December 23, 2024 • 54 mins
Join us on a captivating journey with Alexa Woo, the rising star in the world of K-pop cover dance, as she shares her remarkable story from growing up in Orange County to performing on the grand stage of KCON 2024. Alexa's passion for dance was ignited by her family's legacy and further fueled by her discovery of K-pop.
Alexa takes us behind the scenes of her Dream Stage adventure, revealing the rigorous process of auditions, online submissions, and the rehearsals that tested her limits. She opens up about the honor and challenge of being a backup dancer for K-pop idols, particularly the iconic Taemin. These experiences culminated in a viral moment that catapulted her into the spotlight.
But the journey doesn't end on stage; Alexa delves into her personal transformation through dance, highlighting the profound impact of self-love and awareness. She candidly discusses overcoming depression and purposelessness, using dance as a medium for self-discovery and artistic growth. Through shadow work and self-reflection, Alexa found a path to embracing imperfections and reigniting her passion. Her insights offer a valuable reminder of the power of following one's passions and learning from life's lessons, leaving listeners inspired by her resilience and commitment to growth.
Guest Bio:
Alexa Woo is a kpop cover dancer from Orange County, CA with about 340k followers across her social media accounts. Most recently known as the Taemin girl from kcon 2024 that went viral, katseye skelly crew dancer, or known from instagram/tiktok as a kpop cover dancer. She has danced with kpop dance cover teams like First Bite, Lalary, and Playground, and has also taught dance classes in SoCal at KPC dance studio in Buena Park, S1L in Irvine, and Movement Lifestyle in Burbank.
Socials:
IG: @oleggie
TikTok: @oleggie
YouTube: @oleggie
Links/resources:
- @official.firstbite
- @lalary.official
- @official_playground
- KCON 2024 - Taemin Dreamstage (Alexa fancam)
- KPC Dance Studio
- Movement Lifestyle (dance studio)
- S1L (dance studio)
One Thousand Gurus Podcast:
Everyone has a compelling story to tell with insights we can all be inspired by. J.R. Yonocruz is a self-improvement blogger, relationship coach, and serial hobbyist with a passion for learning. He interviews unique guests from various fields to distill the strategies, habits, and mindsets we can use in our own lives. Each “guru” has a chance to give the audience a peek into a new world.
www.onethousandgurus.com
Instagram: @OneThousandGurus
TikTok: @onethousandgurus
YouTube: One Thousand Gurus Podcast
Email: onethousandgurus@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode
of 1000 Gurus with me, your host, jr Yonacruz.
So today's guest is Alexa Wu.
Alexa is a K-pop cover dancerfrom Orange County, california,
with about 340,000 followersacross her social media accounts
.
Most recently, she's known asthe Taemin girl from KCON 2024
(00:20):
Dream Stage that went viral.
Cat's Eye's Skelly Crew dancer,or also known from Instagram
and TikTok as a K-pop coverdancer.
She has danced with K-pop dancecover teams like First Bite
Lowry Playground and has alsotaught dance classes in SoCal,
at KPC Dance Studio in BuenaPark, s1l in Irvine and Movement
(00:40):
Lifestyle in Burbank.
So this was a really goodepisode that I enjoyed.
And movement lifestyle inBurbank.
So this was a really goodepisode that I enjoyed.
Lex and I have been mutuals oracquaintances for a bit now, but
this is my first time actuallysitting down with her and
chatting about various things.
Of course, we talk about ourcommon passion of K-pop and
dance, but also we talk abouther recent mindset shift while
(01:00):
working on self-care andself-awareness in order to be
happier.
And, lastly, we talk about theimportance of pursuing your
passions, being wise in yourcommunication and some
hard-earned lessons she'slearned over the years.
Lex is the youngest guestactually I've had on the show so
far, but she is not without alot of deep insights beyond her
years, which I reallyappreciated.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoyed this episode with
(01:23):
Alexa Wu, thanks Well.
Hope you enjoyed this episodewith Alexa Wu, thanks Well.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I really appreciate it.
You taking the time out of yourday.
So I will go into how I knowyou, as usual for my episodes.
I remember first seeing you inthe K-pop dance community
because you danced with Eddieand Hope in First Buy back in
like 2017.
I went through the archives forthese and you guys won first
(01:44):
place in the K-pop cover dancefestival and then you traveled
to South Korea, right.
And then after that, then youwere in the group Lalary and
it's like a dance music groupwhich started in, I believe,
2019 around that time.
That's when the post started.
And then you also performed onstage with them in KCON for 2023
.
And then this past year, 2024kcon, you were on the dream
state tame and dream stageperformance, which you went
(02:06):
viral for, which I would havetold the audience to, and
there's a link to the videothere as well in the show notes
and then you're also inplayground, which we're both in,
and then you are, let's see,cover dance group yeah, another
dance group in socal, and youalso teach at kpc and you've
taught at swanl and movementlifestyle.
Right, any other clarificationsof what you're up to?
And I was like a huge like list?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
wow, this is a lot.
I can't believe you went backto the archives it's my job,
yeah yeah, basically first biteturned into laurie same people
um, yeah, we're not very activeanymore, so I'm starting to join
new groups and more projects,so that's what I'm up to now.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Nice, cool, so I just want to get right into it.
So for our audience who may notknow, you just wanted to ask
what is Lex's origin story like?
How did you get into dance andthen specifically k-pop.
So I guess first main questionis you know what?
Where did you grow up?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
what was your family dynamic like and all that stuff
okay, so back in the day my momwas a modern dance.
Uh, she was touring around theworld with a contemporary dance
company and that's how my wholefamily got into dance.
Basically, she had my sister,which is older than me.
(03:24):
She went on to be aprofessional ballerina.
We were trained in ballet froma young age and I feel like I
just followed in the sort offamily footsteps in a way.
But growing up I was not reallyinto ballet that much, so I was
like sort of hating it andbeing like when can I quit?
(03:46):
I would always make up excuseslike.
I have an injury or like I havesomething to do at school.
But since ballet is socommitted and you have to be
there every single day, I wouldalways hate just like the
commitment to being there.
After a long time of training,I eventually discovered K-pop
(04:07):
through my sister.
We were like big fans ofK-dramas and stuff and then
eventually that led to K-pop andthen I started seeing the
dances that went with it.
So I learned it on YouTube,mirrored and that's when my
K-pop journey began.
I was about 12 years old andthen I was like maybe I should
(04:28):
start posting instagram coversbecause I saw a few online, but
not too many.
You know, it wasn't that bigback then, but it was more like
a niche hobby that if I broughtit up to anyone at school they'd
be like what's that?
What k-pop?
What I?
I don't, I have no idea whatthat is.
I was into YouTube, likelearning from YouTube, for a
(04:53):
long time and then I went toKCON for the first time in 2016
and I saw Eddie there.
He was like the star of therandom play dance and I was
watching him on YouTube for thefirst time, being like who is
that boy?
Like I've never seen someone soconfident, so like enjoying his
(05:14):
time so much and being sohimself.
So I really admired him a yearbefore he contacted me, and when
he did on instagram, he waslike, oh, my group is preparing
this five member group and weneed we have four members right
now and we need one more justfor this random competition I
(05:35):
was like, oh yeah, I'm down.
I it was like getting a messagefrom like your biggest idol and
I was like, wow, this is gonnabe great, but I didn't think it
was gonna last that long.
So I was super excited to comeinto practice.
I was like the maknae of thegroup so I was, um, very nervous
(05:57):
.
I remember going into thepractice for the first time and
meeting some of my best friendsright now and they're so nice
and being like sort of my momsand being like, oh like, very
welcoming and making mecomfortable.
So I was so grateful that I hadfound a group that I yeah.
(06:18):
So this competition this wasthe first competition that we
did.
We were not prepared.
We only had three practices ina few weeks to prepare.
We go to the semi-finals at thesource.
This is like the first time Iwent to the source.
We won.
I was like hello, like I'm 14,I have never traveled.
(06:40):
This is just so random.
So then we went to korea and itwas this whole experience of
like tourism, flash mobsperforming on stage, performing
in a concert, and it was justlike I was starstruck the whole
time.
We saw even brave girlsbackstage which we were covering
(07:01):
roin'.
I can't believe we found thatsong before it went viral, but
yes, that was very lucky and weactually saw them backstage.
So I was even more like we sawthe artists of the group that
we're covering.
It was huge for me and that waslike the start of me wanting to
(07:24):
become something more.
I'd always thought, oh, k-popcovers is just a hobby and I
don't think it'll turn intoanything.
You know, it's just somethingthat I do on the side and I'll
find my career eventually.
So we came back home, westarted to do more covers, fast
forward.
They wanted to become a musicgroup, which I personally was
(07:47):
not a part of until later on,when they were like oh, we need
more members, can you join?
But they started to make bigwaves in like the k-pop
community.
It was like kind ofcontroversial actually, but yeah
, it was a whole experience ofthem like going to kore,
recording, making the musicvideo, everything.
(08:08):
And then I was watching themlike, yeah, you're going to be
huge.
And I don't think there was alot of K-pop cover groups that
made songs.
Even until now, I don't see alot like producing their own
well, not producing, butreleasing their own songs.
