Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jaziah Simmons. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jaziah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
I always felt I was misunderstood a lot by my family and my surroundings at school because I started my journey with dance in high school. I always felt looked down on a lot because I was doing something people didn’t expect to see me doing because I grew up as a rebellious kid. I was always getting into trouble at school and outside of school growing up.
Dance became a transformative outlet for me and it helped me stay out of trouble, as well as showcase more of myself in a better light. I was really a introvert during that time and kept my circle small or tried to find people that enjoyed doing the same stuff I was doing. Finding a supportive community made a big difference in my dance and personal life.
Jaziah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m a professional dancer, born in Los Angeles, CA and currently located here now. I grew in both Compton, CA & San Jose, CA, so California was my home all my life. I grew up doing cheerleading and lots of sports but I loved dancing since I was 3. My love for dance came from lots of movies, especially Step Up and playing Just Dance & Dance Central everyday. I would say I was self taught never really trained or went to studios until High School. I joined a dance team in high school and that’s when my dance training fully started.
When it comes to my goals in dance, I just want to showcase my unapologetic self. I haven’t done any huge jobs yet but whenever I’m training in studios or doing small performances or gigs on the side I always want to showcase myself in a personally level and just break barriers. And I can’t wait till the day comes when I’m able to showcase myself around the world.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Getting to create and connect with people. I always love meeting people in classes and mentorships because there’s so many people from all over the world that comes to LA fighting for the same thing. I also love when we’re all rooting for each other and it’s just a healthy community to be around once you find those people.
Also getting to create and share our crafts with each other is really fun and a good learning experience because again we all come from different paths in our career and getting to share that is just so beautiful. It definitely helps me grow as a artist learning from my peers.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I feel like for a long time I was painting this character in myself that I didn’t really like in my dance journey because I was told you need to be this way to be seen in the room or get booked into these jobs. Also social media played a big part because you see all these videos in classes where everyone has makeup done, hair done, crazy outgoing outfits, etc. and then you see them in groups all the time. Then there’s these trends that everyone is doing and then you think should I be apart of that to be seen?
Now I’m like do what makes you happy personally and helps you grow as a dancer and a human. It took me a long time to actually find my confidence then find the classes that actually made me love dance and fully see what dance journey I wanted to be in. I want have a happy and long career in this industry, I don’t like following trends. So I just do my own thing and it will lead me to the path I need to be in and the people I need in my environment.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaziahsimmons_/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jaziahsimmons4504
Image Credits
Photographer: Alissa Roseborough
@alissarosestudio