Today we’d like to introduce you to Ahmed Zakzouk.
Ahmed, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Well, I was born in New Orleans; and lived there most of my life, to be honest. I grew up in a pretty abusive and strict household. My mom didn’t work, so she pretty much stayed home, or followed whatever my dad wanted to do. My dad was one of those super religious kinds of parents… the kind of “religious” where everything happened to be against religion, even music! Go figure? Don’t ask me how, because I really don’t know. haha! It was difficult to cope with as a kid, but dancing helped me block out all of the nonsense.
I wasn’t fortunate enough to grow up around a dance studio; to be properly or classically trained. Even if there was a studio, we didn’t have a lot of money so it wasn’t much of an option for me anyway. I wasn’t exposed to many opportunities or anything outside of textbooks from school. I didn’t really have the support system for my dreams when I was younger. I guess my family was just more old-fashioned and believed it would be better to just focus on traditional schoolwork. So, I just left it up to me, myself, and a dream of becoming a professional dancer!
Remember when I said that even music was considered against the religion? Lol. Yeah, I wasn’t allowed to listen to music for a good portion of my life. Maybe it was about the religion, or maybe just because of profanity added to some songs. I’m not sure. Not having much access to music, I rebelled, and I taught myself how to beat-box. From there, I would hide from my dad, lock myself in my room, position myself in front of this little, skinny mirror, and teach myself how to dance to my own beat-boxing. Haha! Wow, what a throwback!
Maybe I’ve always been meant to be a performer though. In Kindergarten, we had an end-of-the-year singing recital to perform for our parents. I wasn’t the best singer, so I asked if I could be the fake saxophone player. Turns out mid-song, I decided to drop the toy saxophone and started doing the Harlem – Shake on stage! HAHA.
The parents loved it!
Fast-forward a few years to middle school.
It’s recess time, and while everyone is playing ball on the court or chatting over a slice of pizza, I’m off in the corner with a fake imitation Michael Jackson glove on – practicing my moves. Lol. Don’t get me wrong, your boy was a beast at basketball! But I couldn’t step away from dancing for too long, for whatever reason. It was like I fed off the energy from random people getting excited from whatever tricks or moves I pulled out during lunch-time.
Eventually, a few guys, a few grades above me, asked me if I wanted to join them for the talent show. Now, of course, I wanted to. But unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to because my dad just wouldn’t allow it. Keep in mind, I was HIDING my dancing from him at this time in my life.
Fast-forward a little more, and I’m sitting in the crowd watching these guys KILL it at our school’s talent show! Listening to all the other kids screaming and cheering them on. All I could think about was, “that could be me too!” And at this point, this is when I knew I wanted to be a performer!
A couple of years later, I was able to join them. Of course with a little bit of telling my dad that, “I’m actually out late studying.” When I say that I’ll NEVER forget the reactions from my school watching me perform… I literally won’t ever forget it. That is when I really knew, this is what I LOVE to do.
Fast-forward to high school, and I’m still dancing! This time I was watching a break-dancing video online, and decided to introduce the idea to my dad for the first time. I’ll never forget this moment. My dad just gets done with his prayers, and I asked him to walk over to watch a video of some guy doing a windmill with me. Just 12 seconds into the video, I get smacked across the face and pushed off of the chair.
I was told to “stop watching that crap and go study!”
Anytime I’d mention dance after that day, I would get kicked out of the house. Based on his mood. Sometimes, I actually slept on benches because I had nowhere to go. Other times I would go behind a public library or a less-populated building, and dance to the reflection on the windows – Just so I could keep myself awake, & people wouldn’t see me wandering the streets or sleeping outside.
Eventually, I would be allowed back home, but it was always a fight to come back. Always a fight to bite my tongue and tuck my passion for dance on the back-burner. Anytime I was offered some sort of opportunity to better myself within the craft of dance, I had to turn it down. It was hard, but part of me knew it wouldn’t be that way forever. I knew that was just going to be a chapter in my life, & not the entire story.
I decided that it was time to stop dancing for a while and just focus on my grades. I ended up studying hard, graduating with honors, As, Bs, and got accepted into Xavier University. I knew that this wasn’t entirely where I wanted to be, or what I wanted to do career-wise. But I knew it would make my dad proud to be the first child to make it into a university.
