Ashley Stafford's love for the arts began at a very young age with the Indiana University pre-college ballet and music programs. She graduated with honors and received a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance, as well as a minor in Psychology, from Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Ashley’s passion for music and dance has brought her to the stage in many capacities throughout the Midwest, Northeast, Colorado, Canada, and Europe. She has appeared on MTV, Good Morning America, Telemundo, and The Dr. Oz Show, and has performed in shows at Symphony Space, The Tank, Peridance Capezio Center, Dixon Place, Broad Street Ballroom, the Highline Ballroom, and at the Barclays Center. Ashley is trained in many genres of dance and has performed works by Sheila Barker, Mike Esperanza, Cat Cogliandro, Stacie Webster, J9, and Ashle Dawson to name a few. Her own choreography has been showcased in shows such as the Brooklyn Dance Festival, Gotham Dance Theater’s Emerge Choreographer’s Showcase, in the New York Jazz Choreography Project, in the Sans Limites Festival, at the Holi Hai Festival on Governor’s Island, in the NACHMO 2018 Select Theater Performance, and as a finalist in J Chen’s CORE Choreography Competition. Ashley also choreographs for film and her short film ‘tides’ was recently included in an art installation at the Plaxall Gallery in Long Island City. She is fascinated by the power of the arts on the human experience, and in 2010 was awarded a full research grant to study the relationship between music and culture in Dakar, Senegal. Ashley aims to fuse together her diverse training, experiences, and passion for the arts to create a learning environment in which young artists feel comfortable exploring dance while challenging their minds and bodies.
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