FOR Ashley Bromfield, the urge to dance came almost instinctively. What began with a young Jamaican girl frolicking in church aisles has since grown into a passion that has carried her to New York’s world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC).

As she prepares to go on tour with the MGDC, Bromfield described the opportunity to the
Jamaica Observer as both overwhelming and deeply humbling, expressing gratitude for the chance to contribute her talents to the body of work created and performed by one of the world’s most esteemed dance companies.

MGDC, founded by dance legend Martha Graham in 1926, is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance establishment. The company is critically acclaimed in the artistic world and has been recognised as “one of the great dance companies of the world” by the New York Times, and as “one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe” by The Washington Post.

“I mean, I cried because I went in thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’ll get this job; it’s so hard to get into this company.’ And so I went in kind of with low expectations and just feeling like I’m just going to have fun, because I love Graham. And when they offered it to me, I was like, ‘Oh, you guys really like me,’ ” she said while gleefully laughing.

Yet, when Bromfield reminisced on the journey that took her to MGDC she admitted that she did not always aspire to turn her passion for dance into a profession.

“I don’t think the dream was New York; I don’t think there was a dream when I started. Dance was always just a place for me to see my friends when I was a child. I think it’s always been a hereditary gene of mine, if you will. When I was younger, my mom tells this story that when she would take me to church and the choir would start singing…she couldn’t get me to sit still, like I would run up and down the aisles and kind of shake my body. So she was like, ‘Okay, maybe she wants to dance.’ And then it just stuck,” she said.

Stepping into the realm of performance, Bromfield began dancing at church at just three years old, before formally beginning ballet training at Vickers Dance Studio at eight. She told the Sunday Observer that her experience as a young girl at the ballet academy moulded her into the committed dancer she is today.

Throughout her schooling Bromfield continued to train in ballet and participate in Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) competitions, but noted that dance was placed on the back burner as she prioritised academics, especially as she tackled high school.

Age 17, she recalled, was her moment of reckoning, pointing out that she first started to consider professional dance after the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) of Jamaica unexpectedly invited her to be part of its dance troupe.

“I remember just feeling this insatiable hunger for more because I had only been doing ballet up until that point…Here was the national company asking me to take it to another level, inviting me in to really be trained in folk movement, Pan African movement.

“So I felt like when they invited me and brought me in, I was really becoming a Caribbean woman. I was being given the opportunity to kind of stand in the footsteps of what my ancestors created, so it was really a surreal moment,” mused Bromfield.

An airborne Ashley Bromfield in action.

But her journey was not without challenges, balancing university and working full-time, all while dancing at the NDTC. Throughout her eight years with the dance company she also manoeuvred the COVID-19 pandemic as she moved up the ranks to earn her place as a soloist.

Despite mounting responsibilities she described the pandemic as a pivotal time in her dance career, explaining that she received many opportunities that expanded her horizons and curiosity on how far she could go.

“I think all of the dancehall work, all of the folk practise, the ballet training I was doing, was starting to kind of morph. And I was just really in a time of experimenting because I had so much downtime…I held my first ballet-dancehall workshop, so I was really becoming myself in order to know whether leaving even made sense,” she said.

Her decision to push her limits landed her at Graham 2, which is the pre-professional branch of the MGDC that serves as a bridge to the main company. Young dancers are given two years of stage experience and performing classic choreography before auditioning to formally join Graham.

While there, she was also dancing for reputable companies like Urban Bush Women, McKoy Dance Project, and the Buglisi Dance Theatre, all of which she credited with building her versatility.

After her two years at Graham 2 the main company offered her a fellowship during which she could understudy in rehearsals, and by June 2026 MGDC held formal auditions and Bromfield was given the offer to join as an apprentice.

The significance of the moment, Bromfield noted, extended beyond simply joining an internationally acclaimed company. The acknowledgement of her talents came at a time when she was deepening her understanding of herself as a Caribbean woman, drawing on the cultural material that surrounded her within the Jamaican dance scene and allowing it to influence the way she hears, interprets, and responds to rhythms through movement.

“I will say it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to learn and accomplish. Graham technique is not easy. And it was so different from anything else I had ever done because I had no prior experience in the technique…and I was coming into a space where there were girls who had been doing it since they were teenagers…so I was playing catch-up. I started as an understudy and I remember just feeling a sense of responsibility to care the most about the integrity of the work.

“So I remember just being super focused on mastering the technique and being able to bring a Caribbean woman’s essence and life into the repertoire. So it was definitely difficult internally because I had so much work to do,” admitted Bromfield.

But even as she adapted, Bromfield found herself becoming an amalgamation of all that she has learnt from Jamaica and abroad, and hopes to continue carrying it with her as she charts her path on the international dance stage.

“It’s a big deal for me, and everybody knows I’m from Jamaica. Sometimes I wear my Jamaica T-shirt around and they’re like, ‘Alright, we get it,’” she said with a laugh. “But I think that representation is so important because it opens up doors for other Jamaicans in ways that we don’t always see. And I think it starts with having the first foot through the door and representing well,” she told the Sunday Observer.