A year into college, more problems arose at home that just wasn’t in my control: work, family, car problems, etc. I was forced to drop out. Life was pulling me down at this point. I was lost. And randomly at some small-local, school event. A random stranger walked up to me and said: “You look like you could use this.” He handed me a few wristbands that said “God Can’t Fail” on it. Till this day, I look down and read it anytime I tend to hit a bump in life. And with God, consistency, prayer, and strong-faith on my side… I have miraculously presented my first big opportunity through a spontaneous Facebook message. I was asked if I would be willing to go on an overseas dance tour in late 2015. The gig was three months long, and I would have to be willing to leave that week! With the way my life was going, I didn’t even think twice. I jumped on it!
One month into the tour, I was asked to put in my choreography in-take into the performance by our head choreographer. Turns out he liked the piece so much, that he asked me to assist him on future show-pieces. And then eventually, I was asked to choreograph the entire show’s pieces. I guess you can say that I was creatively-directing this tour, because: I had to come up with the stage themes, light-sequences, wardrobe preferences, monitor video displays, music/editing, and choreography! It was a lot of work, but I loved every minute it took putting it all together!
But, of course life works like a roller coaster.. So when things start to go up, they eventually have to go back down. For me at least…Here is the chapter in my life I call “Hospitals in foreign countries”..
While being in rehearsals, and directing the show… I feel my knee tighten up & I legit collapse to the ground. I wasn’t sure what was happening because I was literally walking fine two seconds before. I rolled up my pants leg to see that my knee had swelled to the size of a softball. I couldn’t even walk! So we rushed to the hospital where I am put in the most difficult situation, of trying to communicate to nurses that speak no English in Asia! They had me draw blood from my knee and physically carry the needle myself, to different doctors all throughout the hospital – all while having to hop on one leg! I was so stressed!
I didn’t know what was wrong with my leg because I didn’t understand a word they were saying, or why I was having to bring the blood to different doctors myself.. It felt so sketched to me, lol. Eventually they put me in a wheel chair while being there, and had me sent back home on crutches to rest for a few weeks. Turns out the injury was just from “working too hard.”
But I was so determined to get back to dancing that I showed up to rehearsal the next day on my crutches! It was so funny, because everyone was like “Go home and rest Ahmed!”
But if you were to ask any other dancer that was there with me, they’d say that I never let the situation stop me throughout the entire healing process.
Eventually, I get back home to America. Work was finally starting to roll in! I got asked to work with artists like One Republic, Jonas Brothers, Dee-1, Channing Tatum, Stalley, Big Freedia, BET Black 365 Awards Show, The Illusionist 2.0 Tour, and so many more! From there, I started jumping into movies as well! Life was finally starting to piece itself together for me!
At this point, my dad seemed to want to make peace and start fresh. But I was skeptical and decided to stay comfortably at my own place off of Frenchmen Street in New Orleans. My dad asked me what my next step would be. And I responded with, “Save for a Los Angeles move on New Years.” He convinced me that moving back in with him and saving my money from paying rent for the move would be the best bet for me. I was convinced and I moved back. Literally one week after being back, he decided to kick me out again. He thought about it and wanted to know when I would go back to school and “leave this dancing thing alone?” I literally pleaded with him that I no longer had a place to go, but that didn’t matter to him. He left me with “it’s not my problem” as our departing words.
There I was, homeless again. This time I was sleeping in my car, at least. I suppose word got back to my cousin eventually, (that I hadn’t spoken to in years) and she drove over two hours down to New Orleans to come to pick me up. Thankfully for her, I was able to sleep under a roof for a bit, while I got back on my feet. Originally, I was planning to make that move to LA. But, I got called for an audition in Atlanta and decided to make a detour. The audition was for Boo! A Madea’s Halloween movie and I booked a part in it! A small role, but nonetheless a huge deal for me at the time. January, 1st 2017 was the exact date. Happy New Year, right!? This was the moment in time, where my career completely shifted. The moment of blessings finally poured in.
From there, one positive thing after another happened for me. All within an 11-month span of time, I was blessed to have worked on various projects and with artists such as:
Step Up: High Water Youtube Red Series, Honey 4 movie, The Darkest Mind movie, Life Of The Party movie, Love Simon movie, Crazy For The Boys Movie, Being Mary Jane TV Show, Sticky Notes movie, Star On Fox TV Show, NAN’s Triumph Awards Show, Stepp Stewart’s Show-N-Tell Off-Broadway Musical, Tony & Tina’s Wedding Tour Off Broadway Show, LG-G6 National Commerical, Walmart commercial, Red Bull commercials, Delta Airlines commercial, WWE Wrestle Mania commercial, ATL Braves Breakers Stadium Dance-Crew, NBA New Orleans Pelicans Swoop-Troop Dancer, The Big Freedia Reality Show, The ILuminate Tour, Musiq SoulChild’s Movie, 2 Chainz, Prince Charlez, Aanysa, Desmond John, LV The Artist, B5’s Bryan Breeding, Kelly Breeding, Dustin Breeding, Lacrea, Its 99 Percent, Ajiona Alexus, QT Jazmine, Tichina Arnold, K-pop/C-pop artist such as Li Yuchun (Chris Lee) , Jackson Wang, X-Nine, Seventeen, Tia Ray, Jolin Cao, Kris Wu, The Rocket Girls, China’s The Coming One TV Show, and so much more!
