We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Tate. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.
Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
As a young child, I recall sitting in my room imagining a sold out venue, hearing the applause of a captivated audience reveling in the performance of my dancers. I would create for hours, not realizing that this was the foundation upon which I would become an artist. Dance movement was the vehicle for which I made sense of my immediate world, both emotionally and socially. I learned at an early age that dance was more than a hobby, it was my life.
My artistic journey has taken me down many avenues, for which I am grateful. As a young adult, it led me to arenas, movie sets, gyms, stages, and everything in between. These experiences were diverse and unique and allowed me to become an active member of several dance communities. My opportunities as a dancer during those years taught me about the practice of capturing an audience, remaining versatile, and maintaining a healthy balance of precision and individual style.
The jazz, modern, hip hop and ballet training that I received was always revealed in my performances and I loved how the lines and shapes balanced against the percussive and gestural movements. As I emerged as a choreographer, this blending of movement styles further intrigued me, and it became my personal mission to create as much work as possible using blending and experimentation to reach new audiences and foster the appreciation of dance with individuals of diverse backgrounds. This mindset became the vision for Ashleyliane Dance Company (ADC), the professional dance organization that I founded over 15 years ago.
In 2008, at my first self-produced, full-length concert, I focused a lot more on the “entertainment” factor in my work. The performative aspect of stage was where I felt that I excelled as an artist. I loved playing with the idea of creating narratives that cause people to laugh, cry, or just simply transport to a different time or place.
It is through my work with ADC, that I matured my authentic artistic voice and I discovered that I had a lot more stories to tell, but they were beyond the scope of pure entertainment. I began collaborating with theatre companies, spoken word poets, and professional musicians to develop original material that illustrated the human condition, engaged the community in activism, and honored roots and culture. As advocacy and collaboration became the pulse of a majority of my work, I also began to reexamine my teaching methods and curriculum in the dance education classroom. A mixture of varied experiences, fresh perspectives, and professional and personal associations were the driving force behind my want and need to pursue dance education, performance and management as a professional career.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a director, choreographer, educator, and performer from Saint Louis, Missouri. I am an assistant professor of dance at University of North Carolina at Charlotte and founder, artistic director, and executive director of Ashleyliane Dance Company (ADC). ADC is a professional performance organization based in St. Louis, Missouri with a mission to cultivate diverse repertory, create brave educational spaces, and promote the intersection of dance and social issues. I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Science from Texas Christian University and received my Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Washington University in St. Louis, where I was a recipient of the Spencer T & Ann W. Olin Fellowship for Women in Graduate Study. My current research interests includes the use of dance as a vehicle for community advocacy and collaboration, jazz dance history in St. Louis, as well as the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic benefits of hip-hop music and movement.
I began my dance education at Pelagie Green Wren Academy of Dance and Ray Parks Academy of Dance and then went on to study dance from a myriad of educators and practitioners in various dance and somatic fields over the years. I teach classes, courses, and workshops in contemporary, jazz, hip hop as well as other street dance forms.
I also lead improvisation workshops and composition classes. My work has been featured in a plethora of events in the Greater St. Louis area and the Midwest, as well as showcases at the Peridance Capezio Center, TADA! Theater, and Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City, as well as the Choreographer’s Carnival in Chicago, Illinois, and Versatility Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and Santa Monica, California. I am also the co-producer of Dance the Vote, a non-partisan grassroots arts-based voter registration initiative founded by Joan Lipkin.
As a director, choreographer and educator, I strive to foster discovery through dance. I seek to provide opportunities for students to connect their classroom practices with other domains of knowledge, as well as their own perspectives and life experiences. My teaching has been informed by the integration of my childhood upbringing, my formal training, my work as a guest artist and educator and my professional work. Over the past 20+ years, I have had the privilege to work with a multitude of artists of all ages, organizations, and educational institutions, all with unique interests, needs, and goals. This list includes academic dance programs in primary, secondary and higher education, recreational and pre-professional studio programs, in-school dance residencies, professional companies, and collaborative programs with community and social justice organizations and groups.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Honestly, just being a human being in the world means you will always experience some form of pivot. That goes without saying. However, the last few years of my life as a full-time creative have been some of the most challenging, but have taught me some of the most important lessons that I have ever learned in my adult life. These pivots were driven by the pandemic, financial situations, changes in career aspirations, and personal need.
For example, I remember when the lockdown occurred during the height of the pandemic, and my professional company was in the middle of the season. I know that for so many of us, dance provided personal release, a sense of community, among other things. It was important to me to keep us connected, not knowing if and when the situation would improve or not. I quickly started getting my living space set up to host donation-based, bi-weekly dance classes through Zoom. At the time, it was somewhat uncharted territory and though the technical snags and changes in teaching methods were inherently frustrating, I loved how it connected people and we were just so happy to see each other on the screen. I was able to dance with former students who now lived faraway, people felt more at ease about trying a new movement style from the comfort of their space, and it eased a bit of the separation. The business side of things was also a factor of course, but I was more focused on making sure the dancers felt some sense of ‘normalcy” in the midst of an extremely difficult time.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Art has the power to tell stories, change perspectives and unite communities. It is necessary for humanity to thrive, and I want more people to understand that the arts are an essential vehicle for fostering change, connecting with other humans and building a healthy society. I encourage more people to donate to arts organizations and independent creatives, attend more events and take classes, buy local, and certainly spread the word and encourage others to support the arts. I also advocate for collaboration between artists. There is strength in numbers. If we can come together, we can envision a future where arts and creativity are valued as fundamental to truly diverse and equitable communities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ashleyliane9.wixsite.com/ashleyltate
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dancert8/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ashley.tate.376695/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-tate-805346162/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/atate
- Other: https://coaa.charlotte.edu/people/ashley-l-tate https://www.facebook.com/AshleylianeDanceCompany https://www.instagram.com/ashleylianedancecompany/
Image Credits
Washington University in St. Louis Photo
Peter Wochniak Photo
Lumosco Photo and Brand B Photography Photo
Danny MacLaughlin
Brand B Photography