So, yeah, I feel like, evenuntil now, it was super special
(08:34):
to be a part of it and we gotthe chance to perform on KCON
the concert stage, which was Istill can't believe that
happened, since we had gone toKCON so many years before it was
like we just knew these people,like over and over again,
seeing them every year and beinglike, oh, we'll get you on the
(08:56):
concert stage next year and it'syeah right, that's never gonna
happen.
You know we're just a covergroup, we don't have any idol
training.
You know it's just, but knowwe're just a cover group, we
don't have any idol training,you know it's just.
But somehow it happened.
And then that's when I feltlike that was my highest
achievement.
I was like, okay, I can die.
Happy.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Now I'm like I'm good did you ever imagine yourself
being on stage, or was it morejust, yeah, we're always here at
kcon like this is our home.
And then, randomly, you foundit and you're like, wow, this is
surreal.
Did you ever imagine like maybebeing on stage one day?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
no, no not at all.
I mean, it was always like agoal of mine, like in the back
of my head, just being like, oh,that'd be nice.
I never knew that circumstancescould line up so perfectly that
we would just be asked to do itjust four of us.
Yeah, it's crazy to me still.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, that's crazy.
How did it come about?
Did one of the organizers reachout to you, or did you guys
reach out to them, or how didthat work?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, so basically a lot of people know Eddie through
his TV program that he did inKorea.
So after that he knew a lot ofpeople that were like making
KCON, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I'm not sure Like involved with organizing yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, organizers, and yeah, the year before we
prepared this huge set of doingit at the convention stage and
then unfortunately it was likefull that year, so then we just
ended up doing nothing and then,I think, as like reparations,
they were like, oh, you canperform on the concert stage
next year, but that's like stillhuge.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, even consider that's a very big like
consolation sort of thing it'soh, you can perform on stage,
which not a lot of people doexcept idols.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So yeah, I was getting sort of like imposter
syndrome, like am I actuallyprepared for this, even though
I've been training my entirelife for dancing.
I feel like on stage I'm gonnaforget it all.
But yeah, it happened, wepulled through.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
We're still alive how was it like?
Was that like the biggest stageyou've ever performed on, or
have you performed in bigger, orwas it?
I imagine it was like you said.
It was like a dream come true,very surreal or maybe
intimidating.
But how was it like?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I mean I got on stage .
I just saw this huge wave oflike this arena you know people
I noticed the air was really dryfor some reason yeah I was like
I'm gonna choke on stage.
I'm like, yeah, I felt kind ofdizzy, like I was gonna lose my
balance.
I was wearing like these sixinch heels.
It was not smart, but you know,it was iconic, yeah.
(11:37):
And the set went by like that.
I was okay, it's over, but Idon't really remember it
happening.
But, yeah, I guess musclememory takes over.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And then, yeah, yeah, that's it that's usually what
for, I guess for non-dancers outthere, like sometimes it's just
like that, like you startdancing and then next thing you
know you blink and it's done.
You're like wait, what happened?
And thankfully there's musclememory and all this other stuff
and you kind of can go back andkind of replay it in your brain,
like oh yeah, that's exactlywhat happened, but as it's going
(12:06):
on, it's, you're almost like apassenger, I would say sometimes
for me you're just going.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's like you're like floating in the back seat and
who's driving?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
yeah, yeah how did you guys feel about the
performance itself?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
do you think it was like your strongest performance
or were there any mess ups oranything, or oh yeah yeah, I
think at one point one of ourmembers like we were going on
the floor and she lost balancebut.
I think she saved it prettywell and um, there's a lot to do
with spacing.
I think I messed up at onepoint at the ripple and then I
made someone else look bad, butI'm pretty satisfied, yeah, like
(12:41):
.
I don't like to focus onanything that you did wrong.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It's more like oh, I'm proud of what we did Right,
not being hard on yourself oranything.
So then, I guess, to segue outof that, so then the next year
going on with Tame In for theDream Stage.
For those who don't know, couldyou walk us through how that
sort of works to just be onstage with an idol.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Okay, we actually saw him first in the rehearsal and
he was like very nice.
He was sort of like at adistance.
We weren't allowed to like beclose to him or like touch him
or be surrounded yeah, I meanit's taemin.
Yeah, safety procedure, yeah hewas like waving at us from far
away and all of us were likevery starstruck.
It's Taemin, the king of K-pop,or Prince, I would say.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Prince, yeah, he's definitely iconic, to say the
least.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And yeah, during rehearsal we were sort of
getting used to his presence.
On what was it by stage time?
We were like, okay, we're notallowed to look at him if we're
like facing away.
I literally did not see him thewhole performance.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
But you know, I can see him behind me in the video.
Which way were you facing?
So he?
I've seen clips, obviously, butI'm not sure what the
orientation, so let's say he'sforward right which side were
you?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
on.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I was on the left side of the stage okay, so like
facing left, if he's facingforward, you're facing left.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yes, gotcha not a lot of looks back, right maybe it's
for the best he doesn'tdistract you yeah, so yeah, I
think I would have just stoodthere.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You're like what are we doing again?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
we're just watching the show.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Sorry.
So then, going back, could youwalk us through, like, how dream
stage works?
I know there's a few phases,but for people who don't know,
like, how does that process look?
Like like you apply and yousend in a video or something, or
then there's audition phases sothere's an online process.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
You gotta post a video.
You send an application.
Don't forget the application,because you might not get in if
you forget to send it I think myboyfriend yerson forgot to send
it in even though he posted it.
You know there's no way hecouldn't have gotten in.
Yeah, he should have gotten in.
We were supposed to get in as acouple.
I was really disappointed, butyeah, anyways, going back to the
(14:53):
process, we're going onlinesubmission.
In-person audition at KCONFirst thing in the morning, 8 am
, you have to be there in line,and a lot of waiting.
Everyone auditions, youaudition again, and then, I
think, a third time.
(15:13):
I remember doing it like threetimes on the audition stage.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Oh, three times live.
Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And then the Samans backup dancers were judging us,
so they would call us outimmediately You're in, you're in
, you're not.
And then they would sort offilter it down and be more what
is it Be more like selective.
After that we went backstage,we were practicing, we were sort
(15:45):
of getting it together, soeveryone knew the same timing
and like when to go on, when tostop.
I think we were practicing forlike maybe two hours.
We had lunch.
That was the only time we wereallowed to go out.
We weren't even allowed to go tothe convention.
We were just like dang.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah.
It's like wasting a whole dayRight, because we held hostage.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, I felt like I was like in jail.
So we come back practice evenmore and then waiting for like
maybe two more hours, just likedoing your makeup, or like
running it one more time, orgoing to the bathroom, like it
takes so long and then we hadrehearsal waiting even more.
(16:28):
Go on stage and then we're done.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Nice yes, and then this passed by, so then you had
your.
That video I think you repostedrecently, which was like it was
a collection of reels or videoswhere it was like cover K-pop,
cover dancers that get possessedby the idols, and it's that one
, right?
You know what I'm talking about.
And then you're at the end ofthe reel and it was like it
started off with that one girlwho looks like Chaewon and it
(16:55):
was going through and it waslike all these really good
artists or cover dancers Tame inlike your video from KCON.
So what was that like?
I mean, you were on.
This was your second time onKCON stage at the very least,
right, and were you just wasthis kind of?
At that point it's just naturalto you Like you've run it so
many times and you're just onstage and just living, or like
(17:16):
how does one I don't know, youwere amazing, and I think
everyone agrees how do you getto that point of just being like
so comfortable on stage andjust performing it and that
everyone you get that attentionfor?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
wow, she was so good on stage well, I feel like
performing on stage the yearbefore definitely helped me to
know what to avoid, such asgetting too excited right before
you're going on stage.
You're like shaking withadrenaline and then you tend to
over dance too much.
Also, I had the opportunity towatch the dream stage the year
(17:51):
before and be able to observesort of behaviors that I would
or wouldn't do, such as overdancing or being like too still
so kind of just looking at bestpractices and kind of preparing
yourself to be on stage and notover dancing or anything like
that.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, and um, sorry, I forgot the question how do you,
I guess, preparing to be onstage like that?
But yeah, I don't know I know alot of it as a fellow dancer.
You know you have to beprepared and ready but, then you
could still kind of lose yourfocus or concentration.
But then also performing aswith your face and with your
body is another aspect to justthen just doing choreography,
(18:31):
right?
I?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
think I was really lucky that the song was move,
since I knew it from many yearsbefore and also it was sort of
in my style, where I grew updoing contemporary and I sort of
knew how to move more fluidly,if that makes sense.
I was able to sort of remembermy training and sort of
(18:53):
incorporate it into the leg kickand like the hip movements.
It's very easy to me that,because I've done it so many
times before, I didn't have tostress about oh, am I gonna do
it?
right it's like whether I'mgonna do it or not, you know.
You just like you you know thatyou're gonna do it.
Yeah, the hardest part I wouldsay was right before going on
(19:15):
stage.
Where you're in the arena, youhear everyone screaming, the
lights go dark and then taemingoes on stage.
You know that you have to go onstage in a bit and then there's
like these stairs that you goup.
I'm gonna trip for sure.
Like you, you can't like stallat all because it's like
(19:36):
everything is time.
I'm just like stressed out,thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, yeah, all the cortisol is coming back.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah and then.
