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How Austinites Choose to Move: Ashlyn Chavarria
DANCING
It’s always gone back to dance for Ashlyn Chavarria. A native Californian, Ashlyn was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where she developed a love for dancing at around age three. While Ashlyn admits she stepped away from dancing to try dierent activities at a point when she got a bit older, she always found herself going back to dance.
Ashlyn pursued her dancing career throughout high school and into college at Texas State, where she graduated with a degree in dance and was involved with a student-led campus dance organization.
Ashlyn’s dance career didn’t end in college, though. After graduating, Ashlyn moved to Austin, where she started her own dance studio in South Austin. She also served as the director of the Austin Lady Vipers, a semi-professional cheerleading group for the Austin Vipers football team.
Then in 2016, she was asked to join as an instructor for the nonprofit organization, Dance Another World, by the founder of the group, Dawn Rodriguez.
Dance Another World is an English language immersion program taught through dance. It serves non-native, Englishspeaking students (ages 5-16) from lowersocioeconomic areas, where students learn to communicate through creative movement. The nonprofit works with organizations such as Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) in the Austin Independent School District and Cedars International Academy Schools.
The program touches communities in all parts of Austin and helps to provide a safe environment for children to learn English and build confidence.
Ashlyn fell in love with the mission of Dance Another World and continues to work as an instructor. She also recently took on the role as the organization’s executive director.
“Dancing has always been an outlet. It was a place you could go to dance o a bad day or get away from stress or problems at home. You can be yourself, and it’s a great way to stay physically fit as well as a way to build confidence,” she says. “It’s been amazing to see the impact on my students at Dance Another World — [dance] is completely changing lives in a way I didn’t even know existed.”
