Ashley Sherman

Photo: Anne Marie Bloodgood.

Ashley Lynn Sherman grew up in the Chicago area, where she received her formal dance training from Miss Sherry Moray-Marsala. At age sixteen, she was invited to join the Alabama Ballet under the direction of Wes Chapman, and danced with the company from 1998-2002, performing soloist and principal roles in works by George Balanchine and resident choreographer Roger Van Fleteren. In 2002 she was invited by Stephen Mills to join Ballet Austin, where she danced until 2020. During her 18-year career at Ballet Austin, she danced many full-length principle roles including Giselle, Odette/Odile, Princess Aurora, Juliet, La Sylphide, Swanhilda, Cinderella, Kitri, The Sugar Plum Fairy, and Ophelia in Mills’ famed Hamlet. She originated roles in contemporary works choreographed by Stephen Mills including his renowned Light: The Holocaust and Humanity Project, and as Snow White in Grimms Tales, which had a full-page feature in The Wall Street Journal in the Spring of 2019. She has also danced in works by Twyla Tharp, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Mats Ek, Dominic Walsh, and in the principle pas de deux from George Balanchine’s Agon, Pontus Lidberg’s Stream, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Ghosts. She toured with Ballet Austin across the U.S., Italy, Slovenia, Israel, and China. In addition, she has been a guest artist with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater at The Joyce in New York, and in A Celebration of Lar Lubovich at the Harris Theater in Chicago where she danced the principle pas de deux in Lubovich’s Dvorak Serenade. Sherman holds a BA in Dance and The Humanities from St. Edward’s University. She was on faculty with the Ballet Austin Academy for 10 years, where she choreographed, staged and coached works for the Advanced Division students and the Butler Fellowship trainees. She also teaches Pilates and is a Yoga Instructor with specialization in Ayurveda and Restorative. She has over 20 years of experience teaching ballet and movement and has worked with students from the Alabama Ballet School, Birmingham Dance Theatre, the Ballet Austin Academy, Ballet Austin II, and the ABT Summer Intensive at the University of Texas.