So right before I think I wassort of meditating, I was like
closing my eyes, taking deepbreaths, being like drown out
the noise.
Get used to this level of noisebecause I'm very sensitive.
My ears pick up loud noiseseven more and, yeah, it makes my
(20:04):
body really.
Yeah, I was trying to regulatemy nerves right before and I
feel like that helped a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
What is Really quick, tangent.
So what is that sort ofmeditation practice or ritual
beforehand?
Do you do that often, or is itjust that one time, or what is
it?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah.
So usually right before I go onstage, I get a lot of anxiety,
even as many times as you go onstage.
It just happens for me, itdoesn't go away.
But what I've learned is thatyou sort of have to remind
yourself like where you are, how.
This is just one performanceout of many that I've done
(20:43):
before.
It's not that serious and youdon't have to do perfect, you
just have to, like show who youare, and you already did the
practice, just do it.
So, yeah, I feel like it's amatter of staying sane right
before not being too in yourhead like oh, oh, my gosh, like
I don't know what's going tohappen, being like spiraling
(21:04):
into that sort of unsure mindset.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So it's like a lot of self-talk sort of like
affirmations and whatnot.
Yeah, nice.
Okay, a couple of things beforewe switch.
One is so was there?
So, after you went viral forthis sort of moment and
everything, what was it like?
Did anything change or did Idon't't know?
Like social media is like aweird thing, right, you blow up
and stuff like that.
Did anything change after thatany aspect of your dance cover
(21:30):
career?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
I feel like my mentality changed the most how
so?
I knew that I had potentialbefore.
I was very self-limiting, beinglike oh, it's just my social
media, I've only.
I only have a lot of followersbecause I worked on it for so
long.
I'm probably just normal youknow, and then, after I sort of
(21:57):
went viral, I was reading thesecomments and being like.
I was reading these commentsand being like maybe the people
around me are somewhat right.
My loved ones always tell meI'm special.
I feel like I can't fullybelieve them because they're
biased.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, you're supposed to support me, hello.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So all the love and support I've been getting from
my loved ones has, yeah, I'mreally grateful for this
experience because it led me toopen my mind to think about more
possibilities that might bepossible in the future and even
though it's slow changephysically, I feel like a lot
has happened up here.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I see.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Really profound.
So last question on that, then,is what do you foresee in your
future?
So what is the vision for fiveyears future, Lex, or 10 years?
Like where do you see yourselfgoing in terms of K-pop, cover
dancing or anything related?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Well, recently I sort of committed to my dream of
becoming an artist and I haven'treally said it a lot anywhere,
so maybe you're the first Idon't know.
Breaking news in december butyeah, I'm gonna start to get
vocal training and I'm reallyworking towards releasing my own
(23:24):
music, which I know a lot ofinfluencers start to do.
But I really want to make itlike art.
I don't want to just release asong that isn't treasured.
So I'm going to work very hardon it and hopefully it'll come
out soon.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
That's very exciting.
I'm excited for you.
So let's pivot a little bit.
So I know a few of the topicsthat you wrote about that you
might want to talk about.
A few of them involve followingyour passion as a purpose,
creating a good relationshipwith yourself, so knowing
yourself, self-awareness.
And then a big thing that youmentioned was like learning from
your mistakes and experiences.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Is there anything of those topics you want to start
with first or any stories youwant to tell?
I kind of want to talk abouthow developing a good
relationship with myself helpedme to improve my dance okay, so
how did that?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
so how did that start ?
Like developing a relationshipwith yourself.
Is it something that you startoff and okay, I need to develop
this relationship?
You know like self-love,self-talk and whatnot.
Or was there like a catalystfor that?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I think it all happened in one year for me, or
maybe a year and a half, it was.
I was going through adepression era and I just
desperately wanted someone topull me out, but it wasn't
happening.
So I was like why isn't thishappening?
Doesn't anyone care about me?
(24:53):
And I was like wondering if Idie right now.
Sorry, this is like triggerwarning.
But, if I die right now, wouldanyone even miss me?
This is like trigger warningbut if I die right now, would
anyone even miss me?
But then I sort of came to therealization that no one's going
to save you unless you want tosave yourself.
Even if people around you tellyou advice and loving words,
(25:15):
like you're going to deflect allof it, it's just going to go
one ear out the other.
You're not going to believe itunless you want to believe it
yourself.
I sort of started to want toimprove my relationship with
myself and sort of treat me asI'm treating someone else, as if
(25:37):
I'm another person.
My body is separate from mysoul.
I was reading a lot of these,let me think not books, but more
tiktoks, okay, so there's a lotof information that people have
on self-care and affirmations,and all of this was very new to
(26:00):
me.
I was like this is just woo-wooyou know, I don't know if it
actually works.
Like you talking to yourself inthe mirror.
That sounds crazy.
So I was like very skeptical atfirst.
I was like maybe I should,maybe I shouldn't.
Like I maybe I'm just wastingmy time.
I was like working on shadowwork.
First.
(26:21):
It was shadow work, if youdon't know.
It's sort of seeing all yourflaws and, um, like journaling,
and I wouldn't say justjournaling, but it's more like
accepting who you are as a wholeperson, rather than ignoring
(26:41):
your problems and trying toappear perfect to everyone else.
So I was working on like seeingmyself as a full person and
being more accepting of who Iwas and who I wanted to be, and
(27:02):
sort of just making smallchanges to become, like my, the
highest version of myselfquickly from there, I was not
dancing back then what timeperiod was this or how long ago?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
just for the audience , I think during COVID.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Okay, like in my dance account, I had a lot of
sort of hiatuses I don't know ifI would call it that, because
only k-pop idols say that, butit's like breaks where I would
just stop posting for likemonths.
And it was weird because I waslike how come I don't love this
anymore and I sort of lost mypassion for everything.
(27:42):
But don't love this anymore andI sort of lost my passion for
everything.
But slowly it started to comeback.
Once I started to learn moreabout myself and remember how
much like playfulness and joy Iused to have with just making
covers and like doing it for fun, doing it with my group and
like spending time with otherpeople.
I feel like it really broughtme out of my shell.
(28:04):
And, yeah, I started tounderstand dance more deeply
once I met my boyfriend Yerson.
He sort of understands dance asif it's like your personality.
I mean, go watch his podcastepisode.
I bet he explains it.
But yeah, he could read me likea book.
(28:25):
I was so surprised the firsttime that he explained my
dancing to me because I thoughtI knew how I danced but I didn't
know why I danced like that.
So he said stuff like you havea lot of control, because you
like to have control over a lotof things in your life.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And I was excuse me, but you know he's right, yeah,
yeah, it's it.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
it makes sense to me.
And yeah, he says you like tostand out, but in a subtle way,
and it's that's also true, andyou can see it in my dancing,
where it's I subtle movements,but somehow I sort of catch your
eye and I felt like no one hasreally seen me like that before.
(29:11):
So I was like, hmm, like BC'sdeeper than the surface and I
really appreciated it.
Yeah and yeah, until now I'vebeen sort of deep diving into
dance and sort of the art insideof it and not just seeing the
(29:34):
dance on the surface but beinglike why do people dance like
that?
And sort of trying to read themthrough their dancing.
It's like another sort of world.
It's crazy, yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, One thing about Yersin is he's very like
emotionally aware too, Is likehe can kind of sense what's
going on, especially betweenpeople or people's emotions,
which I really appreciate abouthim.
You know he's a good friend tohave in that sense, because he
kind of gives you like adifferent perspective and it's
also usually very insightful.
So on the you know you said youwere doing all this like shadow
(30:11):
work and like kind of trying toknow yourself.
Were there any sort of, I guess, takeaways or lessons learned,
either about yourself or how tokind of deal with that
depression that you that yousaid you were in to get to where
you are now?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, I think I took it so seriously to the point
where I was like I don't have apurpose.
I don't deserve to live and if Istart doing a career and it's
wrong, like I'm just wasting mytime.
But that's not true.
Like you can do anything inthis life, you have unlimited
(30:49):
potential for anything that youwant to do.
So I realized that I shouldjust start on something.
I should commit my time to,like growing my skills towards
something.
And I guess I didn't realize itat the time, but I was going to
dance classes.
(31:09):
I was like starting to post moreon my Instagram.
I was joining more covers andbeing like, okay, this is taking
up like my whole time, so I'mjust going to stick with it.
Until now, and I realized itsort of invigor it.
Until now, and I realized itsort of invigorated me again.
I had this sort of excitementfor the future.
(31:30):
Like, oh, what am I gonna wearfor this cover?
How can I make it more exciting?
So I'm like, so people can seethat it's exciting, I don't know
, but it's.
It turned out to be sort oflike my purpose.
I don't know if I would call ita purpose, but it's just what
(31:51):
excites me for now and I'm okaywith that so kind of like
following.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Well, one takeaway correct me if I'm wrong that I'm
taking from this is that kindof to bring you out of your, I
guess, self or your slump.
It's focusing on creatingsomething, building something,
or something to do that makesyou active and to improve
yourself, like when you'regrowing right.
You're focusing on that and notso much of what's lacking and
(32:19):
the things that will bring youdown.
