The Impact of Mentorship: Ashley Werhun

May 22

For this month’s Story Bloom, we sat down with the incredible Ashley Werhun to discuss the Importance of Mentorship for young artists. A professional ballet dancer turned entrepreneur, ⁠Ashley has travelled the globe teaching and performing with companies such as Ballet BC and Trey McIntyre Project. She is the CEO and co-founder of Mentorly, an online mentorship platform that connects emerging artists with professionals across various industries. Be empowered to further your own journey by reading Ashley’s words of personal experience and advice below.

To start us off, can you explain to our youth community what a mentor and mentee is?

At Mentorly, we define a mentor as someone with five or more years of professional experience in their field. Mentors are excited about a mentee’s journey and are able to guide a mentee through career questions and personal challenges. A mentor uses the extent of their real-life experiences to pass on valuable information, and act as a sounding board (more on this later). They serve as an adaptable, positive role model to anyone who looks up to them.

On the contrary, a mentee is an individual who embraces growth. They have a strong aspiration to gain wisdom from someone who has “been there before”. A mentee’s objectives are to grow in professional and personal means, which can be done by investing time and focus into their own future. Mentees absorb information like a sponge, and are later equipped to apply the advice they have received as they navigate through their life and career.

You are a professional ballerina turned entrepreneur, having danced around the world and later co-founding Mentorly. Where did you find the inspiration to start Mentorly?

Mentorly started as an honest conversation between my co-founder and Mentorly COO Katherine Macnaughton and myself. We found ourselves coming back to the same question: why is it so hard to find a mentor in the creative industries? There were many different layers to this problem that we identified - accessibility, the general resistance to reach out for help, and a lack of a dedicated pool of mentors - so we set out with an idea to build a solution for all of these problems! I am so grateful that our work at Mentorly is able to fill the gap that Katherine and I both experienced in our own lives.

Throughout my years as a professional dancer, I always found so much joy in teaching master classes while on tour. After class, I would receive so many in-depth questions around the dance career path, emotional resilience, and auditioning, but there was never enough time to fulfil these conversations one-on-one like I wished. I knew that there needed to be a time and place dedicated to having those meaningful discussions.

Why do you think it is important to have a mentor? How would having a mentor throughout your dance career benefit an aspiring artist?

Having a mentor can be helpful in so many ways. Beyond the obvious reason of learning from the same mistakes that someone has already made, a mentor can also create a safe space to verbalize the challenges you are going through. In other words, they act as an educated sounding board. You may be wondering what the phrase “sounding board” means:

As young artists, the tendency is to open up to family and friends about career questions. Although this outlet is an increasingly valuable support system, if one is transitioning into a very specific industry like the dance world, real life experience from a professional would be extremely beneficial. An educated sounding board is an expression used to represent someone who can actively listen to you and provide you with solutions based on their own experience in a certain industry or situation. In short, they’ve probably been in your shoes before and have learned the hard way. They can be here to guide you in navigating some of the same hurdles.

Even before a young dancer approaches or talks to a mentor figure, there is so much value created in this process. Knowing that mentorship opens up conversations around your future, you may take some time to reflect on your goals and ask yourself questions like:

What are the main obstacles that are holding me back?
What does success look like for me?
Where do I want to be in a year, or 5 years time?

By accepting and preparing for a mentorship session, you’ve already grown in self-awareness and refined your personal values. You will immediately gain understanding of a specific industry upon learning about your mentor’s experience. The conversations that will take place with your mentor will be deep and often be quite vulnerable. A mentor may open up about how they overcame their own obstacles, helping you outline how to do the same. The purpose of having a mentor is not to replicate their success - it's to learn from their journey and discover your own successes, whatever this path may look like.

What are some qualities needed to become a mentee? Is it for everyone?

In my view, mentees need to be willing to do three things: remain open, be vulnerable, and be committed to doing the work! Let me explain:

1. Remain Open

Some feedback we’ve heard frequently through Mentorly is that mentees are pleasantly surprised by the realism and honesty of their mentor’s words. A mentor’s advice isn’t always what you think you want to hear, nor is it as simple as common cliches. There is so much power in a honest perspective, and though it's not always easy to appreciate, it helps an individual find new and realistic ways to approach a situation.

In the spirit of remaining open, you must also keep in mind that not all of the knowledge you’ve gained can be utilized right away. To give you an example; one mentee described a scenario where she received advice from her mentor about traveling and dancing in Russia. Her mentor’s words didn’t seem to resonate at first … until the mentee arrived in Russia. She described a moment where all of this advice came flooding back to her, supporting her as she navigated a new environment.

2. Be Vulnerable

As dancers, we’ve all heard the phrase “fake it ‘til you make it”, and may have even applied it in our lives. Mentorship is quite the opposite from this expression. Discussions from a mentor and mentee remain private, exposing the side of yourself that may be scared, unprepared, or unsure to wholly take in honest guidance. By reflecting on the place you are at right now, you are innovating new possibilities for yourself in the future.

I always like to reiterate that there is no need to pretend to know all of the answers. If your mentor mentions a company or technique that you’ve never heard of, don’t just nod your head in agreement! Ask for the website and exact spelling so that you can look it up and learn even more. Trust that you will benefit from this honesty.

3. Be Committed to Doing the Work

There isn’t a requirement to pursue a professional dance career in order to need a mentor. Your objective could be as simple as feeling more confident in the studio, discovering your artistry, or exploring a new technique. Either way, a mentor should be able to reciprocate physical and emotional resources to further your advancement.

At the end of the day, you are in control of the outcomes you produce... regardless of the amount of conversations you’ve had with a mentor. Whether you’ve been advised to approach the ballet barre in a new way, been given feedback on a dance video you’ve sent in, or received tips on how to put an audition schedule together, you need to allot the time to put this advice into action.

The amazing thing about having a mentor is that you will also have someone who will hold you accountable! They will check-in on you and provide an extra token of motivation and encouragement.

How has mentorship impacted your life?

Mentorship has always been an important pillar in my life. As a young artist, I really didn’t know where to start in terms of forging a professional pathway in the dance world. Luckily, I was driven enough to approach the teachers and professional dancers around me in hopes of chatting with them. I learned quite a bit from those conversations, and have continued to seek out similar types of relationships in my life ever since. I’ve greatly reflected on the undeniable impact my mentors have had on me as I’ve grown into my professional career. In turn, I sought out talented and passionate mentees who I felt I could share my support with.

As I transitioned from ballet into entrepreneurship, mentorship was once again a very important aspect of my journey (and it still is!). Thanks to my advisors, investors, coaches, and paid mentors, I have surrounded myself with people who inspire me to be better. My mentors have often had a very different perspective than I do, which creates endless opportunities that I can consider. I’ve also found the value in taking a step back and looking at a situation from a birds-eye view. This allows me to assess situations objectively and with a clear mind. Something I’ve heard quite a few times from the mentors in my life is that I think too much. I am constantly challenging myself to just try, practice, test, and learn from every moment in my life. Mentors have pushed me to take more risks in my life, and for that, I’ll be forever grateful.

Fostering the next generation of artists has always been so important to us at Danse Bloom. For more inspiration from Ashley, you can find her on Instagram (@awerhun) or by checking out Mentorly (@mentorlyofficial) and all that they do.