ashlyyn is truly a day one, and she always brings SO many ideas and perspectives when it comes to danZING, dance, and dancer mindset. :)
i especially loved this episode because, with comp season picking up, we talk about how to stay involved and keep growing even when you're injured, instead of letting it completely bring you down.
i genuinely think there's something EVERY dancer can take away from this one.
💜💜 Prisha (DanceVibes Studio host)
When Ashlyyn first told me about her injury, one thing stood out immediately: she never really stopped showing up.
About mid-September, her team was doing technique when she did a step-out and tweaked her knee. She already had a knee issue from an accident a few years ago, so this wasn’t completely unfamiliar territory. But this time, she ended up spraining her meniscus.
“It’s not talked about often,” she told me, “but it is very painful.”
The good news was that it would heal. The harder part was figuring out what to do while she waited.
Ashlyyn kept going to practice.
She was recording, cheering people on, and staying involved with the team. She was invited to everything, even when she couldn’t physically dance.
That was one of the things I loved hearing most. Being injured can make dancers feel like they’re suddenly outside of everything, especially when rehearsal continues without them. But Ashlyyn found ways to stay connected.
She was at practice sitting down. On team uniform days, she still wore the uniform—even though she was sitting there. She took notes. She took videos.
A few weeks before our conversation, her team had choreography for competition. It was two very long, full days of dance, and Ashlyyn spent both days sitting there. But she took notes and recorded what she could.
She put videos of turns and other choreography into the Dancing app and shared them with the rest of her team so they could have the specific parts they needed. She and the other injured dancers were also taking videos for their friends and coach, helping with social media, and staying involved wherever they could.
It wasn’t the same as dancing, obviously. But it was still being part of dance.
That was something we talked about during the interview: how easy it is for dancers to think, “I can’t dance, so I can’t do anything.”
I’ve had that thought myself. When you’re injured, it can feel like everything is suddenly off-limits. But watching practice is still something. Taking notes is still something. Recording choreography is still something. Helping your teammates is still something.
You’re still learning, even from the sidelines.
The danZING app (completely FREE) also helped Ashlyyn keep track of everything while she was injured. She used the calendar to add her appointments and practices and make sure nothing overlapped. She saved videos so that, once she was healed, she could get right back into what she had missed.
She had sideline videos and chant videos in the app. She could go back and see, “Oh, this is what I’m learning. This is what I need to learn. This is what I have to have by next week.”
Then she could mark things off when they were done.
I could see why that helped. Coming back after time away can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to figure out what everyone learned while you were gone. Having the videos and notes already organized gave her a way back in.
By the time we recorded the interview, Ashlyyn had been cleared and was dancing again. But she was honest about the fact that returning was still an adjustment.
Sometimes she had to sit down because she had reached her limit for the day.
That part can be frustrating. You can know that you’re healing and still feel impatient with your body. You can be excited to come back and still realize you can’t immediately do everything the way you did before.
Ashlyyn said that having confidence in herself—that she could get back to where she was—was what kept her going.
She didn’t know exactly how long it would take, and she knew it might feel different for a while. But she believed she would get there.
That stayed with me after our conversation.
Being injured doesn’t mean you stop being a dancer. Sometimes it just means you have to find a different way to show up.
For Ashlyyn, that meant sitting in rehearsal in her team uniform, taking notes, recording turns, cheering people on, and keeping track of everything she would eventually come back to.
And now she’s back—just with a much better understanding of when she’s reached her limit for the day.