Born and brought up in Brooklyn, but inhabiting in New York, the Jikaria sisters trio – Omika, Rishika, and Aashika, never forgot their roots to the Gujarati culture, from where their parents emigrated in the 1980s. Altogether, living in a foreign country, these sisters have gained enough exposure to diverse cultures and developed a global perspective.
Popularly known as the “Jikaria Sisters” for their eye-catching dance moves and unique content on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. In conversation with LifeBeyondNumbers, they give us a sneak peek into their life and the journey so far.
Say Hello to The Trio
Since the prelude, their parents encouraged them to prioritize academics, while simultaneously exploring the arts, specifically dance. Each of them began training in classical Russian ballet at the age of three, in Brooklyn.
Soon after, to keep the ball rolling, they began training in other dance styles as well, including Bharatnatyam, Ballroom, Jazz, and Contemporary. Since high school, each of them has learned different dance styles.
Omika was the eldest of the trio and a varsity cheerleader in high school. Post-college, she trained as a semi-professional salsa dancer. Her favorite dance style is Salsa.
Rishika, the middle sister, continued her dance training as a varsity cheerleader in high school and continued to dance in college. Her favorite dance style is Bhangra.
Aashika, the youngest sister of the pack, trained heavily in Horton and Graham, and she continues to dance on Georgia Tech’s collegiate level dance team, Goldrush. Her favorite dance style is Contemporary.
The Rise of Jikaria Sisters
“When we first came home at the end of March, Aashika was the only one who had a TikTok account. She showed us a dance trend to the song “Ayy Ladies” and convinced us to make a video with her”. So, the trio made their first video and posted it on March 23rd, before the account was even called ‘Jikaria Sisters’.
After posting that video, all three of them started coming across different TikTok trends that fit their favorite dance styles. Then, they decided to post each of those videos (Rishika posted a Bhangra video, Omi posted a Salsa video, and Aashika posted a HipHop video).
On 7th April, two weeks post their first video, they uploaded another video to the First Move, Last Move challenge, where they combined different dance styles. “Most people had been doing the challenge as duos, so people seemed to enjoy watching a trio do the trend” expresses the sisters.
On 10th April, they again posted a rendition of the ‘“Oh Na Na” challenge, where they added Dandiya to the footwork challenge (inspired by BFunk). “People enjoyed the Gujju twist on the challenge and we received so much love and support on the video” claims the trio.
The team continued posting and by April 19th they had 12K followers. On April 29th, they posted the Kamariya dance, and within a week, it became a TikTok trend. Thousands of people around the world began recreating the choreography. Today, they have almost 600K followers and their dance family has grown super quick.
After garnering lakhs of followers in a short span, the sisters felt grateful for gaining an intermix community that appreciates dance and South Asian culture. Adding to it, the sisters also shared their experiences saying, “We have gained so many different opportunities that have opened several doors for us, including working with top designers, like Anita Dongre. We are excited to see what is to come in the following years”.
Post the TikTok ban in India, there isn’t any negative impact on the followers’ count as well. Instead, the sisters focused more on building their content on Instagram and YouTube to keep their followers intact. “We have multiple videos, following the ban, that have reached over 1M views, so we are grateful for the supporters who supported us on TikTok” smiles the sisters.
Glorifying the South Asian Cult
By staying in a different country, the sisters still wear that Indian culture in their dance moves. As a result, they combined both the Indian and American identities, while staying true to the most authentic essence of it.
Speaking about cultural representation, the sisters said, “Growing up, we felt as if our Indian and American identities were mutually exclusive; we did not think that both identities could co-exist. It was easy to feel as if engaging with our Indian identity made us less American and vice versa. This is mainly due to limited representation of South Asian Americans in mainstream media and positions of societal influence”.
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The Jikaria sisters also proclaimed that “we think of ourselves as Indian-American, but we care about doing justice to the full range of our identity. Plus, we do not have a specific theme for our content. Our goal is to have fun while making videos and make sure we are continuing to strengthen our sister bond”.
They also met other South Asian Americans during their college days and became comfier of their unique class and mixed identity. Now, they seek to bring content related to their identity. These young ladies inspire young South Asian Americans and serve as examples of people who embrace their hyphenated identity.
To shed some light on their identity, the sisters exemplified saying, “Former Miss America, Nina Davuluri, recently launched the #SeeMyComplexion campaign. We feel inspired by her advocacy work where she seeks to bring awareness about colorism in the South Asian community”.
Moving forward, the sisters said, “there is such a large, often overlooked, the community of South Asian creatives on TikTok. And we are so proud to be a part of that.” It’s empowering to normalize dancing to South Asian songs on a platform where we don’t see that much. Also, they will soon incorporate as many dance styles and songs as they can into their content, including new dance styles to new songs.
Collabs, Music, Moments
Recently, they partnered with Chhoti Si Asha, which works for the economic empowerment of women in Chandigarh, India. They ran a donation-based dance workshop for The Bail Project to support the people in need of bail. During the 2020 US presidential election, they also conducted voter outreach and get-out-the-vote efforts to mobilize the South Asian diaspora vote.
They also shared some special moments that exhilarate them. “We have loved working on music launches, fashion collaborations with other influencers, and being a part of various arts festivals. It’s also always exciting to see our work featured in prominent news sources and media highlights. We were also recognized as the 50 Inspiring South Asian Influencers and 10 Rising Gen-Z Stars by PopSugar,” said the sisters.
Future plans
Their primary goal is to keep their dance family growing. While discussing further plans about their dance, the trio sisters said, “we have some exciting things coming soon and are looking forward to releasing their new content in the fall”. However, their long-term goal is to go on a world tour and meet all the supporters, as they are keeping a tap on the list of cities they hope to visit.
With a smile, they concluded with a thank you note and a tender message to all the dancers out there – “we are incredibly grateful that so many people across the world resonate with our dances and message of spreading joy through dance during these turbulent and tough times. Keep dancing and spreading positivity through dance”.