We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashlee Cinco and Cary Barberich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ashlee & Cary thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

We both started training as dancers from ages 3 (Cary) & 5 years old (Ashlee). Back in the early 80s, dance lessons were just ballet, tap & jazz. It was those 3 disciplines and we didn’t learn how to connect to emotions. But coming back as older dancers, with life experience and far more stories to tell, we began exploring the craft of dance beyond technique and precision. We’ve experienced so much in our 40+ years of living:  disappointment, loss, heartache, joy, freedom, and empowerment. And now we know how to use these experiences & emotions to level up our dancing and performances.  This part of the craft is the crux of the AC Experience that we work on.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We met in our 20s as professional contemporary ballet dancers in Los Angeles. Fast forward 20 years, we were both married and post-babies, and we returned to dance after pursuing different careers. Ashlee teaches Pilates, Gyro & dance. Cary is a physical therapist & Inner Alignment healer. We returned to dance classes for fun and to move our bodies again. Little did we know how much we missed it. We realized we were connecting to dance and music in a whole new way. It gave us a new perspective. Turns out that taking a break and living some life gave us a whole new view on what makes dance interesting. The industry has really changed from 20 years ago. We started to see young dancers reyling on acrobatics, tricks and hyper-flexibility — and while this is impressive to watch, we realized tricks didn’t hold our attention like a truly connected performance, where you can feel someone’s heart and soul. So we wanted to bring that intention back — the connection, the personal story, the emotions. And thus The AC Experience was born!

We hold workshops, Masterclasses, privates, & Retreats that focus on each dancer learning to connect to themselves, the music, and the choreography no matter what level. Because there are 2 of us teaching at the same time, each dancer gets individual attention on technique, choreography & authenticity. That’s what sets us apart from a regular dance class or workshops. In regular dance classes, a teacher warms you up and gives choreography and you watch yourself in the mirror and try to get that choreo down. With us, we go deeper. We take more time with the back story & emotion attached to the choreo & music so that the performance is more than just the steps. We foster the dancers’ personal story and connection to the music so that their performances are engaging and authentic.

We are most proud of creating a safe space where everyone can take a chance and grow. We love to work with all dancers who are open and receptive to going beyond just the steps and are willing to tap into what they’re feeling and their past experiences. This is the The Stuff – this is where we can all connect on a human level. Art should make you feel something & that’s what we work on with our dancers. Our goal is for the audience to feel something from their performance, to connect to it, to believe the dancers.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

An age old dance narrative is that your career is done before age 30. We ended our professional dance careers in our 20s and felt like that was it–it’s over. But we realized that age is just a number and just like in dance, you gotta pivot. We’ve returned to dance and performing way older than expected and our performances are far richer than they were when we were younger. We learned to change the narrative for ourselves in hopes of opening up the dance life expectancy for future dancers.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Our goal for the AC Experience is to feel everything; don’t shy away from your life experiences, tap into them when you’re dancing & share yourself: the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s all relevant and beautiful. Feel it all and see how that changes your dancing and takes it to the next level. See how it changes your entire life when you dive into your emotions versus shy away from them. This is our mission of the AC Experience and we are excited to continue exploring and dancing with all of you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jointheacexperience.com
• Instagram: @the_ac_experience
• Facebook: the ac experience
• Youtube: @theacexperience2587
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Gabrielle Phillips