Dream Team
It takes all of us to help educate and encourage our children. Our experienced staff and Board of Directors are committed to helping Dance Another World accomplish its goals and empower students to communicate confidently.
Meet our Directors
Dawn Rodriguez
Founder
Dawn Rodriguez founded the organization after her time traveling abroad and teaching English and dance. After years of ballet training in the states, Dawn traveled overseas to teach English. In her spare time, she taught dance to non-native English speaking students, where she discovered the concept of teaching English through dance!
Ashlyn Chavarria
Executive Director
Ashlyn was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and discovered her love for dancing at a very young age. She pursued her passion for dance all the way through college and earned her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts Degree in Dance with a minor emphasis on Nutrition & Dietetics. Ashlyn’s first huge ventures after college were establishing her own dance studio in south Austin and becoming the Director of the Austin Lady Vipers, semi-professional cheerleaders for the Austin Vipers football team. Ashlyn joined Dance Another World as an instructor and immediately fell in love with the mission and students she was working with. She is thrilled to now be Executive Director of the organization and working alongside some amazing people to make a difference in the community. Outside of dancing, you can catch Ashlyn chasing after her wildly sweet little girls, Emma and Mila.
Meet our Board of Directors
Samantha Wells
Board President
Samantha has been a dancer and teacher for 20+ years, and currently works as the senior administrator for Arts & Digital Media at Austin Community College. She received her masters at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland in Public History and Cultural Heritage and is the treasurer on the Board of Directors at Dance Another World. Her passion for dance comes from her competitive dance and drill team background, serving as First Lieutenant of the Leander High School Blue Belles. She continued her study of dance throughout college, studying modern, jazz, ballet, contemporary and hip hop. Since retiring from teaching and performing dance, her focus and passion has centered on how to fund, cultivate and uplift performance, art, and dance education projects in the central Texas area. She lives in Austin, TX with her two dogs, Benson and Millie, and loves to hike, garden, and advocate for education and the environment. She still dances every single day and loves being a part of the Dance Another World team.
Sandy Marzilli
Board Treasurer
Trinity Stafford
Board Secretary
Trinity has been dancing for 20 years of her life and has danced through the mountains of Wyoming, the Broadway Life of Vegas and now through the Hill Country of Texas. Miss. Trinity holds and A.A degree in Dance and Musical Theatre from Western Wyoming Community College and will soon hold A B.F.A in Dance Education from Texas State University. She is passionate about what dance does for a persons mental health and how it has the ability to heal people’s soul. Miss. Trinity hopes to be a director at a school in the Central Texas area and open up an Art Therapy Center for Suicide and Domestic violence survivors. When Miss. Trinity isn’t dancing she is hanging out with her dog Mabel Lou, seeing as much live music as possible. She is so thankful to be a part of Dance Another World and learn from the passionate board members and the amazing dancers she meets! Â
