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I had the pleasure of talking with the lovely Ashley McCray yesterday. She's an amazing dancer from Atlanta who created the world's first ever dance EP entitled TYG. Check out what she had to say:
1. What is your #1 goal, what do you hope to accomplish the most? I have so many goals. My goal, when it comes to dance, is to create more opportunities for those in the dance community who want to receive more recognition for what he or she do. I can't remember what award's show it was but Kaelynn Harris (a dancer) performed with Usher and did a good enough job to get her trending on twitter. I remember seeing a tweet that someone posted of her dancing with the caption ". . . one of Usher's Dancers is fye . . ." This made me realize the lack of recognition dancers receive from our society. Don't get me wrong, I definitely do not think it is all about the fame but I do believe in giving credit where it is due. It bothered me that they didn't know her name; and I mean, its not just her, but in general, in society a dancer is just a dancer. They're not an artist, and I don't like that. Can you name 3 of Beyonce's background dancers? What about one of the choreographers for Usher or Ciara? Majority cannot. Right now, I feel dancers don’t necessarily have the complete freedom to create without limitations. For instance, we create to other peoples' music, in which we cannot sell because of copyright issues, so this makes it harder for us to make a living from our art, we attend 16 hour rehearsals and put our bodies through a lot of straining to get on stage and make an artist look good with no recognition from society as to who we are as individuals in return, we train for years spending so much money taking classes to be asked to whip and nae nae. And I mean, it's not a problem lol, but I do want to try and create more opportunities for them.
2. Who are your biggest influences? Definitely God, myself, my family, friends, and Eric Thomas.
3. Who is your biggest critic or who pushes you the most? I am most definitely my biggest critic (lol). I study myself everyday, and I have something new to improve everyday.
4. When did you start dancing and what made you want to pursue it? I don't know the exact time I started dancing and it's funny because I always joke now about how my parents had me in the wrong classes because they had me cheerleading when they knew I should've been dancing (lol). I do remember being forced to perform with my brothers and cousins for our family reunions lol and I did do a few gigs when I was younger with QT Jazz and Zonnique, and even had my own dance crew at one point in time but I didn’t truly start taking it seriously until I graduated high school. I don't look at my journey as if I'm pursuing dance, but more so pursuing to create and using dance as one way to do that. Dance has always been a passion in my heart that I couldn't run from. It seemed as though everything in my life revolved around it. It was all I could see myself doing, and It was all that I wanted to do. The more I prayed, the clearer it became on what I was suppose to be doing.
5. If you could work with any artist who would it be and why? I honestly do not know. Most likely either Usher or Chris Brown because they're both just amazing creators, and I feel they have great vibes.
6. Who are your top 5 favorite dancers? My top 5 FAVORTIE dancers, in no particular order, are Janelle Ginestra, Ian Eastwood, Keone and Mari (they count as one), Brian Puspos, and Phillip "Pacman" Chbeeb.
7. What is your favorite style of dancing? My favorite style to perform is hip hop, however my favorite style to watch would have to be between jazz funk and contemporary.
"Eliminate fear, You should not be afraid of anything whether it's to try, to fail, or to succeed. Know that your first draft is always perfect because it exists and if no one else believes in you, you have to believe in you. Faith and fear can't live in the same body."
- Ashley Mccray
8. What gets your creative juices flowing? A lot of different things get my mojo going but most of the times when I see something inspiring or very creative, I'm immediately ready to create! I'm moved a lot by other people using their talents.
9. What do you think is most important about changing and growing as an artist? It is hard to say what's most important when it comes to growth because everything surrounding it is so vital. If I had to choose, I would saying the most important is anything and everything self related. Just to name a few, finding yourself, knowing who you are, who want to become, your strengths, your weaknesses and what values you believe in are key concepts that molds the start of your journey. You have to know who you are, in order to know where you're going
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10. I first gained knowledge of who you were because you were dancing with zonnique for her first solo show, Can you tell us about that experience and what was like working with her? I love her so much. I met her when we were younger, and I guess you can say we rekindled the flame when we got older, so she's a good friend of mine. It felt awesome to be able to share the stage and that moment with her because for one, that's my suh lol and for two, I was so proud of her and so happy for her... still am.
11.What inspired the world's first ever dance EP (which is amazing btw)? How did you come up with this idea? Ayyye! Thank you girl! It was all GOD! I was sitting in my room one night and I had seen Ian Eastwood's dance Mixtape, Adultlessons (the world's first dance mixtape) and I thought it was really great. I had been praying to God for an idea and wala magic *futures voice*. The World's First Dance EP.
12.what can we look forward to seeing from you in the future? Nothing. Nah, I'm just playing lol, but definitely more from my 50shadesofAshley series will be coming soon, so be on the look out!
13. Where can we keep up with you? Twitter, YouTube, Instagram etc? My twitter/instagram | @itsashleymccray, and my youtube channel is @ WhereisAshley.
14. At the end of your EP you gave us an amazing quote, do you have any others you live by? Tons! I really love Maya Angelou's quote, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."