Ms. Bouder has danced in ballet galas around the world and guest starred in companies including the Paris Opera Ballet, Rome Opera Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett, and the Mariinsky Ballet. She has been awarded Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise at the School of American Ballet as a student. As a professional her awards include the Janice Levin Honoree from the New York City Ballet, the Miss Expressivity for 2011 and the Miss Virtuosity for 2013 from the Dance Open Gala, the 2019 Benois de la Danse, and the Award for Artistic Excellence from the Borough of Manhattan Community College for her work in promoting gender equality in the ballet world.
As the founder and artistic director of the arts collaborative Ashley Bouder Projject, Ms. Bouder works to promote gender equality, diversity and inclusion in creative leadership roles within the dance world. Her previous choreographic work has been presented at the School of American Ballet Choreographic Workshop, the New York City Ballet, Peter Norton Symphony Space, Bryant Park Presents, and the Joyce Theater.
1. Tell us about your Background and Journey?
I come from a small town in Pennsylvania with a world renowned ballet school. I had the good luck to be born there and have had my mom attend the school as a kid. I wasn’t one of those kids dancing around the house begging my parents for ballet lessons. My mother and I ran into her childhood teacher, Marcia Dale Weary, by chance while shopping and that was it for me.
I loved ballet from the first class. It felt good in my body to dance that way. I trained at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet from age 6 to age 15. After that I went on a full scholarship to the School of American Ballet in the fall of 1999 and by July 2000 I was on stage dancing Corps De Ballet roles with the New York City Ballet.
I received my corps contract in October 2000 and started dancing soloist roles in January 2001. My first principal role was a surprise debut in Balanchine’s The Firebird, as the firebird in May 2001. I was 17 years old. A principal dancer got injured that day, and there was no left to dance the role. I was taught the 2 solos and the Pas de Deux in 2 hours and went on that night.
As one can imagine, that didn’t make me very popular in the dressing room. We didn’t have any of the mentor programs and sensitivity training sessions that we do now. I was pretty severely bullied for many years, even having my pointe shoes stolen in the middle of performances. I didn’t know who to reach out to for help and I felt that the ballet was pretty much of a sink or swim world then.
Luckily, there were some older and more senior dancers who took me under their wing, so to speak, and helped me survive. I made it to Principal dancer in January 2005, still being bullied and slowly as I got older, it got better. I think the dance world has gotten better. I’m still on my dancing journey and I see big institutions getting better.
After years of being a Principal, I decided there was something bigger in the dance world I could do. I started a tiny little company, Ashley Bouder Project, dedicated to showcasing more diversity, equity and inclusion in the choreographers, composers, dancers, costume designers, and musicians I choose to hire and work with.
I’m also a wife and a mother to a 4 year daughter. We are a very tight family and that helps to direct me toward making the world I inhabit better for us. Being a mother has taken away me as the top priority and put my focus on making the future better and today better for those around me.
2. What inspired you to pursue Ballet as a Career?
First, I think it was that I somehow just understood ballet in my own body. I got how it worked and it felt good. I also had very caring, dedicated, and knowledgable teachers. They were all very honest with every student about abilities and future possibilities.
I received honest feedback and support from them. I don’t think I ever considered the fact that I might not make it as a ballet dancer. It just wasn’t in my realm of possibility. I feel lucky to have had teachers that believed in me and followed through to ensure that I would live my dream.
3. What is your daily routine like?
Let’s go back to the pre-Covid routine. (much better!)
Wake up around 7:30am. Feed my daughter breakfast and pack her school lunch, take a shower, grab our stuff and go. Get on the bus and drop my daughter at pre-school. Walk to the theater or studios 10:30am company class. 11:30am-6pm rehearsals/lunch/physical therapy/massage therapy/training sessions/costume fittings/etc. 6:30pm pick up my daughter from school. Here’s where it varies:
a. If I have a show, I take my daughter to my dressing room and my husband comes to take her home while I perform or she stays and one of the dancers babysits her while I’m onstage. I come home, usually after my husband has done the night routine with my daughter, so I get to come home to dinner, a glass of wine and time with him.
b. If I don’t have a show, I take my daughter home and meet my husband there. We make dinner together, eat, give my daughter a bath and put her to bed. Then we sit down to watch something together while I knit and he does his hobby and we catch up on the day.
4. What do you enjoy the most about Ballet?
I enjoy the freedom it gives of expression. It take A LOT of work to get into the kind of shape and technique level that lets one let go on stage, but it is worth it for me. I can leave the world behind for few minutes and live a different life.
Although, having said that, what I enjoy most now is being a mom and the different kind of freedom it gave me on stage. I started to sweat the mistakes less and actually started making fewer because I was more relaxed and not so focused on just me. I have a higher purpose.
I define feminism as an analysis of power. Who has power? Why? Who has their power diminished, stolen, extinguished? Why?
6. Who inspires you the most and why?
I’m not sure I can name just one person. I am incredibly inspired by women that forge their own path. Whether it is a women shooting up through a man’s world, or a fellow ballerina putting on her blinders to the critics and nay-sayers and doing what she believes is the right path for her, no matter what.
It is not that I 100% agree with all these women do or say, but it is their courage to stand up, to fight, to dance, to you-name-it that lifts me up. I like to think I’m pretty brave, but then I see others, every day, that do something that scares me and then I try to follow that example and let their success lift me up too.
7. What advice would you give to aspiring Ballet Dancers?
My advice is to find the place that you fit. Find the teachers that believe in you and will see you through. Find friends or mentors that will be there when you need them and ditch those that are toxic for you. Mental health in ballet is way more important that how it has been treated in the past.
Do NOT be afraid to reach out when you need help with how you are feeling. And if it is too much, then be good to yourself and know when or if it might be time to walk away. Even if it is for a week or month. Ballet will always be here.
8. Which is your favorite Book and Why?
I’ve recently read 3 books that I found amazing. Two I read as companions and found them to feed off each other by telling the same story with profound analysis and persepctives.
They are: From #blacklivesmatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga - Yamahtta and White Rage by Carol Anderson. The last book is Feminism Unfinished by Dorothy Due Cobble, Linda Gordon, and Astrid Henry and I like it because it tells some stories of feminists that don’t typically make it into our history books.
Interviewed By - Serene Ingle
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