GREENVILLE -- When Ashley Kaylynn Green was 8 years old, she saw Black professional dancers for the first time.

It was the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Charleston's Spoleto Festival, the 67-year-old organization considered "one of the most storied dance companies in the country" by NBC.

Then and there she decided she wanted to be like them.

"That's going to be me up there," she told her mom.

Green has not wavered since, even when the Charleston native had to drive two hours to Columbia every weekend.

Now, the 27-year-old is a professional dancer with the Ailey company, the same theater that drove her to achieve her dream. Founded by acclaimed Black dancer Alvin Ailey in 1958, the multi-racial repertory theater produces dances committed to the "African American cultural experience."

"Sometimes people hear the word dance or concert dance, and they think it's an elitist art form," interim artistic director Matthew Rushing said. "But the Ailey company is not that. It's the company that you can bring your uncle (to) who would much rather be at a baseball game ... and he would still enjoy himself."

On Feb. 18 and 19, the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater will perform at the Peace Center in Greenville. Then, on Feb. 25 and 26, Green will return to Charleston for show at the Gaillard Center.

"I'm living out my childhood dream," she said. "Isn't that insane?"

Dance or nothing

Green's schedule in high school looked more like that of a professional dancer.

By day she attended the Charleston School of the Arts. By night she practiced ballet at the Charleston Dance Institute until 9 p.m.

When Friday arrived, her parents would drive her nearly two hours to Columbia, where she would stay with her teacher or friends until Sunday.

This was her life. For five years. Dance after dance, day after day. Every year, she would ask herself if it was worth it. She couldn't hang out with friends often. Her parents had to drive her every weekend and pick up multiple jobs to make ends meet.

"Is this just for fun?" she would ask. "Because if it's just for fun, I can do this in Charleston. ... And I was like, 'No, I'm committed to this and this is what I want to do.'"

Still, she never burnt out.

"At 13, I was like, it's all or nothing," she said.

Finding community in dance

After graduating from high school, Green moved to Los Angeles to become a commercial dancer, appearing in music videos, advertisements and traveling with artists.

But something just didn't fit.

Weeks before college began, she left Los Angeles and enrolled at Point Park University in Pittsburgh. She later applied to the Ailey company, but was denied.

Following Point Park, she transplanted to Seattle, working for the Whim W'Him Contemporary Dance Center.

About a year later, the Ailey company was looking for new dancers. That's when Green's improvisational Instagram videos appeared.

"We also got a really deep look into how imaginative she was," Rushing said. "It's not easy to improvise, because you have to literally be a spontaneous artist and be able to respond to impulses and be a free thinker."

After receiving word that the Ailey company may be interested, she got a random phone call at 6 a.m. from Robert Battle, the then-artistic director of the Ailey company.

He offered her a spot in the company -- making her one of the youngest members in the 32-person organization.

Green was floored. She accepted it instantly and a week later, moved to New York City. The first few weeks, she stayed up until 3 a.m. working on her dances.

Right away, she saw the difference of working in a company with a majority of Black dancers. In Seattle, for example, she was the only Black person in the company.

"I kept looking around like 'I cannot believe I'm here dancing with all these Black bodies,' " she said. "Then seeing the musculature of everybody and the passion, the soul. I felt like it was the first time I was seeing so much soul."

For the past four years, she's been traveling across the country with the Ailey company. That means being on a U.S. tour from January to May before a five-week international tour later in the year. She compares the dance company to being in college again -- adult college.

In her free time, she has developed a following on Instagram for improvisational dancing with about 17,500 followers.

Upon her return home to Charleston, she doesn't have many plans. She just wants to spend time with family.

"I'm only there for two to three days, so I'm (getting) all that family time I can to rejuvenate my soul so that I can just keep pushing," she said.

Then she's back to dancing.