And then the other thing waslike following what excites you,
right, so like your passions,and so for right now it's like
dancing and like being in coversand performing with your
friends and whatnot.
So it's following that passion,just to kind of get you in that
positive space.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yes, I totally agree with that, and I feel like
following your passion is whatleads you to your purpose.
This is just me personally, butI believe before we're born, we
sort of choose the right bodythat will lead us to what we
want to do in this life.
So why would I choose this bodyto like something if I'm not
(32:59):
supposed to do it?
And I've been sort of listeningto what I like and staying away
from what I don't like, andit's really been helping me to
narrow it down and be like okay,I like this thing, but there's
something in it that I don'tlike.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Okay, I'll save it for another time.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And then I just find something that it's like all
green lights and I'll just go.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
So I see.
So it's kind of like you'reyou're retrospecting, in a sense
of figuring out what you likeabout certain things and kind of
seeing where things align andthen going in that direction.
Nice, I like that a lot, kindof similar to that you mentioned
, like learning from yourmistakes and experiences.
Was there anything inparticular, or like a lesson or
(33:47):
a story or anything or insightsthat you learned on that topic?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yes, that you learned on that topic?
Yes, so there are things inlife where you regret it and you
feel like if you went back,your life would be so much
better.
But that's not the case, becausewhat happened from that bad
experience is that you learnedfrom it and it sort of shaped
you to change yourself into whoyou are right now.
(34:11):
So if you actually went backand erased it, you wouldn't be
here right now and, like thebutterfly effect is a very real
thing.
So I feel like having regretsis not really smart, because
it's that means you wouldn't beyourself.
(34:32):
You would be someone that'slike expecting perfection from
everything until now becauseyou've never experienced
anything bad.
And I don't think that's a goodway to live, because if
something bad happens, you'renot going to know how to deal
with it.
And what else did you?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
yeah, were there any, if you would like to share any
experiences or things thatyou've learned on the topic of,
I get what you're saying right,which is don't regret your
experiences.
They help you grow and you getto learn and get stronger from
that for the future.
Are there any sort of formativeexperiences or challenges that
you face that you've learnedfrom or any stories on that that
(35:11):
we can, you can share with theaudience?
Let me think of one like acatalyst for maybe any of this.
I'm sure we have all.
I have a lot.
My list of regrets is just long.
It's like where do I start?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
well.
It's sort of an experience thatI don't like to remember, but
it was necessary for me to learnfrom.
It was very mean to one friendand in my childhood I felt like
it was okay to just say anythingthat you wanted and there is
going to be no punishment.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Repetitions and consequences.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
yeah, yeah, but it turned out to make her have a
lot of insecurities growing upand she told me like long time
after that it really affectedher growing up and this was like
a huge shock for me because Ithought we were best friends.
I was like anything I say toyou it's out of love, you know.
(36:08):
But sometimes people willbelieve your words only, not
your intentions.
So that's how I learned that Ihave to make myself clear.
Even if it seems like a joke,it might not be to someone else.
And also I know to be sensitivewith my words now and that's
(36:29):
why I tend to pause or likestutter when I'm talking,
because I really don't want toput out something that I might
want to just stay.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Makes sense, like being more thoughtful with your
words.
I had the same conversationwith a friend of mine who she
kind of likes to have thisreputation of very blunt, so to
speak, but it's not so much justbluntness, it's also a little
bit of like rudeness, but shethinks she's being honest and
(37:00):
she thinks that's like thevirtue right, it's like being
honest.
But I was telling her I'm like,okay, I get what you're saying
and I don't disagree to someextent.
But I think part of wisdom isknowing that you can still say
the truth, but with kindness andconsideration, because what
you're saying you can't reallytake back words.
So I think the hallmark ofsomeone who is thoughtful and
wise is someone who doesn't justsay whatever they think,
(37:23):
because you there is anin-between of saying the truth
but also saying it kindly andrespectfully, and to try to do
your best to communicate whatyour intentions are, as opposed
to just like when we're younger,our throwaway comments that
that we're like, oh, it'stotally fine, because I think
we've all done that and later onit sticks with someone, because
we also remember when someonesays something to us and we're
like that really hurt and why amI still thinking about it like
(37:44):
years later, but of course thatperson probably didn't mean it
that way, but it makes you kindof think about that.
So I totally agree Any other.
So we covered a goodrelationship with yourself,
learning from your mistakes.
I know you talked aboutperformances as well and I know
like in a dance technical aspect, we kind of, like you mentioned
, you watch yourself dance oryou watch like the other
(38:05):
performers and you kind ofapproach dance like that.
Is there anything else in termsof learning from your mistakes
or any other takeaways?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Sorry, I just spilled on myself.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
I didn't listen to that last part.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
No, it's all good, just any last takeaways for
lessons learned on makingmistakes, I think a lot of
people can relate to that.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
When you're in class make mistakes, that's your time
to really mess up, because whenyou're on stage, that's when
you're going to be more harsh onyourself.
If you did make a mistake andbe like, oh, why didn't I
practice that more before it'sbecause you're so scared to mess
up that you wouldn't letyourself.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
and my mind just went okay, no, that's, that was
complete thought because, also,it's not just dance, it's like
life, right, don't be afraid tomess up.
Dance teacher told me a longtime ago that you can't look
good and get better at the sametime, which is exactly what
you're saying, which is youcan't try to look perfect when
you're trying to grow, becausegrowing necessitates you making
(39:04):
mistakes.
Exactly so, yeah, and I thinkthat's obviously we're talking
dance, but we actually it's youknow applies to a lot of yeah
everything else cool.
Yeah, I think that's wraps upthat, or any last things you
want to bring up for thosetopics?
No, okay so rapid firequestions.
Okay, I know you're preparingfor this, all right.
(39:25):
So first rapid fire questionfor season two we changed it up
a little bit.
So first one is the billboardquestion.
So if you could put up a signfor millions of people to see,
what would it say?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
authenticity over perfection nice.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Any reason for that?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
because I feel like when I see people dance and
they're actually beingthemselves rather than trying to
copy whoever they're coveringin in the dance cover, it turns
out to be way higher quality andit just makes me happier to see
them enjoying how they areinstead of putting down
themselves and being like oh, Ihave to follow this because I
(40:05):
don't trust myself to make myown judgments or decisions on
this dance move or, yeah, italso applies to other things in
life but this is just an exampleof like k-pop?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
yeah, definitely, I like that.
Next question is what is yourfavorite failure or something
challenging that you learned themost from?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I thought I had an answer, but I'm like going blank
, my favorite maybe somethingthat that was challenging, that
you thought wasn't good.
Nice, I used it.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
That set you up for success later.
On.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
My favorite failure, well, I would say one year that
I wasn't participating inLawlery.
I had no events during KCON tobe, at and I was sort of
disappointed because I was likeexpecting something being like
oh, I've done all this stuff theyears before and I was really
(41:08):
disappointed that I couldn't bepart of this group that I've
worked so hard on and they weredoing great things like they're
having so many panels andperformances and stuff, and at
the time I was sort of jealousof them.
And now that I realize, likelooking back at it, I'm very
(41:30):
grateful to have been put inthat sort of mindset so I can
see how far I've gotten untilnow where I wanted it so bad to
be part of a group that was verytalented and well put together
and put so much hard work intotheir performance.
And, yeah, I'm glad that I gotto experience both sort of parts
(41:52):
of being a fan and a performer.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
This one might be a little different, might be the
same.
It's called Self-InflictedWound.
So do you have a story aboutsomething that went wrong in
your life?
That's your own fault and youcan't blame anyone else but
yourself because you did it toyourself.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
It's Self-Inflicted Wound you did it to yourself and
self-inflicted wound, I wouldsay, letting people decide my
worth.
In school I was very quiet,like when I went to public high
school.
I was always changing or liketransferring, so I would never
make friends.
(42:30):
I would be sort of like morehidden to myself and in my head.
I'd be like no one wants to bemy friend, like I'm kind of I'm
not an interesting person to bewith and like over the years it
sort of just stuck with me and Ididn't make the effort to talk
to anyone.
So I sort of made up this sortof this false story, false
(42:54):
narrative in my head that I wasundesirable to be around, or no
one sort of wanted to be aroundme.
So I feel like that was aself-inflicted wound that I
could have avoided.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
But since I wanted to be the victim, I let myself
like judge me even harder yeah,it's always, it's always easier
to just make ourselves thevictim right than to take
responsibility oh yeah, um, so Iknow we talked about regrets,
but if you could redo one thing,what would you redo differently
?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
like a thought experiment obviously well, just
to experience it.
I would love to perform on thekcon stage again just to enjoy
them.
Yeah, but you said there's isas a regret, so I can't think of
anything, right?
Speaker 1 (43:44):
now, if you could give your younger self advice,
what would it be now?
Any time period any age be moregrateful of how your?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
parents accept you and support you since I only
recognized that maybe last yearor just recently, and I feel
like I could have given so muchmore love to my parents and
really show them my appreciationwhen I was growing up.
But since it had always beenthat way, I always was like I
(44:19):
want more.
I don't.
I'm not happy with this.
You should pay for me more tobe even like a better dancer.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Like entitlement, sort of yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So I feel like I could have been a better
daughter, Definitely.
