About Me
Ashley Kroft is an interdisciplinary choreographer, educator, and movement artist. Over her thirteen years as a performance artist, Ashley has transitioned from performer to choreographer and is now the Company Choreographer at Imagine Dance Academy, creating works for competition students. She has won numerous Choreographic Excellence Awards for her pieces "Rescue", "Ashes", & "Cornfield Chase" to name a few. She has performed with Red Right Return Dance Company and DRIP as a Principal performer and co-director in Orlando, FL. Her works have been accepted to present at Orlando Fringe Festival and IMMERSE Festival. She received her MFA in Choreography at Jacksonville University, Florida, where she now has been hired as a Dance Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. On top of this position, Ashley is a seasoned Judge for dance competitions where she gets to share her knowledge she has gained through her training and experience.
Artist Statement
Dance is like breathing and feeling the pleasures of the moving body in-between spaces. To connect and have a tactile dialogue with other moving bodies. To share and acknowledge movements. My works are inspired by the human energy and the body's histories that provide a pathway to self-discoveries and the intricate delicacy of the sensing body to express beauty in all its mess. Because who's perfect?
With every choreographic piece, I aim to use the dancers' strengths to bring back the human essence to movement giving life to visceral ephemeral moments. Viewing movement from a distance, I tend to wonder, "why are they moving?", "what is the feeling behind their movement?", and "what is their body sensing?". Using a dancer's imprinted histories and self-knowledge is essential to the answers I seek.
Starting with an idea or concept, I allow it to shape and mold as more details become apparent, reflecting and revising until I feel the work is ready to be shared. Ultimately, I want my pieces to be about shared life moments that we feel in their entirety, not passing it by as we live through mundane days on autopilot.
