Finding Yourself All Over Again

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Alice Vega

Hey everyone!! Happy Wednesday!

It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you! But that was entirely my fault. I went into hustle mode and I didn’t exactly have time to sit down and blog about it. But what’s done is done and here I am! Sorry I neglected you, my internet friends. I missed you and I definitely didn’t forget about you.

So in case you don’t know, I actually have interests outside of my Geek Girl persona. (SAY WHAAT?!) I know, right? Who does that? Well, actually, a lot of people do. And I say it’s time we start acknowledging that it’s NORMAL to be a well rounded person.

I’ve said it multiple times in this blog, but I’ll say it again. I love to dance. I started dancing when I was 12-years-old. My dad was a ballroom dance instructor and he put my sister and I in classes. We took the generic studio classes – ballet, jazz, tap, hip hop. At first I was trying to rebel against the dance life because most of my family did it and I wanted to be different. But in jr. high when I joined the dance team, I realized dance was a passion of mine.

I continued to dance all throughout high school and during my freshman year of college. But after that, I stopped. It was sad. Life got in the way and I couldn’t find time to take class anymore. Plus, the SoCal dance scene was absolute craziness. It was this whole world I’ve never seen and it was intimidating as fck. These hip hop dancers were incredible to watch and I just felt like I wasn’t good enough to train with them. I also felt insignificant because I never danced on a team before. I was just that lone, solo dancer that watched from afar… hoping and wishing someday that can be me…

Okay. I’m totally exaggerating. But my point is I then began to admire the dance community from a distance rather than be in it.

That all changed about 2 months ago when I applied to be a staff for Boogiezone.

Interviewing Ellen Kim from Movement Lifestyle

Boogiezone is this wonderful dance community that bridges the industry and community together to train under one roof. Not only does it provide a healthy environment to learn in, it provides numerous opportunities to grow and challenge yourself.

I got an email that they were hiring staff for different locations and I decided, why the hell not. I was looking for an internship and this felt like the right one. To my surprise, I got an email from the brainchild himself, Elm, a day later asking for a phone interview. And it’s all history from there…

Erm.. well… 2 months of history. Whatever, don’t judge me.

This experience so far has been amazing. I can’t even find the words to describe how confident I feel again. This past weekend was our summer intensive, Boogiezone University. It was 3 days of hard fcking WORK! We had classes all day and as staff, it was our job to pump up the classes and make sure the choreographer’s and students’ experience was one they wouldn’t forget.

Anthony Lee, Culture Shock LA Director

My primary job all weekend was to interview the choreographers. Now, I’m no stranger to interviewing. We do it every week for community class. But we had about 50 instructors altogether. I did about 85% of those interviews. I suck at math, but you can pretty much get the idea that I conducted a bunch of interviews back to back.

It was hard, but I felt like I finally mattered.

Di Moon Zhang from I.aM.Me, ABDC’s Season 6 Champions

Does that make sense? Sit tight, I’m about to get all philosophical up in here.

For the past year, I was in a rut. I felt like a failure, I felt like I couldn’t make anyone happy or proud, I felt like I had nobody by my side and it was terrible. I felt like no matter what I did, it was and will always be wrong.

Now I know what you’re thinking. This mentality is whack. First of all… hell yeah it is! Second of all, I went through this rut because of the people I was surrounded by. You know that saying that if you surround yourself with positive people who believe in you, you will always do well? Well it was exactly the opposite. I surrounded myself with people who doubted me and never believed that I could accomplish anything. I knew I had to take a stand and make a change if I wanted to be happy again.

Now this is gonna get super corny but Boogiezone is the reason I’m back on my feet. There’s other factors too, but Boogiezone is a big factor. Just so you know, I entered this journey alone but I met so many wonderful people that I can consider dear friends of mine. I never would have imagined myself interviewing some of my favorite choreographers, let alone meeting them or taking their class. I am so incredibly grateful and blessed to have been able to do this. Seriously, thank you Elm for everything. Thank you for believing in me and thank you for allowing me to wreck havoc on your Youtube channel. Shit’s about to get real loud up in here.

Arnel Calvario, Kaba Modern Founder

I could go on and on about what Boogiezone means to me, but I’ll tie it back to one of my many “Awesome Advice” posts. If you’re unhappy, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Please. We only have so much time to live on this earth. We can’t be wasting days just feeling sorry for ourselves. If you’re in a shitty job, if you’re in a shitty relationship, if you have shitty friends, make that change and make the choice to be happy today. There will always be outside factors you can’t control, but YOU have the power to change everything. You have the power to change your attitude. You have the power to change your life.