I know now yeah definitely.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I think that's one of the hard things too is I think
it's a universal sort ofexperience for kids to take
their parents for granted asmuch as they like, accept us and
love us unconditionally andprovide for us, and we're just
like, yeah, that's always goingto be there.
And then you become an adult oryou grow up and you're like wait
, I really appreciate all thisstuff.
And now that, when you moveinto I don't want to say like
building a family yourself,right, but when you start to get
(45:00):
to that age where now there'speople younger than you and you
kind of like a mentor figure oreventually, if you have kids or
you look up after people, andthen you're now self-sacrificing
to help other people and you'relike wait, my parents did so
much for me and I realized thattoo, as I'm getting older and
like, dancing around a lotyounger people and you know I
want to help them to grow.
And then I'm like wait, you know, like this feeling of maybe
(45:22):
being unappreciated, but thenit's no, but our parents have
even more of that and we don't.
It's like the tip of thesurface because, like, they love
us unconditionally but we don'teven consider that.
Yeah, so yeah, I feel that inthe last few years, what new
belief, behavior or habit hasimproved your life?
Speaker 2 (45:41):
I will say behavior.
I have started to treat my lifeas like a video game, sort of
taking everything, as if I canchange anything that I want.
I can like dress up however Iwant.
I'm like I'm just playing agame, and that's not saying I
don't take life seriously, butit makes more control over like
(46:05):
different aspects it makes itmore.
It makes me more mindful makingchoices that I want to see in my
character in the future.
It helps me to see my life inlike a 3d perspective sort of,
or maybe 4d, I'm not sure butyou know sitting on the back end
and being like, oh, I can seehow this is going oh, like in a
(46:28):
third party, sort of thirdperspective, but there's third
party perspective.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Yes, yeah, I gotcha, yeah, I like it.
Who would you call successfuland how do you define success?
Speaker 2 (46:41):
who?
As in a specific person, yeah,okay, I'll say my older sister.
Uh, since she is living thelife right now.
She's in sweden.
She's a professional balletdancer with well-paid company.
Like she gets summer off.
She gets paid during the summerbecause it's funded by the
(47:03):
government.
It's really nice.
Even during covid she was likechilling, you know, yeah, I feel
.
Yeah, I feel like she'ssuccessful because she's
following her passion and she isalso able to be stable and she
has two cats.
She's super happy with herboyfriend and I'm just like over
(47:25):
the moon that she's in such agood place.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Nice.
How much older is she?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Three and a half years.
Three and a half years, okay,nice when did she?
Speaker 1 (47:35):
you said switzerland sweden sweden.
When did she move over there?
Maybe five years ago okay, soshe's been there for a while.
Wow, that's, that must bereally cool, living in another
country she I think she just gother citizenship so she can go
back and forward and, yeah, shedoesn't have to get a visa
anymore, that's crazy.
When I think of Sweden, I thinkof Frozen.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Is that where?
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Frozen is based off of, or is it another country?
Norway?
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Norway.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Thank you, norway, norway, I remember going to
Switzerland and I was like thislooks just like Frozen.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
But it's like that area.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, that's so cool.
The houses, yeah, the houses.
I love Switzerland.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Have you been?
Yes, I'm assuming.
How was it like?
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Switzerland yeah or any place.
I guess Switzerland.
Well, Switzerland is myfavorite place.
I went to visit my aunt there.
She lives there and she took usto a lot of nature places and
the forests are so mossy andvery close to earth and
everything.
When you think of the woods ina fairy tale, that's Switzerland
(48:38):
.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Yes, definitely fairy , tale land.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
It's so nice.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
I definitely want to go back.
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you try or what would
you be doing now?
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Investing.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Oh yeah, what kind.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Like stocks.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Okay, well, well, why so?
Speaker 2 (48:55):
because I feel like if you were successful, then it
wouldn't take so much time andthen you could.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
It's like passive income so you see it as like an
efficient way to make money ifyou're good at it, right?
Yeah, I like it and then youcan spend your time doing some
other stuff yeah, stuff, thatstuff just arts and crafts, yeah
.
What is one of the best or mostworthwhile investments that
you've ever made, like time,money, energy, etc.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
I would say being forced to do ballet when I was
younger, because it has reallyhelped me to become a
well-rounded dancer that I amnow.
Yeah, going to the studio everyday for almost 15 years and
having very strict teachershelped me learn discipline,
technique and a lot of necessarythings to become a good dancer.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
All right.
Last two Favorite recentpurchase let's say under $50 or
$100 that has impacted your lifethe most in the last six months
.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
We can change the parameters of the price or the
time I will say these not theseglasses, but the red glasses
that I wore at kcon, because Ifeel like it's sort of indirect
but you know, the office sirentrend has been going around on
TikTok and Pinterest andInstagram and I feel like those
(50:21):
glasses really helped to catchthe attention of whoever was
underneath me.
I was really committing to thisaesthetic and actually I was
worried that I was going to falloff on stage so I was like
taking a risk to to wear it.
But I was like, no, I'm gonnawear these glasses.
Yeah, they're so cheap.
I got them on shein, I think,um five dollars maybe and yeah,
(50:45):
they changed my life nice.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
I like it.
It's five dollar glasses butprobably helped you stand out a
lot and blow up nice.
Okay, last rapid fire questionany favorite books, movies,
videos, articles, media, etc.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
That you share or recommend the most well, today I
am dressed in the sort ofaesthetic as coralline so this
has been my favorite tv series,not series, but movie for
halloween and getting into asort of comfy, nostalgic, creepy
(51:19):
fall atmosphere.
So I recommend watching it toanyone who loves sort of
thriller and claymation, andit's really well produced.
There's so many details and somuch lore that's involved.
I can spend so many days justwatching it over and over again
(51:40):
and each time I'll find a newdetail yeah, coralline is a
coralline, right.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
It's a cult classic, for sure.
Who's the director for that?
Tim burton?
That's right, timber no it,it's not.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
I forgot his name.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Oh, yeah, that one guy.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
But people are very adamant that it's not.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Tim Burton oh okay, all right, so that's a misnomer
sort of thing.
Sorry to correct you, coraline,let's see.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Henry Selick.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Henry Selick oh.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
I see Interesting.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Okay, we were wrong, you were right.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
No, no, I didn't even know the name Nice.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Cool.
So, coraline, definitely.
Okay, that is it for the rapidfire questions, so we can go
into our ending.
I always like to end withgratitude, something I learned
from my mom.
So, lex, what are you gratefulfor?
Speaker 2 (52:25):
I'm grateful for my ability to see bad experiences
as helpful experiences, and ithas really helped me to not
spiral into a depression anymore.
So, yeah, I'm grateful for mymentality.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Very nice, and do you have any final ask from the
audience or any final takeawaysyou want them to have from this
conversation?
Speaker 2 (52:59):
I want to inspire the viewers to be more playful in
their everyday lives.
Even if you're doing mundaneactivities such as driving or
cooking, maybe add someintention in there and have some
fun.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
I love it.
Have some fun and intention.
So, lex, that is pretty much itfor the show.
Where can we find you?
If the audience would like toconnect or see what you're up to
, we'll have all of your linksto your socials and everything
in the show notes.
But where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (53:27):
You can find me at Oleggy on Instagram, tiktok and
YouTube.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
Nice what does Oleggy come from?
Tiktok and YouTube Nice whatdoes Oleggy come from?
Speaker 2 (53:38):
What is that name?
It's a very warped version ofmy name, alexa.
I think one of my friends wayback when used to call me Alexa,
so that's where the Gs camefrom.
And then I think my balletteacher said olexa, a lot with
an o, so then I sort of combinedthose like olexa and then olegi
so it's like a playoff of thosethings.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
Nice, I like it, cool , all right, well, we'll wrap it
up.
So thank you again, alexa orlex, for being here and just to
sign off for the audience.
So thank you, guys for tuningin.
Just a reminder to always bekind to others, especially
yourself, and that you canalways learn something from
someone if you just take thetime to listen.
So thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
Thank you so much.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode
of 1000 Gurus with me, your host, jr Yonacruz.
So today's guest is Alexa Wu.
Alexa is a K-pop cover dancerfrom Orange County, california,
with about 340,000 followersacross her social media accounts
.
Most recently, she's known asthe Taemin girl from KCON 2024
(00:20):
Dream Stage that went viral.
Cat's Eye's Skelly Crew dancer,or also known from Instagram
and TikTok as a K-pop coverdancer.
She has danced with K-pop dancecover teams like First Bite
Lowry Playground and has alsotaught dance classes in SoCal,
at KPC Dance Studio in BuenaPark, s1l in Irvine and Movement
(00:40):
Lifestyle in Burbank.
So this was a really goodepisode that I enjoyed.
And movement lifestyle inBurbank.
So this was a really goodepisode that I enjoyed.
Lex and I have been mutuals oracquaintances for a bit now, but
this is my first time actuallysitting down with her and
chatting about various things.
Of course, we talk about ourcommon passion of K-pop and
dance, but also we talk abouther recent mindset shift while
(01:00):
working on self-care andself-awareness in order to be
happier.
And, lastly, we talk about theimportance of pursuing your
passions, being wise in yourcommunication and some
hard-earned lessons she'slearned over the years.
