Today we’d like to introduce you to Kentrell Collins.
Hi Kentrell, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up in Mobile, AL., isn’t easy. It’s not a place where it’s ok for “guys” to be themselves and do what it is that they love without any judgement. At the very young age of eight, I used to remember going to the Mardi Gras parades and looking at the girls in front of the marching bands and saying, “I want to do that!” I was so fascinated by what I was seeing, so much to the point my female cousins and I used to “play parade” at my grandmother’s house. During that time, we didn’t have Bluetooth or portable speakers, so my male cousins use to get creative and find buckets to use as drums in the neighborhood and found sticks to use as drumsticks to create our “music”. Imagine this, all you see is Kentrell in the front pretending to be captain and leading my female cousins as if we were our own team marching down the street in a parade. Fast forward to high school; after years of dancing alone in the bathroom with no one watching, I was able to finally start expressing myself. I was a part of the marching band, and that was the closest thing I could get to dancing during halftime on the field. My sophomore year in high school I was asked to start teaching the dance team, in which I thoroughly enjoyed doing.
After a year of teaching, I wanted to be a part of the team so bad that I asked to audition. To my surprise, boys weren’t allowed to be a part of the dance teams at high schools, according to the school board (that’s Alabama for you… although it was never written in the rule books). I continued to help the girls out my junior year and my senior year. I had enough of marching band and being treated like my talents weren’t important enough to be seen by the world in the way that I wanted them to be seen. So, its 2004, my senior year in high school and I auditioned for Moving Images Dance Company at a separate high school and made it. I was extremely proud of myself and I was the only student in the entire county able to get approved from the school board to have classes at two separate schools at the same time.
Taking dance on a professional level boosted my professional career as a dancer. I quit the marching band my senior year because I was told by the band director that I had to choose between dancing or band, so I chose dance. Because boys weren’t allowed to be a part of dance teams in high school, I decided to rebel against the school system and join a group of friends and we started dancing in the stands at the games and being our authentic selves. However, the group was dancing years before I came along, I just wanted to be able to finally do something that I loved doing. The name of our group was “J-Settes of Mobile/T.H.E.M.” After working extremely hard. I became captain right before graduating high school. That journey came to a brief halt for 2.5 years after I graduated high school in 2005 to go active duty in the United States Army. I was stationed in Germany, and it was ok, but it wasn’t the life for me. To my surprise, basic training was one of the best times of my life.
After getting out of the army, I decided to pick back up with my dancing skills. I waited a year, then decided to attend Alabama State University to study Business Management. While at ASU, I auditioned for the Eclectic Dance Company and made it as well. I was so happy again that I was able to make something yet again dealing with dance. After ASU, I moved back home and continued dancing to take on my role as captain. In 2011, the group “J-Settes of Mobile/T.H.E.M.” name was changed. I decided to change the name to the worldly known “Prancing Elites”. We continued dancing through the years. June 18, 2013; Prancing Elites became a household name after going viral because Shaquille O’neal saw a video of us dancing at a basketball game and tweeted it with the caption, “These Dudes Be Jammin”. Shortly after going viral, many offers to perform on national television came to the forefront, including being offered our very own reality television series by Oxygen Network.
Prancing Elites didn’t start the majorette style dancing, but we definitely made our mark on the world and opened many doors for other male dancers to be comfortable with themselves to dance in public. Many people get it confused and ask questions or create their own narratives about our story. Our story is just that, OURS. We never took credit away from the ones that came before us, but we will never get the credit from our peers for opening up the minds of millions of people across the world. Doing what we did allow people to know and understand that this style of dance is ok to be done by males and females. Being approached for a television show, we were asked about OUR story and what made US do the things the way that WE did them. It’s such a shame that people took our story as us trying to “not put others on” or not include the “male majorette community”. It’s hard to do that when some people in that same community makes fun of you for what you wear, how you dress, your weight, how you look, giving your group nicknames, etc.