So do it. I encourage you. You’ll be so much happier, I promise.

I titled this post “Finding Yourself All Over Again” because I felt like I lost myself when I was in that rut. My daily routine was all mechanic and I was just going through the motions. I lost my purpose. But I found it again and I couldn’t be happier.

And I’m just happy that people like Ellen Kim or Arnel Calvario noticed that. I really must be doing something good in my life!

So let’s all find our purpose again. Let’s find ourselves through this hot mess we call life.

-Ally

Day 9: Something You’re Proud of in the Past Few Days

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Alice Vega

Hey guys! Happy Fridaayyy!

Ok, so I already fcked up. I forgot to post this yesterday. *GASP!* OKAY it was bound to happen, all right? I was trying really hard to be on top of it, but I slipped a little. Shit happens.

Well actually I was just sleeping all day and then I had to go host a class at Boogiezone and then by the time I got home, I just didn’t do it. Oops. My sleep schedule is all sorts of fcked up if you haven’t noticed.

Anyways, onto the challenge. There’s actually quite a couple things that I’m proud that I’ve accomplished in the past couple days. But I’m going to choose one that I haven’t really spoken extensively about on my blog yet. I’m really proud of my progress with my dance training.

Photo from deviantart.com

(You’d be surprised of the random shit you find on google images…)

As I’ve said, I’m really proud of my progress with my dancing. I started dancing when I was around 13-years-old. That was the year I joined the dance team at my junior high. At first, I was really reluctant because I come from a family of dancers. Most of my aunts from my dad’s side all have danced, my dad is actually a former ballroom dance instructor, and my older sister was at her prime with dancing during this time. I wanted to be different so I thought I should join sports to stand out.

But then I realized I sucked at most of them… 😦

But to my own surprise, I discovered I was good at dancing! Yay! So I decided to just embrace it and make it my own. You know what it’s like being a teenager and not knowing where you fit in. Yeah, that feeling sucked, so I just took this opportunity to shine.

I continued dancing all throughout high school. I would take classes at different studios and I eventually joined the JV cheer team my sophomore year to get out of doing PE. Let me just put this out there… I really, really, strongly disliked it. Cheer and dance are like… distant cousins. They’re DIFFERENT. I hate the whole sharp angle shit and throwing people in the air. I was the flyer since I’m a short Asian girl and I was terrified half the time. I almost sprained my ankle doing a stunt. Yeah… my happy place was at a dance studio with mirrors and a bar and doing across the floor. Not in a grass field with 20 other screaming girls doing back flips.

Luckily, that only lasted a year because for my junior and senior years, I joined the varsity song team. Song was literally MY LIFE. My pride and joy. I absolutely loved it. For those of you who don’t know what a songleader is, a song team is basically a dance team with pom poms. We typically do a lot of jazz and hip hop routines. We do cheer with the other cheerleaders, but we’re not doing stunts or flips like they are. You’ll see song teams do kicklines (like the Rockettes) or turns, leaps, etc. Basically all the dancey stuff.

I’m naturally a peppy person so song combined my natural peppyness and my love of dance into one. I hate to toot my own horn (aw, who gives a fck… this is my blog) but I was voted MVP 3 consecutive years and I was captain for 2 years. So yeah, this was my LIFE.

When I got to college, I didn’t really have time for dance anymore because I became the “A” word… an ADULT. I started working part time at Starbucks and I was going to school full time. It was really difficult squeezing in my dance training in all that, but I tried. I never got to dance for any teams because of how busy my schedule always was, but looking back, I totally regret it. Especially now since I staff at Boogiezone. Oh my jeezus. The first thing ANYONE will ask me is “so what teams have you danced for?” Sometimes I just want to answer, “Umm.. in real life? Because I’ve danced for everyone in my dreams.”

Too much? I told you I get weird in here.

My only pet peeve with the SoCal dance scene is that most people won’t take you seriously as a dancer UNLESS you’ve A) won competitions for your studio or B) have danced with multiple teams and won something. So as you see, the common ground between these 2 factors is that you have to be a WINNER!

People IN the dance scene can argue with me all they want that their team or studio promotes a healthy, open dance environment but if you were in my shoes for a day, you’d understand that it’s fcking intimidating as shit to just walk into a hip hop class BY YOURSELF while the rest of the class is from the same team or they’re all super trained hip hop dancers. Trust me, I’ve been dancing for years and I can’t help but feel intimidated by them. I don’t know how to fcking freestyle! I mean, I can bootyshake but that gets old really fast.