Lex is the youngest guestactually I've had on the show so
far, but she is not without alot of deep insights beyond her
years, which I reallyappreciated.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoyed this episode with
(01:23):
Alexa Wu, thanks Well.
Hope you enjoyed this episodewith Alexa Wu, thanks Well.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I really appreciate it.
You taking the time out of yourday.
So I will go into how I knowyou, as usual for my episodes.
I remember first seeing you inthe K-pop dance community
because you danced with Eddieand Hope in First Buy back in
like 2017.
I went through the archives forthese and you guys won first
(01:44):
place in the K-pop cover dancefestival and then you traveled
to South Korea, right.
And then after that, then youwere in the group Lalary and
it's like a dance music groupwhich started in, I believe,
2019 around that time.
That's when the post started.
And then you also performed onstage with them in KCON for 2023
.
And then this past year, 2024kcon, you were on the dream
state tame and dream stageperformance, which you went
(02:06):
viral for, which I would havetold the audience to, and
there's a link to the videothere as well in the show notes
and then you're also inplayground, which we're both in,
and then you are, let's see,cover dance group yeah, another
dance group in socal, and youalso teach at kpc and you've
taught at swanl and movementlifestyle.
Right, any other clarificationsof what you're up to?
And I was like a huge like list?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
wow, this is a lot.
I can't believe you went backto the archives it's my job,
yeah yeah, basically first biteturned into laurie same people
um, yeah, we're not very activeanymore, so I'm starting to join
new groups and more projects,so that's what I'm up to now.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Nice, cool, so I just want to get right into it.
So for our audience who may notknow, you just wanted to ask
what is Lex's origin story like?
How did you get into dance andthen specifically k-pop.
So I guess first main questionis you know what?
Where did you grow up?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
what was your family dynamic like and all that stuff
okay, so back in the day my momwas a modern dance.
Uh, she was touring around theworld with a contemporary dance
company and that's how my wholefamily got into dance.
Basically, she had my sister,which is older than me.
(03:24):
She went on to be aprofessional ballerina.
We were trained in ballet froma young age and I feel like I
just followed in the sort offamily footsteps in a way.
But growing up I was not reallyinto ballet that much, so I was
like sort of hating it andbeing like when can I quit?
(03:46):
I would always make up excuseslike.
I have an injury or like I havesomething to do at school.
But since ballet is socommitted and you have to be
there every single day, I wouldalways hate just like the
commitment to being there.
After a long time of training,I eventually discovered K-pop
(04:07):
through my sister.
We were like big fans ofK-dramas and stuff and then
eventually that led to K-pop andthen I started seeing the
dances that went with it.
So I learned it on YouTube,mirrored and that's when my
K-pop journey began.
I was about 12 years old andthen I was like maybe I should
(04:28):
start posting instagram coversbecause I saw a few online, but
not too many.
You know, it wasn't that bigback then, but it was more like
a niche hobby that if I broughtit up to anyone at school they'd
be like what's that?
What k-pop?
What I?
I don't, I have no idea whatthat is.
I was into YouTube, likelearning from YouTube, for a
(04:53):
long time and then I went toKCON for the first time in 2016
and I saw Eddie there.
He was like the star of therandom play dance and I was
watching him on YouTube for thefirst time, being like who is
that boy?
Like I've never seen someone soconfident, so like enjoying his
(05:14):
time so much and being sohimself.
So I really admired him a yearbefore he contacted me, and when
he did on instagram, he waslike, oh, my group is preparing
this five member group and weneed we have four members right
now and we need one more justfor this random competition I
(05:35):
was like, oh yeah, I'm down.
I it was like getting a messagefrom like your biggest idol and
I was like, wow, this is gonnabe great, but I didn't think it
was gonna last that long.
So I was super excited to comeinto practice.
I was like the maknae of thegroup so I was, um, very nervous
(05:57):
.
I remember going into thepractice for the first time and
meeting some of my best friendsright now and they're so nice
and being like sort of my momsand being like, oh like, very
welcoming and making mecomfortable.
So I was so grateful that I hadfound a group that I yeah.
(06:18):
So this competition this wasthe first competition that we
did.
We were not prepared.
We only had three practices ina few weeks to prepare.
We go to the semi-finals at thesource.
This is like the first time Iwent to the source.
We won.
I was like hello, like I'm 14,I have never traveled.
(06:40):
This is just so random.
So then we went to korea and itwas this whole experience of
like tourism, flash mobsperforming on stage, performing
in a concert, and it was justlike I was starstruck the whole
time.
We saw even brave girlsbackstage which we were covering
(07:01):
roin'.
I can't believe we found thatsong before it went viral, but
yes, that was very lucky and weactually saw them backstage.
So I was even more like we sawthe artists of the group that
we're covering.
It was huge for me and that waslike the start of me wanting to
(07:24):
become something more.
I'd always thought, oh, k-popcovers is just a hobby and I
don't think it'll turn intoanything.
You know, it's just somethingthat I do on the side and I'll
find my career eventually.
So we came back home, westarted to do more covers, fast
forward.
They wanted to become a musicgroup, which I personally was
(07:47):
not a part of until later on,when they were like oh, we need
more members, can you join?
But they started to make bigwaves in like the k-pop
community.
It was like kind ofcontroversial actually, but yeah
, it was a whole experience ofthem like going to kore,
recording, making the musicvideo, everything.
(08:08):
And then I was watching themlike, yeah, you're going to be
huge.
And I don't think there was alot of K-pop cover groups that
made songs.
Even until now, I don't see alot like producing their own
well, not producing, butreleasing their own songs.
So, yeah, I feel like, evenuntil now, it was super special
(08:34):
to be a part of it and we gotthe chance to perform on KCON
the concert stage, which was Istill can't believe that
happened, since we had gone toKCON so many years before it was
like we just knew these people,like over and over again,
seeing them every year and beinglike, oh, we'll get you on the
(08:56):
concert stage next year and it'syeah right, that's never gonna
happen.
You know we're just a covergroup, we don't have any idol
training.
You know it's just, but knowwe're just a cover group, we
don't have any idol training,you know it's just.
But somehow it happened.
And then that's when I feltlike that was my highest
achievement.
I was like, okay, I can die.
Happy.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Now I'm like I'm good did you ever imagine yourself
being on stage, or was it morejust, yeah, we're always here at
kcon like this is our home.
And then, randomly, you foundit and you're like, wow, this is
surreal.
Did you ever imagine like maybebeing on stage one day?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
no, no not at all.
I mean, it was always like agoal of mine, like in the back
of my head, just being like, oh,that'd be nice.
I never knew that circumstancescould line up so perfectly that
we would just be asked to do itjust four of us.
Yeah, it's crazy to me still.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, that's crazy.
How did it come about?
Did one of the organizers reachout to you, or did you guys
reach out to them, or how didthat work?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, so basically a lot of people know Eddie through
his TV program that he did inKorea.
So after that he knew a lot ofpeople that were like making
KCON, I think.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
I'm not sure Like involved with organizing yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Yeah, organizers, and yeah, the year before we
prepared this huge set of doingit at the convention stage and
then unfortunately it was likefull that year, so then we just
ended up doing nothing and then,I think, as like reparations,
they were like, oh, you canperform on the concert stage
next year, but that's like stillhuge.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, even consider that's a very big like
consolation sort of thing it'soh, you can perform on stage,
which not a lot of people doexcept idols.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So yeah, I was getting sort of like imposter
syndrome, like am I actuallyprepared for this, even though
I've been training my entirelife for dancing.
I feel like on stage I'm gonnaforget it all.
But yeah, it happened, wepulled through.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
We're still alive how was it like?
Was that like the biggest stageyou've ever performed on, or
have you performed in bigger, orwas it?
I imagine it was like you said.
It was like a dream come true,very surreal or maybe
intimidating.
But how was it like?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
I mean I got on stage .
I just saw this huge wave oflike this arena you know people
I noticed the air was really dryfor some reason yeah I was like
I'm gonna choke on stage.
I'm like, yeah, I felt kind ofdizzy, like I was gonna lose my
balance.
I was wearing like these sixinch heels.
It was not smart, but you know,it was iconic, yeah.
(11:37):
And the set went by like that.
I was okay, it's over, but Idon't really remember it
happening.
But, yeah, I guess musclememory takes over.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
And then, yeah, yeah, that's it that's usually what
for, I guess for non-dancers outthere, like sometimes it's just
like that, like you startdancing and then next thing you
know you blink and it's done.
You're like wait, what happened?
And thankfully there's musclememory and all this other stuff
and you kind of can go back andkind of replay it in your brain,
like oh yeah, that's exactlywhat happened, but as it's going
(12:06):
on, it's, you're almost like apassenger, I would say sometimes
for me you're just going.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's like you're like floating in the back seat and
who's driving?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
yeah, yeah how did you guys feel about the
performance itself?
Speaker 2 (12:18):
do you think it was like your strongest performance
or were there any mess ups oranything, or oh yeah yeah, I
think at one point one of ourmembers like we were going on
the floor and she lost balancebut.
I think she saved it prettywell and um, there's a lot to do
with spacing.
I think I messed up at onepoint at the ripple and then I
made someone else look bad, butI'm pretty satisfied, yeah, like
(12:41):
.
