Local dancer is working to make her dream come true

BOSTON, Mass. (WCBI)- Following your dreams isn’t an easy task. It takes hard work and determination.

We joined a Starkville dancer as she works to make her dreams a reality.

“I think right then I was like I’m going to move out to LA one day and I’m going to be a professional dancer,” said Ainsley Dobbs.

Ainsley Dobbs is 12 years old and determined to dance.

“I think I actually decided when I was like five because when I was five, that’s when I first went to Pulse,” said Ainsley.

Her goal of becoming a professional dancer is one step closer to coming true.

Last year she was one of six kids chosen by the Nexus Dance Experience as a lead counselor and Teen Team lead.

Now, she’s on tour.

“I didn’t hear my name ’cause Nancy, the person who is the host, she was like Ainsley Dobbs, and I was like… I was just kinda like wanting to fall to the ground but all I remembered at that moment was how happy I was.”

The Starkville native has worked hard for this. A lot of the tour is made up of big city kids. She had to compete against trained dancers from LA and Chicago.

She had to make herself stand out.

“For Ainsley, I remember being on stage, and I would see her at a lot of the cities and stuff, and she just had this thing, I can’t explain it. If you had a bunch of photos on your desk all them were in black-and-white, but then there’s one in color your eyes are just gonna go to that. You know, she was color in a sea of black and white photos,” said faculty member Lane Napper.

It wasn’t easy.

“I think it’s kinda like my determination. Like I really really wanted lead. I really knew that I wanted to do this. So like taking the extra days to fly out somewhere, take all the classes that I can get, and just make myself better I think that is kind of how I got here just hard-working determination,” said Ainsley.

During her time with Nexus, her teachers say she has continued to grow as a person and a dancer.

“When she first got here she was always looking around for validation. She would look around like does he see me, do they see me, do they know I’m getting that right, and I was like stop. You can’t do this for anybody else you have to just exist, be confident, work hard and everyone’s gonna notice. I’ll notice. I was like you can’t seek that validation, and she’s getting so much better at that. She’s dancing, and she’s more confident,” said faculty member Kevin Frey.

“She really takes everything in. She’s… Watching her grow from, now she’s taller than I am, when she was little she was always with able take direction and always wanted to learn always want to be better and really didn’t take things personally with any kind of direction which is hard at that age,” said Program Director Nancy O’Meara.

And each day is a new lesson.

“Nobody’s perfect like I feel like a lot of people in their daily life they try to make it a perfect life, everything is perfect. But no one’s perfect no families perfect no day is perfect. Honestly, there’s always going to be those highs and those lows. I feel like that’s when I can take away from it perseverance and persistence and like everybody’s them, and that’s just them,” said Ainsley.

Ainsley’s next stop on her tour is San Diego.

And, she tells WCBI the west coast is where she hopes to live when she turns 18.