ASHLEY ZARATE

Ashley Zarate is a former Stagelighter! She is currently residing in La Habra Heights and is currently attending Cypress College and is majoring in Theatre Arts. She is currently involved in the musicals at Cypress College. Ashley performed in her first musical, The Rocky Horror Show, and most recently played Babette in Beauty and the Beast at Cypress. She also assists and substitutes Ballet/Tap classes to 3-5 year olds at her competition studio.

Stagelight Performing Arts was where Ashley fell in love with dance and performing. Stagelight not only taught Ashley important technique, but also taught her how to escape reality through movement and how to express herself. Expressing herself through dance soon lead Ashley to finding her current passion for acting and singing as well. She’s so grateful for her years at Stagelight, it led her to where she is today and she’s forever thankful.

Ashley studied Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Modern, Lyrical and HipHop at Stagelight. One of her favorite in-class memories at Stagelight was taking her first pointe class. Ashley remembers for the longest time being so excited to finally be able to go on pointe. Although she says it was painful, being able to dance in her pointe shoes was a dream for Ashley. One of her favorite on-stage memories at Stagelight was when she got to assist one of the baby ballet classes and she got to walk them on stage and do their dance alongside them.

“If you truly dream of doing something, don’t let anything stop you. I struggled with being extremely shy in my childhood and although I could express myself through dance, I had always dreamed of acting and singing, but let the idea of “I’m too shy” get in the way of me going for that. It’s been a long journey and took me stepping out of my comfort zone a lot, but I knew what I wanted to do and I just went for it. So my advice would be sometimes you got to take that leap of faith and it can lead you to so many amazing new things and opportunities.” – Ashley Zarate