It’s 2018, and I’m back in Asia again on another tour. This time, one of the biggest jobs of my entire career. I’m working with a numerous amount of K-Pop, and C-Pop stars on multiple tours, performances, and TV Shows. And in almost no time, I was asked to be one of the choreographers for these artists – along with dancing. Sounds amazing right? It actually was, but not everything that glitters is gold.. There were so many projects that I was involved with that it was almost normal for me to be working 16-20 hour days, nearly everyday. Now, I was okay with the work-load.. And honored to be part of so many great opportunities.. But, eventually that amount of work-load can take a toll on a person’s body, health, and well-being. My body was just always tired, I wasn’t getting enough rest, but “work must go on”.. I didn’t want to let myself or anyone else down, so I just always got the job done! Even if that meant 2 hours of sleep in two days at times..
Eventually my body crashed one day after a show, and I was faced with the same problem again while being overseas… “Hospitals in foreign countries…”
I just remember telling my team leader before getting on stage, at the time, that “I can’t move my arms bro..” He told me to take it easy, but once I finished performing
My shoulders & under arms felt like they would rip off if I lifted them. And the pain was like a 10 out of 10! I started getting dizzy, and felt like I was getting the flu. My breathing started slowing down, and I just couldn’t stand up straight. I didn’t know what was happening but I knew it didn’t feel right. It was time to change clothes and I couldn’t even lift my own arms to take off my shirt. I had some of the other dancers help me out, when all of a sudden my leader goes “Don’t freak out!”
I look down to see that one side of my chest was bigger than the other. I could feel the pressure getting tighter and tighter, and the air flow passing less and less. I eventually collapsed. I wake up and I’m on the floor getting cpr from my team leader. They rushed me to the hospital, out of the stadium, where I find myself in the same situation again… “Not knowing what is going on…”
I thought I would die to be honest. I’m so thankful for my team leaders for being there to help me through it all. It turns out I just worked myself to the last straw. Turns out all of our bodies can actually do that, if you work as much as I did, and sleep as little as I had. But here I am… laying in the hospital bed barely able to breathe, or move… telling my leader: “I’m still doing the Jackson Wang show tomorrow!” HAHA!
I was so heart-broken when he told me I couldn’t do it. I was so determined to convince him, but that didn’t happen. I knew I was a soldier and I probably could… but realistically I was just too passionate. Lol
I learned that our bodies carry a natural creatine level number of 100-400 throughout our normal daily activities. My creatine level was at 27000. Yes… Twenty-seven THOUSAND! No, I never took ANY creatine. It was all from working my body to the last ounce it could go.. Could never tell me I’m not passionate, lol!
And for the next two months I had to rest, eat healthy, drink lots of water, and get blood test every single day. Now, I was suppose to “rest” for two months… But, I took it upon myself to show back up to rehearsals THAT week, HAHA. Sorry, not sorry.. But I needed to dance! It was a tough time in my life, a major obstacle, but I got through it. I’m thankful for that experience because it really made me look at life a lot different!
But through all the trials and errors, life continues to happen. It is now 2019 and after a few years of distancing myself from the relationship, I had with my dad, to focus on developing my career. Another shift was made this year. I got the news that my dad is now suffering through later stages of a rare kind of Leukemia. And although we may have had a rough back-story, I know that he is still my Dad at the end of the day – And I love him because hate is not the way! As much suffering as I had went through myself… It hurts me to see him going through even more.
At the time of discovering the news, I was presented with the opportunity to continue my career with an opportunity to tour other countries; places such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UK. But I was pressed between the decision of continuing what was best for my career or doing what was right. In the end, I decided that doing what was right, was the best thing for me. And that was being in the states to be closer to him. So I’ve shifted my focus to doing more teaching, than traveling at the moment – Although I hope to still be able to in the future.
This ordeal has definitely taken a toll on my emotions, and physical well-being. I found myself trapped in a dark, head-space and not wanting to dance for a while. But I’ve discovered that there is still some positive light that has come from it. Our relationship has gotten better, along with the rest of the family. He is no longer able to function normally or work. So the entire family has come together to try our best to help. Its been tough..