I don't like to focus onanything that you did wrong.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
It's more like oh, I'm proud of what we did Right,
not being hard on yourself oranything.
So then, I guess, to segue outof that, so then the next year
going on with Tame In for theDream Stage.
For those who don't know, couldyou walk us through how that
sort of works to just be onstage with an idol.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Okay, we actually saw him first in the rehearsal and
he was like very nice.
He was sort of like at adistance.
We weren't allowed to like beclose to him or like touch him
or be surrounded yeah, I meanit's taemin.
Yeah, safety procedure, yeah hewas like waving at us from far
away and all of us were likevery starstruck.
It's Taemin, the king of K-pop,or Prince, I would say.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Prince, yeah, he's definitely iconic, to say the
least.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And yeah, during rehearsal we were sort of
getting used to his presence.
On what was it by stage time?
We were like, okay, we're notallowed to look at him if we're
like facing away.
I literally did not see him thewhole performance.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
But you know, I can see him behind me in the video.
Which way were you facing?
So he?
I've seen clips, obviously, butI'm not sure what the
orientation, so let's say he'sforward right which side were
you?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
on.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I was on the left side of the stage okay, so like
facing left, if he's facingforward, you're facing left.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yes, gotcha not a lot of looks back, right maybe it's
for the best he doesn'tdistract you yeah, so yeah, I
think I would have just stoodthere.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
You're like what are we doing again?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
we're just watching the show.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Sorry.
So then, going back, could youwalk us through, like, how dream
stage works?
I know there's a few phases,but for people who don't know,
like, how does that process look?
Like like you apply and yousend in a video or something, or
then there's audition phases sothere's an online process.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
You gotta post a video.
You send an application.
Don't forget the application,because you might not get in if
you forget to send it I think myboyfriend yerson forgot to send
it in even though he posted it.
You know there's no way hecouldn't have gotten in.
Yeah, he should have gotten in.
We were supposed to get in as acouple.
I was really disappointed, butyeah, anyways, going back to the
(14:53):
process, we're going onlinesubmission.
In-person audition at KCONFirst thing in the morning, 8 am
, you have to be there in line,and a lot of waiting.
Everyone auditions, youaudition again, and then, I
think, a third time.
(15:13):
I remember doing it like threetimes on the audition stage.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Oh, three times live.
Yeah, gotcha.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And then the Samans backup dancers were judging us,
so they would call us outimmediately You're in, you're in
, you're not.
And then they would sort offilter it down and be more what
is it Be more like selective.
After that we went backstage,we were practicing, we were sort
(15:45):
of getting it together, soeveryone knew the same timing
and like when to go on, when tostop.
I think we were practicing forlike maybe two hours.
We had lunch.
That was the only time we wereallowed to go out.
We weren't even allowed to go tothe convention.
We were just like dang.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah.
It's like wasting a whole dayRight, because we held hostage.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, I felt like I was like in jail.
So we come back practice evenmore and then waiting for like
maybe two more hours, just likedoing your makeup, or like
running it one more time, orgoing to the bathroom, like it
takes so long and then we hadrehearsal waiting even more.
(16:28):
Go on stage and then we're done.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Nice yes, and then this passed by, so then you had
your.
That video I think you repostedrecently, which was like it was
a collection of reels or videoswhere it was like cover K-pop,
cover dancers that get possessedby the idols, and it's that one
, right?
You know what I'm talking about.
And then you're at the end ofthe reel and it was like it
started off with that one girlwho looks like Chaewon and it
(16:55):
was going through and it waslike all these really good
artists or cover dancers Tame inlike your video from KCON.
So what was that like?
I mean, you were on.
This was your second time onKCON stage at the very least,
right, and were you just wasthis kind of?
At that point it's just naturalto you Like you've run it so
many times and you're just onstage and just living, or like
(17:16):
how does one I don't know, youwere amazing, and I think
everyone agrees how do you getto that point of just being like
so comfortable on stage andjust performing it and that
everyone you get that attentionfor?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
wow, she was so good on stage well, I feel like
performing on stage the yearbefore definitely helped me to
know what to avoid, such asgetting too excited right before
you're going on stage.
You're like shaking withadrenaline and then you tend to
over dance too much.
Also, I had the opportunity towatch the dream stage the year
(17:51):
before and be able to observesort of behaviors that I would
or wouldn't do, such as overdancing or being like too still
so kind of just looking at bestpractices and kind of preparing
yourself to be on stage and notover dancing or anything like
that.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yes, and um, sorry, I forgot the question how do you,
I guess, preparing to be onstage like that?
But yeah, I don't know I know alot of it as a fellow dancer.
You know you have to beprepared and ready but, then you
could still kind of lose yourfocus or concentration.
But then also performing aswith your face and with your
body is another aspect to justthen just doing choreography,
(18:31):
right?
I?
Speaker 2 (18:32):
think I was really lucky that the song was move,
since I knew it from many yearsbefore and also it was sort of
in my style, where I grew updoing contemporary and I sort of
knew how to move more fluidly,if that makes sense.
I was able to sort of remembermy training and sort of
(18:53):
incorporate it into the leg kickand like the hip movements.
It's very easy to me that,because I've done it so many
times before, I didn't have tostress about oh, am I gonna do
it?
right it's like whether I'mgonna do it or not, you know.
You just like you you know thatyou're gonna do it.
Yeah, the hardest part I wouldsay was right before going on
(19:15):
stage.
Where you're in the arena, youhear everyone screaming, the
lights go dark and then taemingoes on stage.
You know that you have to go onstage in a bit and then there's
like these stairs that you goup.
I'm gonna trip for sure.
Like you, you can't like stallat all because it's like
(19:36):
everything is time.
I'm just like stressed out,thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, yeah, all the cortisol is coming back.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah and then.
So right before I think I wassort of meditating, I was like
closing my eyes, taking deepbreaths, being like drown out
the noise.
Get used to this level of noisebecause I'm very sensitive.
My ears pick up loud noiseseven more and, yeah, it makes my
(20:04):
body really.
Yeah, I was trying to regulatemy nerves right before and I
feel like that helped a lot.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
What is Really quick, tangent.
So what is that sort ofmeditation practice or ritual
beforehand?
Do you do that often, or is itjust that one time, or what is
it?
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah.
So usually right before I go onstage, I get a lot of anxiety,
even as many times as you go onstage.
It just happens for me, itdoesn't go away.
But what I've learned is thatyou sort of have to remind
yourself like where you are, how.
This is just one performanceout of many that I've done
(20:43):
before.
It's not that serious and youdon't have to do perfect, you
just have to, like show who youare, and you already did the
practice, just do it.
So, yeah, I feel like it's amatter of staying sane right
before not being too in yourhead like oh, oh, my gosh, like
I don't know what's going tohappen, being like spiraling
(21:04):
into that sort of unsure mindset.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So it's like a lot of self-talk sort of like
affirmations and whatnot.
Yeah, nice.
Okay, a couple of things beforewe switch.
One is so was there?
So, after you went viral forthis sort of moment and
everything, what was it like?
Did anything change or did Idon't't know?
Like social media is like aweird thing, right, you blow up
and stuff like that.
Did anything change after thatany aspect of your dance cover
(21:30):
career?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
I feel like my mentality changed the most how
so?
I knew that I had potentialbefore.
I was very self-limiting, beinglike oh, it's just my social
media, I've only.
I only have a lot of followersbecause I worked on it for so
long.
I'm probably just normal youknow, and then, after I sort of
(21:57):
went viral, I was reading thesecomments and being like.
I was reading these commentsand being like maybe the people
around me are somewhat right.
My loved ones always tell meI'm special.
I feel like I can't fullybelieve them because they're
biased.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Yeah, you're supposed to support me, hello.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So all the love and support I've been getting from
my loved ones has, yeah, I'mreally grateful for this
experience because it led me toopen my mind to think about more
possibilities that might bepossible in the future and even
though it's slow changephysically, I feel like a lot
has happened up here.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
I see.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Really profound.
So last question on that, then,is what do you foresee in your
future?
So what is the vision for fiveyears future, Lex, or 10 years?
Like where do you see yourselfgoing in terms of K-pop, cover
dancing or anything related?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Well, recently I sort of committed to my dream of
becoming an artist and I haven'treally said it a lot anywhere,
so maybe you're the first Idon't know.
Breaking news in december butyeah, I'm gonna start to get
vocal training and I'm reallyworking towards releasing my own
(23:24):
music, which I know a lot ofinfluencers start to do.
But I really want to make itlike art.
I don't want to just release asong that isn't treasured.
So I'm going to work very hardon it and hopefully it'll come
out soon.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
That's very exciting.
I'm excited for you.
So let's pivot a little bit.
So I know a few of the topicsthat you wrote about that you
might want to talk about.
A few of them involve followingyour passion as a purpose,
creating a good relationshipwith yourself, so knowing
yourself, self-awareness.
And then a big thing that youmentioned was like learning from
your mistakes and experiences.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Is there anything of those topics you want to start
with first or any stories youwant to tell?
I kind of want to talk abouthow developing a good
relationship with myself helpedme to improve my dance okay, so
how did that?
Speaker 1 (24:20):
so how did that start ?
Like developing a relationshipwith yourself.
Is it something that you startoff and okay, I need to develop
this relationship?
