Bray was a Burnsville Blazette

After 11 years of dancing in an award-winning Las Vegas female revue, Ashton Bray wasn’t seeking a promotion.

But it came her way with a personnel change in “FANTASY: The Strip’s Sexiest Tease” at the Luxor Hotel and Casino.

Now Bray, a 2007 Burnsville High School graduate and former Burnsville Blazette, is the performance director of a show that’s pushing 25 years, a lifetime in the fickle world of Vegas entertainment.

“I kind of fell into my new role,” said Bray, 35, who took the job in September. “I’ve been there so long that people were kind of looking to me whenever there was a gap to be filled. When our dance captain left to go to a fabulous other show, it was kind of a perfect fit. It’s great. It’s not something I was initially looking for. I’ve only ever wanted to perform. I’ve worked my whole life for this.”

Bray started dance classes at age 2 at Mauri’s School of Dance in Burnsville. In her later teens she trained at Studio 4 Dance, also in Burnsville.

Bray was a member of the high school’s Blazettes dance team for three years when the program was on a roll. The team won first in the state in high kick her first year and second the following year, Bray said.

“I just remember it always being this environment of success and pride, and we just loved what we did and we worked really hard in the cafeteria. That’s where we had practice after school,” said Bray, who attended Marion W. Savage Elementary and Eagle Ridge Junior High and was a National Honor Society member in high school.

She earned a bachelor’s degree with high honors from Oklahoma City University, a small private college with a performing arts school. Her degree program in dance included classes ranging from injury prevention to managing contracts.

“I think I needed those four years to develop into a dancer who could dance longer,” Bray said. “It’s important to keep your body balanced and find the right opportunities so you can dance safely as long as possible.”

In her senior year a sorority sister who’d begun dancing in Vegas urged Bray to come and check it out.

“My mom and I went for spring break. We stayed with her,” said Bray, whose parents, Trisha Ohlsen and Ron Joseph, live in Vegas to be near their daughter. “She showed me what kind of shows are out there. She showed me how much money she made, what her travel time was. It was so invaluable. And I just knew this place was perfect for me. There’s not many places you can just be a dancer. I’ve been able to support myself by just being a dancer.”

Shortly after graduating Bray headed west and instantly got an audition for her first Vegas gig in a vampire-themed show called “BITE” at the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. She did that for a year before auditioning for the Luxor’s “FANTASY” in 2012. She auditioned with the show’s producer, Anita Mann — a choreographer, dancer and actor who has choreographed numerous TV shows, been nominated for five Emmy Awards and won one.

“FANTASY” is a topless revue, which doesn’t faze Bray, a lithe 5-foot-11.

“Topless revue is a tradition that’s as Vegas as Vegas gets,” she said. “I knew what I was getting into. It’s been around forever and ever and ever. There’s a certain skill that goes along with being in a show like that. You hold yourself in a certain way. It’s never been an issue for me and my family.”

The show, she said, is “more of a modern take on burlesque,” updated yearly with new styles, songs and costumes.

“That’s why we’ve been able to survive and weather all these different trends for the past 25 years,” Bray said, noting that shows open and close all the time in Vegas’ intensely competitive entertainment environment.

As performance director Bray said she still performs six nights a week with the eight-member dance troupe but now has other responsibilities in the show, which is held in a 350-seat theater.

“It’s a merging of two different roles,” she said. “One is dance captain, which includes teaching the show to new dancers and new singers, making sure that the show stays clean, giving notes, giving directions. The performance director part is I’m also able to choreograph some numbers for the show.”

In March, “FANTASY” will welcome Valentin Chmerkovskiy, a three-time “Dancing With the Stars” champion, and his wife, Jenna Johnson, as guest choreographers. It’s part of a monthly celebrity choreographer series leading up to the show’s 25th anniversary party in October, Bray said.

“FANTASY” has been named Best Female Revue for five straight years in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Best of Las Vegas Awards.

“We’re competing against everything,” Bray said. “For us to just keep going on and being successful is just a testament to our brand.”