“I was about nine years old when one of my dance teachers told my mother that they try not to put to much time and effort into their black dancers because they all end up either doing modern because they aren’t able to control their power, or they end up getting too heavy in the thighs. I have also heard other parents openly say, ‘Black girls can’t dance ballet. They should stick to contemporary.’
“At times it makes me doubt myself and wonder if perhaps I should just do what the world expects of me as a dancer, because I feel as if the ballet world is still not ready for a very dark woman in ballet. Then I feel so sad that after all my work I might not make my dream come true, that I become even more ambitious and driven.”
- Aesha Ash