Anyways, this post turned into more of a rant now, LOL. But in all seriousness, I am SUPER proud of my progress. I feel like I can hold it down now when I’m in a room full of dancers. It’s still a work in progress, but I can feel myself improving each week.

Okay end rant. I’ll have Day 10’s challenge posted later tonight. I have to unfortunately be the “A” word now. Yeah… you know what I’m talking about.

An astronaut. Catch you later, Space Cowboy.

-Alice

The Art of Twerking

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Alice Vega

Hey guys! Happy Thursday!

So no, this is not a post for the 30 day blog challenge I’m doing, but it’s just been a while since I’ve written an actual post about shit I care about or that’s on my mind.

If you remember one of my older posts, The Art of Fangirling, you’ll know that I’m going to introduce and discuss a magical subject. Today, I’m going to rant about twerking.

Twerk (verb)

the act of moving/ shaking ones ass/buns/bottom/buttocks/bum-bum in a circular, up-and-down, and side-to-side motion.

–Urban Dictionary

So if you didn’t know what twerking was before I gave you the definition… then you obviously have been living under a rock. (A rock with internet connection…?) Twerking has become a very popular dance craze in the past year. Nowadays, it’s become even MORE popular thanks to celebrities like Miley Cyrus who like to twerk all day everyday.

People will record themselves twerking and upload it to Youtube, Vine, Instagram, etc. What’s the point of it all? Well, if you’re good at it, then hell yeah put that shit on the internet! This dance was made to be seen. Why would you just twerk to yourself in the mirror ALL by yourself? That’s no fun. The point is that it’s a ridiculous, fun, outrageous dance move that was made to turn heads. In more ways than one… heyyyyy.

Now you’re probably thinking why the hell I’m writing about this. Well, I’m writing about this because I’m pretty much obsessed with this movement. And by movement, I’m not just talking about the dance move, I’m talking about the phenomenon itself. Who doesn’t love watching booties bounce?! I’m a heterosexual female and I appreciate when a girl (or a guy) can booty shake really well. You might be thinking, “where is this going to get you in life?” Um, it’s going to make you feel AWESOME that you can shake your ass like that. Sometimes the answer is just because it makes us HAPPY. Why does anyone do anything? Uh, what’s the point of life if you’re gonna stay at home all day trolling the internet and asking why does anyone do anything? Because it makes you happy, right? … You sick, twisted bastard.

The video I linked in this post is one of my favorite Kpop stars, Min, twerking at a dance studio. She’s part of the famous girl group Miss A, managed by JYP. My friend recently sent this to me and I almost died. I’ve seen my fair share of twerk videos but this one took the cake. I mean think about it. Twerking has become SO popular that a KOREAN POP STAR has uploaded a video of herself twerking on the internet. Welcome to the year 2013.

Oh and if you’re wondering if I have any twerk videos… maybe. Maybe you’ll get lucky and catch me twerking in one of my vlogs.

I guess you’ll never know if you don’t subscribe, follow me on Twitter, or Like me on Facebook.

See what I did there?! 😉 Ok in all seriousness, I don’t ever plan on making a video like that. Unless I’m drunk. And I happen to drunkenly upload it while I’m in a drunken state of mind.

Question of the Day: Let’s start a twerk team? #AliceVegaTwerkTeam

Nevermind.. that’s a really long hashtag.

-Alice

Day 5: A “Picture” of Somewhere You’ve Been To

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Alice Vega

Hey guys! Happy Sunday Funday!

So I know the challenge specifically says to provide a “picture” but I decided to be an over achiever and provide a youtube video instead. I know… I’m such a rebel breaking all these challenge rules.

So I’ve been to my homelands 3 times in my life now and this video is the most recent trip… back in 2007. (Yes, I know… I’m long overdue for a trip back.) It was my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary and they wanted to throw a huge party and renew their vows and everything. (insert ‘awww’ here) For the reception, my dad and I performed a tango.

So for those of you who don’t know, my dad has been a dancer for years and this was actually his career! He’s been a DI (Dance Instructor) for many years and has even owned his own dance studio in the past. This was the first time he and I ever performed together.

This was also the first time I ever performed the milonga before. I remember during this part of my life, dance was really big to me and I spent most of my days training at studios. So on the first day of rehearsal, I thought I had this in the bag because of all my dance background. Boy, was I wrong. This shit is harder than it looks, TRUST. The footwork can get crazy and in general, it’s just different dancing with a partner versus performing on your own.

Anyways, hope you like this blast from the past. Gosh, I never get to do any good Throwback Thursdays or Flashback Fridays. 😦 That and I also just have bad timing. Why didn’t I post this on Friday, damnit?!

-Alice