Aesha Ash

Ash was born and raised in Rochester, New York. She started ballet, tap and jazz at 5 at a local studio. When she was 10, she switched studio to focus on ballet. At age 14, she traveled to New York City to train at School of American Ballet's summer intensive. She attended the course two more years before being accepted as a full-time student.[1][2] She won the Mae L. Wien Awards for Outstanding Promise in 1996.[3]

In 1996, at 18, Ash joined the New York City Ballet. She was the only black woman in the company at the time and remained in the corps de ballet. In 2003, she was introduced to choreographer Maurice Béjart, then auditioned for his company, Béjart Ballet based in Lausanne, Switzerland, and performed as a soloist. She returned to the U.S. in 2005 to join Alonzo King LINES Ballet, a contemporary ballet company in San Francisco, and toured with Christopher Wheeldon's troupe Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company between 2007 and 2009. She retired from dancing in 2009.[2][4]

In 2011, Ash founded the Swan Dream Project to encourage African American children to start ballet. For the project, she was photographed in full ballet attire in to raise fund for other projects that also promoted diversity in ballet. The project also has a summer camp in Ash's hometown, Rochester, and an after-school program in San José, California, where Ash resided.[4][5][6] In 2016, she won the Women Making History Award from National Women's History Museum for her works.[7] She was also featured in the book The Ballerina's Little Black Book.[8]

In 2015, when the School of American Ballet started their diversity committee, Ash was one of the founding members. She taught the school's workshop in California the following year, and was the visiting faculty chair between 2018 and 2020. Ash was invited to join the permanent faculty of the School of American Ballet in 2019, though she did not accept the position until January 2020, making her the school's first African American female full-time faculty member. Her tenure started in September 2020.[4]

In 2001, Ash appeared in Richard Blanshard's documentary Living a Ballet Dream. She also served as Zoe Saldana's dance double during more complex sequences in the 2000 film Center Stage.[9]

Ash is married and has two children. They lived in San José, California until 2020, then moved to New York when Ash took up her position at the School of American Ballet.[4]

• 1996: Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise[3]
• 2016: NWHM Women Making History Award[7]

• Swan Dreams Project website