DEL Lab Schools Feature: Ashlie Kirby
We’re continuing to spotlight our 2024 DEL Lab Schools recipients. Join us in celebrating Ashlie Kirby!
Ashlie Kirby is a Bessie Award-winning dancer and dance educator.
She became inspired to become a dance educator after taking the DEL Foundations course in 2009. She has been teaching for over fifteen years at independent schools on the East and West coasts.
Ashlie currently teaches Music and Movement PK-3rd Grade at Sacramento Country Day School. She loves introducing young children to dance and watching them fall in love!
In her classroom children learn that “EveryBODY is a dancer.” They learn that our dancing bodies are a gift we received when we were born, and it’s our job to enjoy them and to share our gifts!
One of Ashlie’s favorite parts of her job is watching her students grow for five consecutive years. She’s known her current 3rd grade class since PK, and it includes her own daughter, Larkin. Her second daughter, Nolah, is in Kindergarten and also loves to dance!
Ashlie’s classroom invites everyone to find their own entry point to discover the joy of dance.
Ashlie holds a BFA in Dance from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Master’s in Dance Education from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She holds dance teaching credentials in New York and California.
Prior to returning to her native California, Ashlie spent nine years dancing professionally in New York City, most notably with Jessica Gaynor Dance and Pam Tanowitz Dance. In 2010, she was awarded a Bessie, or New York Dance and Performance Award, for her performance in Pam Tanowitz’s Be in the Grey with Me.
Ashlie has served as a Teaching Artist for the Mondavi Center and Luna Dance Institute, and on the Board of the California Dance Education Association.
When she is not at Country Day, Ashlie can be found at home with her two young daughters and husband, engaged in messy art projects and living room dance parties.
We asked Ashlie to answer the following questions:
A. What is one of the biggest learnings or takeaways that has stuck with you from a DEL Course/Workshop?
The idea of “Dance for Every Child” was one of my biggest takeaways from the DEL Foundations Course I took many years ago.
The concept of dance as a human birthright really resonated with me. I want all of my students to feel joy in movement and stay embodied throughout their lifetime. Dance is an incredible way to do this! Dance is also an amazing way to build community quickly, which is something I have experienced in every DEL course I have taken. I have felt connected to my colleagues and classmates quickly in a way that feels deep and lasts over many years thought my experiences in DEL workshops.
B. How do you apply the DEL Model in your teaching environment? Tell us more about how you use what you’ve learned from DEL in your real life.
My students know that you can make a dance about anything! We use the DEL Model to inspire student choreography about anything that is relevant to my student’s lives.
Students create movement sentences inspired by curriculum they are exploring in their classrooms, such as birds, rivers or insects. They can also make dances about things they are interested in connected their personal lives or experiences they are having. We also use the DEL Model to connect to dance in different cultures. We can name what we notice and appreciate in every dance style and we can be specific about what element of body, energy, space or relationship we want to embody in the cultural dance style.
C. At the center of the DEL Model is the Teacher’s Heart, which represents the core artistic and philosophical values and beliefs of every dance educator. Ashlie shared:
My Teacher’s Heart is my belief that to move with expression is human. That movement is our first language. That everyone is a dancer and dance belongs to everyone.
My Teacher’s Heart is my desire to inspire joy in my students and facilitate their need for play and creativity. To build community and connections for them through dance.
My Teacher’s Heart is my desire to provide an entry point for each child and to model daily that all are welcome.”