I have been dancing for 15 years of my life. I have met and learned from dozens of teachers who have made me the dancer I am today. But there is one teacher in particular who made me who I am as a dancer and most importantly as a person.

I met Ashley Tomaszewski in 8th grade when I was 13 years old. Ashley is a professional dancer and a graduate of Butler University. She is the Associate Artistic Director and Company Artist with Water Street Dance Company located in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. She is also a member of the G2 Geometry Dance Company located in Los Angeles, California. On top of that, she is the Artistic Director at Studio One Dance Company located in Wales, Wisconsin. 

When meeting Ashley for the first time it wasn’t expected. I had thought my whole dance life was planned out until suddenly everything was changing. To be completely honest I thought Ashley was a new girl on our team because I, along with almost everyone else in the room, didn’t recognize her and thought she was just taking class with us. 

Ashley was the calm to come after the storm. Every time she stepped into a room her face was lit up with joy and passion, and it would just radiate off her to everyone in the room. She will always have a smile on her face that is contagious making everyone else want to smile. There never was a time when I dreaded having to be in Ashley's class. It’s something that I looked forward to every night for the past few years of my life. 

There would be times when I found myself full of doubt, whether it be because I didn’t win or didn’t get a good enough score. I vividly remember the time I didn’t nail one of my tricks and I was super frustrated telling myself “You’re never going to be good enough” and “You should have tried harder.” With all of these negative thoughts swarming my head, Ashley has always found a way of distracting me from them. Usually, she would end up cracking a super corny dad joke that made me give her that one look. Nonetheless, space is something that Ashley will always encourage because there are times when I just need to take a step back and just breathe. I never felt discouraged or not good enough because of Ashley. There are times when I feel like she knows me better than I know myself. 

Ashley has been and always will be one of the most understanding and accepting humans I think I will ever meet. I always feel so grateful and blessed to have her in my life. She’s the one person that I can look up to and she’s like a second mother to me. She’s family.