The same group of people wanting support from us was the same group of people not willing to accept us for who we were. The same things we felt from the “heterosexual” people in the world, was the same thing we felt from our own LGBT community, DISCRIMINATION. We felt that we didn’t have a lane to be in, so we decided to create our owns. Many people are always asking how we got a show, I always say by the grace of God, hard work and determination. Prancing Elites never sat out to be on TV; we just continued to stay true to who we were and was blessed to be approached with the opportunity. For that, I will forever be thankful. Being in the spotlight comes with many things, in order to maintain, you must have tough skin. Not only as a black man we have to worry about police brutality, but we also have to worry about homophobic people. Often times we have to continue looking over our shoulders, worried if the people that are supposed to protect us are there to really do us harm… same goes for homophobic individuals. Nevertheless, it’s a humbling feeling when celebrities that you’ve watched your entire life on tv recognize you and are super fans of your work. I am forever humbled by the position God has placed me in. Having the opportunity to be on television has allowed me to expand my brand into many things, meet new people, make money while doing it and loving every minute of it.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
This road hasn’t been an easy one. It’s a lot of things I’ve gone through from losing friends, being cheated on in relationships, being evicted for chasing dreams, losing cars, etc. Starting the journey with Prancing Elites was a tough one. For starters, we didn’t have the luxury of having a studio back then to practice. No matter if it was rain, sleet, snow, or heat, we were outside practicing in parking lots. Story time; one night, while practicing, I say it was maybe 2 am, a random car was circling the parking lot. After noticing the car for the third time, they drove to the corner, pulled a gun and started shooting in the air to scare us away. We were terrified for our lives, so we immediately started running.
After maybe 20 minutes, we decided to go back to finish rehearsals. We had a huge performance the following day, so we were risking our lives at this point just to dance. Another incident; we were dancing at a football game in the stadium and the police came over to us and said, “It’s a fire hazard for you guys to be dancing. If you get up and dance again, we will have to escort you out”. We are all looking at each other at this point like what… Mind you the females are right across the field in the stands dancing doing the exact same things, but no police went over to them. Of course, us being us, I decided for us to continue dancing anyways, because at this point you were discriminating against us for no reason. I have stories for days of the mistreatment we’ve endured on this journey. The important take away from it all is that we CONTINUED ON. We took the negative comments from the world and the mistreatment given and fueled it to make something great. So we’ve inspired millions of people along the way and still doing it today, to be their authentic selves and to live life unapologetically.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
With the business skills I received from college and the discipline I received from the United States Army, I was able to utilize that to create a living for myself. Being the captain and founder of the Prancing Elites has afforded me to not have to clock in anywhere since 2013. We are in 2021, and I am still able to live comfortably because of my talents. Not only are the Prancing Elites still being booked to perform places, I decided to use my platform to create an event to give back to the community of younger dancers (male and female) wanting to attend HBCUs called the HBCU Dance Affair. I saw that there was a need for dancers to get a feel for getting an experience to be an HBCU dancer for a day. The purpose of my event was to give them an opportunity to learn and witness dancers from the top HBCU dance lines to date. Instead of them watching from YouTube, I gave them an up-close experience by putting all these HBCU dancers in one room and giving them an extensive dance workshop.
Due to COVID-19, we had to take a break for 2020. With new rules set in place by the CDC (Center for Disease Control), and the government, we will be able to pick back up in 2021 with the event. Dance will forever hold a place in my heart, so with that being said, I’ve recently moved to Atlanta, GA.; and opened my very own 5,500 square feet dance studio in east Atlanta. The studio is called Studio 705. My studio offers; hip hop, jazz, heels, contemporary, improvisation, professional industry classes and more. Also, I have a content/creative space inside the studio as well where photographers/videographers/other creatives can rent the space to create content and have private events. Next, I also have another side to my building (Luxe 705) that I’m renting out to small businesses and entrepreneurs, think of it as a co-working space. It’s six office suites that barbers, makeup artists, massage therapists, fashion designers, etc., can get away to do work in their own area.