But, he is proud of my accomplishments and has finally accepted what I love doing for a living. I ask that you all send any help, love, prayers, and your support to him!
Currently, I am teaching at multiple industry-based studios around Georgia: Such as ATLA Space 2, Anthony Burrell’s Center for Dance, Groove2Musik Studios, and Xcel Studios! I teach a class titled, “All-Styles and Extra Butter!” This class focuses on educating students in multiple styles of dance while pulling out everyone’s individual flavor! I am also offering an extension of my classes to studios across the country this year, for exclusive workshop-intensives! Any studios interested are more than welcome to contact me directly!
Along with the classes, I am also developing and launching a new program next month catering to dancers wanting to gain more knowledge for stage performances and working with artists! I have a big show coming up next month in Tennessee, and I am currently in the process of filming a movie for the next two months!
There is a lot happening all at once, but I will never let a little bit of extra stress stop me from prospering!
I plan on continuing my journey, and one day creative-directing my own production that can be seen all over the world. I want to convey messages that help make a change in the community, and prove that anything is possible with love, consistency, and faith!
I hope you can support my journey, by following it on all social media platforms at @Ahmeducation & www.ahmeducation.com.
(If you want to help me raise money for my Dad’s journey through leukemia & recovery, copy & paste link below) :
Love, Blessings, and Faith.
God Can’t Fail.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have had so many obstacles & challenges along this journey!
I’ve had to run hours in the rain to some auditions due to not having a vehicle, funds, or a support system – At the time! This was well before Uber was a thing. I’ve ended up homeless and hungry, having to live the “starving artist” life. Never knowing when our next job or paycheck will be. I’ve heard “No” more times in my career, than “Yes.”
I’ve had to sacrifice some friend and family relationships just to keep on the right track to making dance my full-time career. I’ve had to miss out on years of fun with friends, group vacations, holidays, new movies, birthdays, weddings, and even sleep just to make sure I stayed in & completed necessary work for submissions, classes, and any project that would help push my career forward! I had to pay so many dues, by doing so many things for free in the beginning. While still having to find a way to pay bills. I use to keep myself awake for days just to push out my work-content online to each individual Facebook friend. Just to get my name out there! I’ve had to turn down so many major opportunities due to date conflicts, or even personal life conflicts. Which is never easy to handle, when spending an entire life fighting for those kinds of opportunities. Being and getting ill overseas, injured, and still fighting through every obstacle to continue performing at my best! And on top of everything. Fighting the battle of my father having cancer, and balancing my emotions with that & dance. None of this is easy. But, none of it would be worth it if it was easy.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Ahmeducation – what should we know?
Ahmeducation.
In other words, “Education with Ahmed.” 🙂
I specialize in passing on knowledge that I’ve learned along the way in my professional career. I share the knowledge that helps better other’s lifestyles, dance careers, and dance-skills! I also dig deeper by creating visuals, putting together show packages for the artist, live performances, television choreography, and teaching a variety of dance styles wherever a studio welcomes my craft..! And of course, being a dancer myself!
I’m most proud of how far my career has gone as a personal brand. Being able to travel to other countries and teach a variety of students that are hungry to learn. Along with some of the most amazing opportunities dancing for Artist, that don’t even speak the same language as me. Has been some of the most unforgettable moments in my career, that makes me proud of the knowledge I have acquired to share today. I believe my story sets me apart, entirely. Some people are acquired into an easier lifestyle, & some people have to seriously fight for even a spec of light. I believe my fight has set me apart, internally, and so in any setting, I can show real love within any room I walk into. Dance is one language that we can all speak, but my story is not something we can all understand – Unless you are living it. I am actually blessed.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
God First of course! But if I had to name some of the people I would be thankful for… I would include:
Kiki Ely, Sakinah LeStage, Sean Bankhead, Jamaica Craft, Brandon Jones, Marc Marvelous, Kelly Connolly, Joshua Smith, Bubba Carr, Tamika Jett, Groove2Musik, ILuminate Crew, Infinite Dance Group, LED Experience, My Family, and Xcel Talent Agency!
Some being mentors, some being choreographers that have presented me opportunities to work as a dancer, and some just being a complete bridge to my dreams. Each one has played an important role in my career.
So thank you!
Pricing:
- Class prices can be discussed with each individual studio! Starting at just $10!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ahmeducation.com
- Email: Ahmeducation@yahoo.com
- Instagram: Instagram: @Ahmeducation
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ahmeducation/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ahmeducationtv
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
