Clinton resident Ashley Inglis, 13, will be representing the state as Teen Miss Dance of Connecticut when she competes at the Dance Masters of America (DMA) National Title Competition in Atlanta, Georgia in July. Inglis is one of 26 dancers from the country who will be vying for the title of Teen Miss Dance of America at the competition, which will take place at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Atlanta on Tuesday, July 2.

Inglis earned her regional title at the Dance Teachers Club of Connecticut’s title competition that was held at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury this March. She was the only dancer in the Teen Solo Title Division to receive a high gold award, winning the award for her tap performance of Caravan that was choreographed by her tap teacher Caity Steele.

Teen Miss Dance of America contestants must be either 13, 14, or 15 years old, and are judged on their ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatics, and modern dance technique and abilities, which are worth 120 points of their overall score. Solo title contestants must also go through a formal interview process that has a 45-point value. The talent portion of the competition has the highest point value of 300 points. DMA is a professional and certified membership organization that features 30 affiliated chapters across the United States.

Inglis has been dancing for 11 years at the Back Stage Dance Center in Killingworth, having spent eight of those years on the competition team. She goes to the studio four or five days a week, taking tap, ballet, jazz, contemporary, and lyric dance lessons. Michelle Bailey and Stacey Lankarge are owners of Back Stage Dance Center, and Steele is Inglis’s tap solo choreographer.

Inglis has won several other solo titles in Connecticut. In February of this year, she was crowned Teen Miss CISC for her jazz solo Summertime that was choreographed by Melissa Yarnall. In 2017 and 2018, Inglis won Junior Miss Headliners titles for her tap solo routines at the regional Headliners Dance competitions. In 2017, she represented the state as Junior Miss Dance of Connecticut at the DMA’s National Solo Title event in New Orleans, Louisiana. Also that year, Inglis was a member of the USA tap team that represented the country at the International Dance Organization’s World Tap Championships in Riesa, Germany. Team USA’s junior formations tap line finished seventh overall in the world at the international dance competition, where more than 30 countries were represented. In 2015, Ingils was named Petite Miss Dance of Connecticut and was also a top ten finalist in the DMA’s Petite Miss Dance of America competition in Boston, Massachusetts.

When Inglis isn’t dancing at the Back Stage Dance Center, she participates in regional dance conventions. Last December, Inglis attended the Move: The Initiative winter workshop and earned a scholarship to attend Move’s four-day summer dance intensive in Providence, Rhode Island in August. Inglis has also taken first place in the choreography category at the Clinton PTA’s Reflections Art Contest for the last three years. She represented Clinton in Connecticut’s PTA Reflections Contest and earned a pair of second-place finishes to go with a third-place finish. Inglis also is a youth board member for the Kids for Kids Dancing for Life organization, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to raising funds to help children who are in need in local communities.