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HELLO, I'M

Ashley L. Tate

Director. Choreographer. Educator. Artist. 

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Ashley L. Tate

Assistant Professor of Dance
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

 

Artistic and Executive Director

Ashleyliane Dance Company

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VP of Communications

North Carolina Dance Education

Organization

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Master of Fine Arts

Dance

Washington University in St. Louis

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About

MY BACKGROUND

I am a director, choreographer, educator, and performer from Saint Louis, Missouri.  I am an assistant professor of dance at UNC Charlotte, an affiliate faculty member with the Department of Africana Studies, and founder, artistic director, and executive director of Ashleyliane Dance Company (ADC). ADC is a professional performance organization based in St. Louis, MO with a mission to cultivate diverse repertory, create safe educational spaces, and promote the intersection of dance and social issues.  I earned my BS degree in Computer Information Science from Texas Christian University and received my MFA 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  the use of dance as a vehicle for community advocacy and social change, as well as the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic benefits of hip-hop music and movement.

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I recently served as an adjunct professor of dance at Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University, and Southeast Missouri State University, and as the former chair of the dance department at Grand Center Arts Academy. I am a recipient of Grand Center’s Emerging Artist Visionary Award and has served as a judge for the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation’s Teen Talent Showcase for several years. I am also a winner of the Pulse On Tour Dance Convention Protégé Scholarship, a Monsters of Hip Hop Scholarship (and a former Monsters Show Nominee), and was formerly signed as a dancer and dance educator with Clear Talent Group in Los Angeles, California. My work has been featured in showcases at the Peridance Capezio Center, TADA! Theater, and Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City, the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as the Choreographer’s Carnival in Chicago, Illinois, and Versatility Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and Santa Monica, California.  I am the co-producer of Dance the Vote, a non-partisan grassroots arts-based voter registration initiative founded by Joan Lipkin. In April 2023, I was a key participant in the nationally recognized No Tears Project, a multidisciplinary festival founded by Oxford American Magazine in 2017 to honor Civil Rights history. 

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I have choreographed for the concert stage, NCAA/NFL basketball and football halftime shows, studio recitals, theatre productions and national and regional dance competitions. I teach master classes and workshops in contemporary, jazz, hip hop, modern, improvisation, and composition. I am a member of the Saint Louis Rams Football Cheerleaders, serving as a captain for two years. I am a currently a board member for Missouri Dance Organization and a member of the National Dance Education Organization and the International Association of Blacks in Dance. I recently became Vice-President of Communications for the North Carolina chapter of the National Dance Education Organization.  

Teaching Philosophy
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Guest Speaker

Hancock Symposium

"Community in Creativity:

Dance as a Unifying Art Form"

Westminster College

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Graduate School Fellow

WashU Olin Fellow

2018 Washington University Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Fellowship cohort

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Conference Presenter

NCDEO Conference

2023 Presenter: "Multiple Intelligences Through Hip-Hop"

UNC Charlotte

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