Conversations with Jaziah Simmons

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaziah Simmons.

Hi Jaziah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Los Angeles, California and I was raised in Compton but I moved up north to San Jose to live with my mom, grandmother, & uncle. My great-grandparents raised me until I graduated elementary school. When I moved, I did middle school, high school, & 1 year of community college in the Bay Area. I started dancing at age 14, previously involved in cheerleading, football, softball, and basketball growing up. I danced just for fun until I hit high school and joined a dance team, mainly so I could stay out of trouble lol (I was a bad kid). I was the only girl and POC in the dance team (fun fact) and one of my teammates introduced me to a team outside of school that was having auditions, so I decided to go. I did the audition just to do it, I wasn’t planning on making it but after being in that environment I just couldn’t stop coming back. They had auditions again few months later, and I made the team. I was apart of Syndikidz (junior dance team of “Syndicate’) for about 6 years. They made me fall in love with dance and overall community and I knew I wanted to make that my career. While on the team I was traveling back and forth from San Jose and LA to train. Trained with lots of professionals like Janelle Ginestra, Maryann Chavez, Antoine Troupe, Kolanie Marks, etc. and went to conventions and lots of classes. Recently have been training with Cameron Lee in his mentorship. During Covid, I was still dancing but mainly at school. I transferred from my Community College to a 4 year institution in LA, just recently graduated in June with my BFA in Dance. So, right now I’m really just training and seeing where dance is gonna take me in this new chapter of my life.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. I remember when I first was getting into dance I was like “this is a piece of cake”. I was so wrong for that lol. Trying to build a career in the dance industry is mentally and physically draining sometimes. I think at age 16 maybe 17 I was starting to feel judged that I was doing dance and basically making that my life. I was judged by people at school and even my own family, I really didn’t have much support besides my teammates and captains at the time. It gotten better after words but I felt me being judged by others made me start judging and criticizing myself in a really bad way (and it’s still like that today honestly). I’m all about positivity and having a good support system, so not having that brought me down a lot and I was always 2nd guessing myself. Is this really something I should be doing? Can I actually build a career in dance? It also definitely played a big part in my mental health. I already had really bad depression and severe anxiety in middle school and high school just from my personal life but it honestly gotten worse when I started dance. From all the doubts I had, people bad mouthing me, etc. I’m honestly surprised I’m still pursuing dance today. I’m way better now, mental health for me is really important and I make sure to check in with myself everyday (words of affirmation) and put myself 1st before letting anything stand in my way or drag me down. I’m also happy my journey so far wasn’t smooth sailing because I learned a lot these past few years and it made me a strong person.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The recent things I’ve done was perform at my 1st Club Jete with Leonardo Martinez. My good friend MaZaria helped choreograph and I was happy to be apart of that. I also choreographed a 10 min piece for my school’s Senior Showcase this past June (which you can see on my Youtube page). Probably one of the hardest things I’ve done my 10 years of dance. Was a really fun experience and had to pay homage to my hometown and I had an amazing cast of dancers be apart of that experience with me. That’s also one of the things I would say I’m most proud of because I hate to choreograph. So for me to choreograph a 10 min piece and that was my own doing (no one told me to do 10 mins) i’m really proud of that. I plan to try and do more creative projects hopefully in the near future and work with more talented and amazing creatives. Outside from dance I’m working on being a stylist because I love clothes and after styling my own headshots I noticed how much I enjoyed it. I got to style a few friends for some headshots and I styled the dancers that were in my piece. So I can’t wait to see where that takes me.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Growing up in California literally all my life, in LA I definitely like that you can never get bored. There’s always something to do. I’m from LA and people think I’ve done and seen everything here so it must be boring. I still never went to the Hollywood Sign, didn’t go to Santa Monica Pier until 18, I went to Disneyland for the 1st time last year, like there is so much experience and so many amazing people you can meet. And just the overall diversity of the city is amazing. What I dislike is the driving and the parking. How can a 20 min drive turn into a 1 hour and 15 min drive. Also I don’t like how expensive it is here, basically paying an arm and a leg if you want to get brunch with a friend lol.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaziahsimmons_/
• Twitter: https://x.com/JaziahSimmons_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jaziahsimmons4504

Image Credits
Alissa Roseborough @alissarosestudio Marta Charncherngkha @martacharn Jack Robertson @jr_acting Lyna Quyen @lynaqyen