 Honeybees Spotlight: Ashley B. By: Hornets.com | August 18, 2011 Year as a Honeybee: Fifth. (I can't believe this will be my fifth season!) Previous dance experience: I wish I could say I have years of formal studio training in jazz, ballet, lyrical, tap and hip-hop, but I can’t! All of my dance knowledge has been acquired through the 14 years I’ve spent on dance teams. I tried out for my high school dance team with no prior dance background and made it (thank goodness!). I danced my way through high school, did the same in college (proud alum of the FSU Golden Girls), tried my hand at dancing in the NFL for two years and landed where I am so excited to be now, as a dancer for the best team in the NBA! While I may not have been trained in a studio, I have been fortunate enough to have spent my entire dancing career surrounded by some pretty amazing dancers. Since ninth grade, I’ve been watching and learning from those around me and since dance is such a dynamic sport, I will continue to watch and learn as long as I can! (I still don’t quite have a grasp on the whole tap thing though… and that’s an understatement. My tap skills are failblog worthy. If I YouTubed my tapping, it would get 250,000 hits… because it’s funny. Followed by 249,999 dislikes… because it’s that bad. The one like would be from my mom, if she knew what YouTube was). What I love about being a Honeybee: That seems like it would have such an easy answer, but it doesn’t! I think I’ve decided that I love being a Honeybee because it’s a fantastic combination of many positive things. You try out for the team because you love to dance – that’s number one on everyone’s list. Dancing is something you love to do and when you reach a certain age, there aren’t many outlets for you to perform, so it seems like the perfect opportunity. Then you make the team and you realize there’s so much more to it than just performing. You spend a majority of your life with a great group of girls who share your passion for dancing, but also bring so many unique qualities to the group. Then you start doing appearances, and you meet people out in the New Orleans community who are committed to, and love, the Hornets. And you meet kids who aspire to be Honeybees or Hornets players and view you as a role model, which only makes you want to be the best role model you can be. Add to all that the feeling that you’re not just a dance team that goes out to perform during timeouts, that you are part of the entire Hornets family, that not only do you support the team, but so many others are there to support you! The dancing is what attracts us but the total experience is what keeps us around! What I love about dancing: Everything. It’s the perfect balance of fun, artistry and sport. You can do it anywhere, at any time, by yourself (if you don’t mind the occasional stare) or with friends, for yourself or for an audience, to express happiness or sadness or just release energy, for fun or for exercise, choreographed or spontaneously… dancing can be whatever you want it to be, and when you’re dancing, you can’t be mad (maybe you can be mad when you start, but you can’t stay mad!). So my question is, what’s not to love?! What I love about New Orleans: I love that it’s a city full of its own great stories and strong traditions, yet it’s still so wide open for anyone and everyone to create their own stories and traditions. I love the mix of things that have to be done a very certain way each and every time or it’s just not “right” and things that no one worries about, and how, to an outsider, the decision of what matters and what doesn’t can seem so arbitrary, yet to those that get it, it makes perfect sense. I love that, much like dancing, this city can be whatever you want it to be and it too is the perfect balance of fun, artistry and sport! If you spend any time at all in New Orleans and don’t have fun… let me tell you, it’s not the city, it’s you! In the midst of all the fun, if you can take a minute to appreciate your surroundings, you realize that New Orleans is like one giant art exhibit… from the architecture, to the people, to the food (yes, food can be art… especially here), to the legitimate art museums. You see things here you’ll never see anywhere else. Meanwhile, sports are everywhere… you can watch them (Geaux Hornets!), you can play them (kickball, softball, red dress running), you can turn just about anything here into a sport (i.e., the sport of bead catching). What I love to do when I’m not performing with the Honeybees: I love to read. I love to Google (especially mid-heated argument when I know I’m right). I love to travel. I love to spend a free day playing tourist in my own city. I love to cook almost as much as I love to bake. I love to dance (as I mentioned before, this can happen anywhere). I love to go to Hornets games when I’m not dancing and just be a fan! |
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