Lastly, my new baby, Kentrell Cosmetics. Kentrell Cosmetics is my very own cosmetic line that I created to give everyone an opportunity to feel good and understand that makeup doesn’t define you, but just enhance the beauty that you already have. While I don’t consider myself as a professional makeup artist, I do know how to do makeup on myself and others. I wouldn’t call myself a pro just yet, but with anything else I do, practice makes perfect and that will be something else I can add to my resume. With the line, we currently have just makeup products, but summer 2021, we will be releasing our skincare products. So please be on the lookout for the launch of that. I haven’t had an easy road taking on any of these tasks, but as a young black man who’s trying to secure his future, I CAN’T STOP. With any of these tasks, I always say, “Nothing in life beats a fail than a try!” So, if any of my businesses fail, God forbid, I can at least say I tried with no regrets. That’s not going to happen because I’ve come too far to give up. To be an entrepreneur, it’s all about consistency, determination, hard work, and dedication. Just because someone else is selling more things than you at the time, that doesn’t mean give up, that only means you need to go back into the lab and come up with other solutions to get you brand out there. No one will rep your brand as hard as you. Keep Going!!!!
Can you talk about how you think about risk?
With knowing Kentrell, you know that I am a huge risk taker. Entrepreneurship is all about taking risks. With planning events for my companies, I always end up spending my own money to make it happen. From having dance competitions to dance workshops, I am always out thousands of dollars. I am always ok with it in the end as long as I put on a successful event. God will continue to bless me with other opportunities to make money in other ways. A major risk I took was moving to Atlanta. During August 2019, I lost a lot of friends to unnecessary drama. I watched as I was belittled and humiliated all over social media. Videos of private and personal conversations being posted on the internet to make humiliate me more. These were friends that I trusted with a lot of personal things, even to the point of some staying in my house for months. With my connections and everyone’s talent, many things were lined up for the future, but I cut a lot of those things shorts because of the blatant negligence displayed. Friends!! How many of us have them??? When all those things happened, I only came to Atlanta to get a way for a few weeks to clear my mind.
During that month, my father’s cancer condition was getting worst. September 26, 2019, my father passed away from prostate cancer. So not only was I dealing with the loss of imitation friends but having to bury a parent was the hardest time of my life. I was in a very dark place at that time, I didn’t know whether I was going or coming. So, I decided to come back to Atlanta and try to start a new life here. From October 2019 to March 2020, I was homeless. I was sleeping in my car for nearly six months before being able to save enough money to get into my own place and live comfortably. I didn’t have a regular “job” per se, so I decided to be a Lyft driver. It wasn’t ideal, but it did give me an opportunity to meet a lot of people and kept my mind occupied. Being a rideshare driver allows you to also create your own work hours and make as much or as less money as you’d like with no penalty. During that time of not having a place to stay, I just remembered, I must keep going. I was able to reflect on a lot of things in life and able to get a clear vision of what I wanted my future to look like and what I was never going to tolerate from people moving forward.
My family didn’t know where I was living or had a clue of what I was going through as far as living arrangements. Praying every day and night to God kept me grounded. My faith is what kept me going. I am at an age in life where I can’t just run back home every time things get tough. As a grown man, you must figure things out on your own. If God brings you to it, he will surely bring you through it. March 15, 2020, I officially because a resident of Atlanta, GA., and it’s been up ever since, all thank that the mighty power. To say that I went through being homeless to now having my own apartment in Atlanta, in addition to 5,500 square feet building where I am able to conduct all my businesses under one roof, but also having my own apartment in Los Angeles, CA. Yes, September 29, 2020, I became a resident of California as well. God has truly been good to me. In life these risks were all apart of God’s plan. I asked him to guide my footsteps and I’ve just followed through. I say to anyone out there trying to make it, or anyone that’s ready to give up, just know somebody else is always going through something much worst. You don’t write your story, God does.
Contact Info:
- Email: customerservice@kentrellcosmetics.com
- Website: www.kentrellcosmetics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kentrellcosmetics
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pekentrell
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/pekentrell
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ktrell705
- Other: pekentrell@gmail.com
Image Credits:
Keilan Scott / Andrew Neish / CameronPerry / ShawnHanna /
