Every-year I looked forward to being in the nutcracker even while pregnant twice.

I’m such a petite, person but when I was pregnant with my first child, in December I started to have a baby bump and for the first time I was asked to move up in tutu sizes. O boy was I so upset, that I felt big to be on stage.

Anyhow, in the nutcracker I played the parts of Arabian Chinese dragon, candy cane, flower, and snow. And for the snow scene things can get pretty slippery on point shoes. But I’ve never fell.

So the moral to this is that my kids love to hear, that they were in my belly during two of the productions. They were glad I didn’t fall on them on stage. My oldest likes to talk about how she was the nice was in a mice and my middle child was the baby in the party scene.

Contact Info:

• Website: Themclaurinacademy.com
• Instagram: The McLaurin Academy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Macart.dance?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: The McLaurin Academy
• Other: We’re on Tik Tok and Sports Engine

Image Credits
Cece Edmonson