Same vision, twice the talent, endless baddie energy

Anna and Rachel Melendres have been dancing since they were four years old. Twenty-one years later, they've competed at national conventions, trained at a rigorous commercial dance conservatory, built a heels and jazz funk brand that went viral on social media, performed at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, and landed choreography credits with the Lakers. They did most of it together – as twins, as sisters, as creative partners who are honest enough with each other to say when something isn't working and aligned enough to know when it is.

"This is not a class where you go home and check how perfect you look on video. This is about training. This is about growing. If you fail and mess up – that means you're growing. That's exactly why you came."

– Anna Melendres

What they've built under the name The Melendres Twins isn't just a teaching brand. It's a community – one that keeps growing because Anna and Rachel have been consistent, specific, and completely themselves from the start. Their music choices are theirs. Their style is theirs. And the baddies keep coming back.

The Journey: From Competitive Dance to the Commercial World

Anna and Rachel started competing as young children, training in jazz, tap, and ballet – the traditional competitive dance path. By the time they were ready to pursue dance seriously, they auditioned for OCSA, a performing arts high school where they trained in a commercial dance conservatory that ran 8-5 four days a week.

Hip hop and commercial styles came later, and the twins had to learn how to pick up choreography at a different pace, in a different style, with a different energy than anything they'd trained in before. But the foundation held. The ballet training that had felt so far from the commercial world turned out to be exactly what made them exceptional in heels. "Pointe shoes helped us build that strength," Rachel says.

At 17, they got signed – first with Clear Talent Group, which brought TV and film opportunities, and eventually with MSA agency where they continue to dance in music viteos, live performances, as well as choreography jobs. The decision to go industry instead of college for dance was a real one. "Senior year was definitely the time to explore what's next for us," Anna says. "We were brand new. We didn't know a lot of people out here. We didn't have an agent. But as soon as one of them stuck with us, we knew this was the career path."

The Viral Video That Changed Everything

Heels came into the picture around 16, first in Orange County classes and then in LA. The twins trained under choreographers they deeply admired Larke Hasstedt, Sienna Lyons, Cat Rendic – and absorbed not just the style but the technique behind it. "Heels technique isn't practiced enough," Rachel says. "We try to preach that in our classes. It teaches you how to support yourself in a heel, where your weight needs to be, how to properly walk, and how to hold yourself in a bevel correctly." They will never teach a heels class without a proper warm-up and technique drills.

When they started teaching, it happened organically – a substitute request here, a friend of a friend there. They said yes, kept showing up, and let the consistency do the work. "It didn't matter how many bodies were in the room," Anna says. "We just knew we wanted to keep teaching because we love to teach."

Then the 50 Cent combo happened. One piece, posted online, went viral on TikTok at the start of last summer. "We just didn't know that one combo would go so far," Rachel says. "To this day people are still learning it and sharing it from all over the world." That moment was the shift – people started seeing them not just as dancers but as choreographers with a point of view. A specific sound. An identity.

That identity is rooted in music. The twins don't chase whatever's dropping this week – they dig into the early 2000s, find overlooked sections of songs, choreograph to the bridge instead of the chorus, and make choices that feel visceral rather than obvious. "We go to the musicality first, not the lyrics," Anna says. "We're big counters. We want to know exactly what count that bass lands on." That specificity is what makes their pieces feel different, and it's what keeps their community coming back.

"We don't go for the next album that drops. We like to bring back the 2000s era. We won't be the first to use the obvious choice – we'd rather find the part of the song nobody pays attention to."

– Rachel Melendres

What It's Like to Build a Brand as Twins

Working as twins in the dance industry comes with its own set of dynamics – and Anna and Rachel have learned to navigate all of them. In audition rooms, they make a choice: do they walk in as the twins, or as Anna and Rachel individually? Sometimes they split up, take different hair colors, present as sisters rather than twins, and open different doors. Sometimes the fact that they're identical is exactly the asset a job needs – a built-in bookend, same height, same energy, mirrored presence on either side of an artist. "Having your sister by your side, someone who looks like you, has the same height... that has been very beneficial," Rachel says.

In the creative process, their honesty with each other is the whole thing. "We're very honest and open communicators," Anna says. "If we didn't have that, it wouldn't work." When they choreograph, music comes first – they won't move forward on a song unless both of them feel it. They work in front of a mirror, bring in skeleton crew dancers they trust, and let the piece build on the spot. "When I confine my time and my space to a group of dancers I trust, I'm able to produce on the spot. That's been our go-to method."

What Students Take Away

Anna and Rachel are clear about what their classes are and aren't. They're not a place to get the perfect Instagram video. They're not a rehearsal. They're a training environment – which means making mistakes is not only allowed, it's the point. "If you fail and mess up, that means you're growing," Anna says. "That's exactly why you came." When she sees a student mess up and recover, she watches them more, not less. That recovery – that professional reflex – is what class is for.

Beyond the technique and the choreography, there's the culture they've built around the music. Students flood their DMs asking what song is coming next. The twins' answer is always the same: come and find out. "We want to establish that trust," Rachel says. "It doesn't matter what song we teach – just know you're going to dance to a fire song." That trust, built over years of consistently great music choices, is what turned class regulars into a community. And that community has a name now: baddies. It stuck. It fits. "We started saying baddies in our brand and it just came naturally," Anna says. "A lot of people picked up on it."

Private Lessons on Werk: One Platform, Less DMs

Before Werk, booking private lessons meant a flood of Instagram DMs, manual back-and-forth, and a scheduling process that ate up time neither of them had. Now their availability lives on their Werk profile. Students find it, book it, show up.

"I've actually gotten less messages through Instagram because it's that easy. People know exactly how to find it. They go on my profile, they see "Book a private with Anna, Book a private with Rachel" and they choose."

– Anna Melendres

The Werkspace has become their home base for those private sessions – and every student who walks through the door has the same reaction. "They come in and they're like – whoa, there's lighting in here, I love this sign, there's couches," Rachel says. "Always positive feedback."

The space feels personal, private, theirs. Not a studio with multiple rooms and strangers in the hallway. A space that belongs to the session.

Their first Werk pop-up class was a milestone – the first time they held their own space, gathered their own community in one room, and ran the whole thing on Werk, on their own terms. The link was in their bio. Students clicked, booked, showed up.

"Using Werk made it easy – just a click of a button and they could find us, find our upcoming classes, and be there."

– Rachel Melendres

What's Next: Merch, K-Pop, and More

The Melendres Twins are in an expansive moment. On the choreography side, they've taken on a K-pop girl group called Five Alive,. an Orange County girl group creating full-song dance visuals. It's been a challenge and a creative stretch. "It is a lot of choreography – the entire song, not just a section," Anna says. "But with our experience working with K-pop in LA, we've been able to bring our own approach to it." The first music video is coming!

Anna and Rachel have been in this industry since they were four years old. They've been in LA since they were seventeen. The 50 Cent moment, the FIFA stage, the Lakers halftime show, the baddies filling their classes every week – none of it happened overnight.

"We've been here since 2017," Rachel says. "But it took until now for people to really trust us and see us in that way." Now they're seen as dancers, teachers, and choreographers. And they're just getting started.

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Anna and Rachel are two of thousands of dancers and creators building their businesses as Werk Pro Members.

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