Ashley Johnson, a 25-year-old Austin resident, grew up dancing in what she describes as a creative household. Her dad was a Jesse White Tumbler, and she started ballet classes at age 3 at Le’gere Dance Center in River Forest.
“I like to say it was my mom’s intuition. She knew I was going to be a dancer,” Johnson said.
Now, Johnson has opened her own dance studio, a longtime dream of hers, to ensure that children living in Austin have the option to take classes in their neighborhood.
“One thing that inspired me to be here is the fact that I kind of got taken out of my community to learn,” Johnson said. Though she took extracurricular dance at her elementary school, the Northwest Institute for Contemporary Learning, Johnson’s studio training was in River Forest.
“I really want kids to be able to have the best of both worlds,” she said. “I want them to be able to get out of school and walk down to their dance studio right in their community and know that I understand you.”
Johnson is holding the grand opening of Ashley J’s Dance Center on April 13 at 1059 N. Laramie Ave. To celebrate, she’s teaching two classes: A $5 intro to acrobatics dance class for ages 5 to 15 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., and a $10 adult line dance class for those ages 16 and older from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Ashley J’s Dance Center will offer week-long classes so Johnson can build on techniques with the same dancers, who can build community with each other.
“They’re not looking around like, ‘Wait, I didn’t learn that last week, so I don’t know what’s going on,’” she said of what a week-long class can offer.
These classes consist of the same group of students who learn a different kind of dance every day, allowing participants to get a taste of everything and helping Johnson gauge her audience.
“What do we want in this community? What are we interested in?” Johnson said. “I want to see what class is going to enroll the most, what class people are interested in.”
Though she’s learned multiple styles of dance, Johnson said ballet and contemporary have stuck.
“This is truly who I am, my pride and my joy,” she said of dance. “I’m grateful that I have so much education in so many different styles that I can overlap into these different classes that I feel prepared to teach.”
Ashley J’s ascent
Johnson attended the Chicago High School for the Arts to study dance, then got her bachelor’s degree in dance at Webster University near St. Louis, Missouri. There, she discovered a community within dance.
“I was doing things for my dance ensemble, creating spaces for them, being a part of the dance club and being a treasurer, and getting us to travel places,” Johnson said.
But upon graduating, Johnson found herself a bit burnt out. So, she took a two-month study abroad trip to Ghana, where she learned traditional West African dance.
When Johnson returned, she started a job through South Chicago Dance Theatre and was placed at the University of Chicago charter elementary school’s North Kenwood Oakland campus as a teaching artist. For nearly three years, she’s taught about six 45-minute classes a day to children ages kindergarten through fifth grade.
“I fell in love with teaching elementary,” Johnson said. “You have to adapt to what’s going on in their world.” She added that her motto is “teaching life skills through dance” – providing young students with lessons on how to follow instruction and communicate with others.
Johnson said she’s wanted to open her own dance studio since high school but decided to make the leap after teaching dance to elementary school students.
“I think I was ready to create a legacy in a way. I know that at least 70% of my kids are not going to be dancers,” Johnson said. “They’re interested in other things, as opposed to bringing your child [to Ashley J’s Dance Center] because you see they have a thing, a passion. You see it at home, just like how I was.”
Johnson also teaches at South Chicago Dance Theatre and is a performing artist with The Rooted Space Company on Chicago’s north side. Over the summer, Johnson participates in Dance in the Parks, a company where professional dancers perform in parks across the city.
Johnson is also Dance in the Parks’ youth coordinator partner. As such, she looks for studios that teach young people to dance in the hopes that their students can participate in Dance in the Parks’ performances in their neighborhood.
“In the last two years, we haven’t had a youth partner [in Austin],” she said. “There’s nothing in the community.”
But now, there is a dance center in Austin with Johnson’s 1,100-square-foot studio. The rental space was previously occupied by a commercial construction company.
Johnson funded the building’s renovation with financial assistance from her savings, her family and a grant from the City of Chicago. She also got community support from Ald. Emma Mitts and hired her father, who’s a general contractor, to help install sprung floors underneath a vinyl overlay, absorbing shock and lessening the impact on dancers’ bodies. They also painted the walls, put up mirrors, and plan to hang a gallery wall of art to inspire dancers.
“This is just like a steppingstone for the bigger picture,” Johnson said, adding that she hopes to open up Ashley J’s Dance Centers around the country. “As soon as this gets going, I’m already looking for another space. I have adult classes, and I love my adults, but this is really for the kids.”
“I want kids in this community to be able to soar,” she added, “and I want them to be able to fly and have the tools that they can do anything with. That’s what I like to tell my elementary school kids.”
Ashley J’s Dance Center is located at 1059 N. Laramie Ave. and open Monday through Friday, mostly after 4 p.m. Come fall, the dance center will also have weekend hours. You can register for regular or grand opening classes by emailing ashleyjsdancecenter@gmail.com or visiting https://www.ashleyjsdancecenter.com/.