Meet Jahzara and Amira Collins | Artists

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jahzara and Amira Collins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jahzara and Amira, what’s your definition for success?
We define success as being happy while you’re doing what you love. Being successful is when you have learned to balance time for yourself, for your family, time for work and time for having fun.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We love to create and show our art through modeling, acting and dancing. What excites us the most is being able to express ourselves in so many different ways. We get to try on different clothes and dress up when we model; we get to pretend like we are different people when we act, and we get to express how we feel when we dance.

Some lessons we have learned along the way is connections are important and to just be yourself. Smile and always be kind and treat others the way you want to be treated. Also it’s important when you’re on set to always have a good attitude, be professional and stay focused and make sure to do what is asked of you.

What we are most proud of is even reaching this point. We are still learning and growing.. We are still so young only being in this world 7 and 5 1/2 years and having experienced what we have, the people we have met and the different countries we have traveled to either work or vacation has been a blessing and we are so grateful and knowing God has so much more in store for us.

What we want the world to know is to never give up. What’s for you will always be for you. Thoughts become things and manifest your greatness and always have faith in God. Even when you think things are impossible the word itself says I’m Possible which means anything is possible.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would take them to Back on the Beach in Santa Monica to eat because you get to relax in the sun and put your feet in the sand while you eat the best food.

If they wanted to dance we would probably take a few classes at Playground, Millennium Dance Complex, Eighty Eight Studios, Snowglobe or Offstage. We would have to go to Happy Ice after on Melrose.

If we took a day off from dancing we would probably take them to Universal Studios and Disneyland. We would also check out Polar Playground because they make the best cotton candy in character shapes.

We may even visit Hermosa Beach. There’s a nice breakfast place over there called Martha’s and we could go build a sandcastle, collect shells and put our feet in the water.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We model, act and dance. We started in the modeling industry as babies. Our mom submitted me to an agency previously known as JE models based in San Francisco now known as Three Model Management and the Youth Director, Shannon Escoto, decided to sign me and when my sister was born she was so cute Miss Shannon gave her her first job at about four months old as the cover baby for Pottery Barn Kids during their Lily Pulitzer collaboration.

Since Miss Shannon gave us a chance it gave us an opportunity to be signed with Zuri Agency when we came to LA. The team there has also given us countless opportunities to establish ourselves in the industry. We are very grateful for it all. The opportunity to do what we love and work with amazing clients such as Nike, Disney, Target, Nature Valley, Old Navy, Gap Factory, Tea Collection, Facebook, Apple and many more and the production teams, studio teachers and the new people we meet along the way have always been amazing. Getting the chance to experience all of this at our age and learning what goes on behind the scenes and making new connections is a blessing.

Our love for dance started also when we were young. We both have been doing ballet since before we were two years old. We started at the Tutu School which taught us the fundamentals while we played, listened to ballet stories and learned some beginner French. We were there for a few years and then went to the Ballet School of Performing Arts where we learned and advanced so much and were heavily supported.

We started doing hip hop about a year and a half ago. We were invited to audition at Chapkis Dance in Fairfield. We did our initial team training there and then ventured out to different studios in the Bay Area to take classes such as In The Groove, Full Out Studios, City Dance and LGNDS. We have also done consistent private training with Kelly Sweeney, Kathleen Dizon, Jada Escano and Aidan Floresca.

When we came to Los Angeles we joined the shortcakes crew directed by Thalia Ramos and co directed by Markus Paolo. It’s a higher level of training teaching us not only about fundamentals, choreography, technique,, and freestyle but also about self awareness. We have journaling every Monday with our crew and we set goals and expectations of ourselves and do affirmations and have mantras. One of my favorites I have learned is if you’re loud less you can hear more. Amira’s favorite mantra is “I seek my own validation.”

We also have trained at various studios in the LA area such as Playground, Offstage, Snowglobe, Eighty Eight Studios, Mihran K Studios and Hip Hop Mindset.

One of our favorite things to do is attend dance conventions at both Kaos and Monsters and recently Flip the Switch. We have had the opportunity to train with some very amazing and super talented choreographers like Dexter Carr, Natalie Bebko, JBlaze, Lyle Beniga, Gerran Reese, Amari, Brian and Scott Friedman, Sienna LaLau, Kaycee Rice, Sean Lew, Fefe Burgos, Ysabelle Capitule, Kassidy Bright, Julian DeGuzman and many more. The level of training we received at these conventions is on a higher level and helps push and challenge us to be greater and do better.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecollinsgirlz

Image Credits
Lydia Canbankal Nike Maria Esme Del Rio