You know like self-love,self-talk and whatnot.
Or was there like a catalystfor that?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
I think it all happened in one year for me, or
maybe a year and a half, it was.
I was going through adepression era and I just
desperately wanted someone topull me out, but it wasn't
happening.
So I was like why isn't thishappening?
Doesn't anyone care about me?
(24:53):
And I was like wondering if Idie right now.
Sorry, this is like triggerwarning.
But, if I die right now, wouldanyone even miss me?
This is like trigger warningbut if I die right now, would
anyone even miss me?
But then I sort of came to therealization that no one's going
to save you unless you want tosave yourself.
Even if people around you tellyou advice and loving words,
(25:15):
like you're going to deflect allof it, it's just going to go
one ear out the other.
You're not going to believe itunless you want to believe it
yourself.
I sort of started to want toimprove my relationship with
myself and sort of treat me asI'm treating someone else, as if
(25:37):
I'm another person.
My body is separate from mysoul.
I was reading a lot of these,let me think not books, but more
tiktoks, okay, so there's a lotof information that people have
on self-care and affirmations,and all of this was very new to
(26:00):
me.
I was like this is just woo-wooyou know, I don't know if it
actually works.
Like you talking to yourself inthe mirror.
That sounds crazy.
So I was like very skeptical atfirst.
I was like maybe I should,maybe I shouldn't.
Like I maybe I'm just wastingmy time.
I was like working on shadowwork.
First.
(26:21):
It was shadow work, if youdon't know.
It's sort of seeing all yourflaws and, um, like journaling,
and I wouldn't say justjournaling, but it's more like
accepting who you are as a wholeperson, rather than ignoring
(26:41):
your problems and trying toappear perfect to everyone else.
So I was working on like seeingmyself as a full person and
being more accepting of who Iwas and who I wanted to be, and
(27:02):
sort of just making smallchanges to become, like my, the
highest version of myselfquickly from there, I was not
dancing back then what timeperiod was this or how long ago?
Speaker 1 (27:18):
just for the audience , I think during COVID.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Okay, like in my dance account, I had a lot of
sort of hiatuses I don't know ifI would call it that, because
only k-pop idols say that, butit's like breaks where I would
just stop posting for likemonths.
And it was weird because I waslike how come I don't love this
anymore and I sort of lost mypassion for everything.
(27:42):
But don't love this anymore andI sort of lost my passion for
everything.
But slowly it started to comeback.
Once I started to learn moreabout myself and remember how
much like playfulness and joy Iused to have with just making
covers and like doing it for fun, doing it with my group and
like spending time with otherpeople.
I feel like it really broughtme out of my shell.
(28:04):
And, yeah, I started tounderstand dance more deeply
once I met my boyfriend Yerson.
He sort of understands dance asif it's like your personality.
I mean, go watch his podcastepisode.
I bet he explains it.
But yeah, he could read me likea book.
(28:25):
I was so surprised the firsttime that he explained my
dancing to me because I thoughtI knew how I danced but I didn't
know why I danced like that.
So he said stuff like you havea lot of control, because you
like to have control over a lotof things in your life.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
And I was excuse me, but you know he's right, yeah,
yeah, it's it.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
it makes sense to me.
And yeah, he says you like tostand out, but in a subtle way,
and it's that's also true, andyou can see it in my dancing,
where it's I subtle movements,but somehow I sort of catch your
eye and I felt like no one hasreally seen me like that before.
(29:11):
So I was like, hmm, like BC'sdeeper than the surface and I
really appreciated it.
Yeah and yeah, until now I'vebeen sort of deep diving into
dance and sort of the art insideof it and not just seeing the
(29:34):
dance on the surface but beinglike why do people dance like
that?
And sort of trying to read themthrough their dancing.
It's like another sort of world.
It's crazy, yeah, nice.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, One thing about Yersin is he's very like
emotionally aware too, Is likehe can kind of sense what's
going on, especially betweenpeople or people's emotions,
which I really appreciate abouthim.
You know he's a good friend tohave in that sense, because he
kind of gives you like adifferent perspective and it's
also usually very insightful.
So on the you know you said youwere doing all this like shadow
(30:11):
work and like kind of trying toknow yourself.
Were there any sort of, I guess, takeaways or lessons learned,
either about yourself or how tokind of deal with that
depression that you that yousaid you were in to get to where
you are now?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Yeah, I think I took it so seriously to the point
where I was like I don't have apurpose.
I don't deserve to live and if Istart doing a career and it's
wrong, like I'm just wasting mytime.
But that's not true.
Like you can do anything inthis life, you have unlimited
(30:49):
potential for anything that youwant to do.
So I realized that I shouldjust start on something.
I should commit my time to,like growing my skills towards
something.
And I guess I didn't realize itat the time, but I was going to
dance classes.
(31:09):
I was like starting to post moreon my Instagram.
I was joining more covers andbeing like, okay, this is taking
up like my whole time, so I'mjust going to stick with it.
Until now, and I realized itsort of invigor it.
Until now, and I realized itsort of invigorated me again.
I had this sort of excitementfor the future.
(31:30):
Like, oh, what am I gonna wearfor this cover?
How can I make it more exciting?
So I'm like, so people can seethat it's exciting, I don't know
, but it's.
It turned out to be sort oflike my purpose.
I don't know if I would call ita purpose, but it's just what
(31:51):
excites me for now and I'm okaywith that so kind of like
following.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Well, one takeaway correct me if I'm wrong that I'm
taking from this is that kindof to bring you out of your, I
guess, self or your slump.
It's focusing on creatingsomething, building something,
or something to do that makesyou active and to improve
yourself, like when you'regrowing right.
You're focusing on that and notso much of what's lacking and
(32:19):
the things that will bring youdown.
And then the other thing waslike following what excites you,
right, so like your passions,and so for right now it's like
dancing and like being in coversand performing with your
friends and whatnot.
So it's following that passion,just to kind of get you in that
positive space.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yes, I totally agree with that, and I feel like
following your passion is whatleads you to your purpose.
This is just me personally, butI believe before we're born, we
sort of choose the right bodythat will lead us to what we
want to do in this life.
So why would I choose this bodyto like something if I'm not
(32:59):
supposed to do it?
And I've been sort of listeningto what I like and staying away
from what I don't like, andit's really been helping me to
narrow it down and be like okay,I like this thing, but there's
something in it that I don'tlike.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Okay, I'll save it for another time.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
And then I just find something that it's like all
green lights and I'll just go.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
So I see.
So it's kind of like you'reyou're retrospecting, in a sense
of figuring out what you likeabout certain things and kind of
seeing where things align andthen going in that direction.
Nice, I like that a lot, kindof similar to that you mentioned
, like learning from yourmistakes and experiences.
Was there anything inparticular, or like a lesson or
(33:47):
a story or anything or insightsthat you learned on that topic?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yes, that you learned on that topic?
Yes, so there are things inlife where you regret it and you
feel like if you went back,your life would be so much
better.
But that's not the case, becausewhat happened from that bad
experience is that you learnedfrom it and it sort of shaped
you to change yourself into whoyou are right now.
(34:11):
So if you actually went backand erased it, you wouldn't be
here right now and, like thebutterfly effect is a very real
thing.
So I feel like having regretsis not really smart, because
it's that means you wouldn't beyourself.
(34:32):
You would be someone that'slike expecting perfection from
everything until now becauseyou've never experienced
anything bad.
And I don't think that's a goodway to live, because if
something bad happens, you'renot going to know how to deal
with it.
And what else did you?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
yeah, were there any, if you would like to share any
experiences or things thatyou've learned on the topic of,
I get what you're saying right,which is don't regret your
experiences.
They help you grow and you getto learn and get stronger from
that for the future.
Are there any sort of formativeexperiences or challenges that
you face that you've learnedfrom or any stories on that that
(35:11):
we can, you can share with theaudience?
Let me think of one like acatalyst for maybe any of this.
I'm sure we have all.
I have a lot.
My list of regrets is just long.
It's like where do I start?
Speaker 2 (35:27):
well.
It's sort of an experience thatI don't like to remember, but
it was necessary for me to learnfrom.
It was very mean to one friendand in my childhood I felt like
it was okay to just say anythingthat you wanted and there is
going to be no punishment.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Repetitions and consequences.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
yeah, yeah, but it turned out to make her have a
lot of insecurities growing upand she told me like long time
after that it really affectedher growing up and this was like
a huge shock for me because Ithought we were best friends.
I was like anything I say toyou it's out of love, you know.
(36:08):
But sometimes people willbelieve your words only, not
your intentions.
So that's how I learned that Ihave to make myself clear.
Even if it seems like a joke,it might not be to someone else.
And also I know to be sensitivewith my words now and that's
(36:29):
why I tend to pause or likestutter when I'm talking,
because I really don't want toput out something that I might
want to just stay.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Makes sense, like being more thoughtful with your
words.
I had the same conversationwith a friend of mine who she
kind of likes to have thisreputation of very blunt, so to
speak, but it's not so much justbluntness, it's also a little
bit of like rudeness, but shethinks she's being honest and
(37:00):
she thinks that's like thevirtue right, it's like being
honest.
But I was telling her I'm like,okay, I get what you're saying
and I don't disagree to someextent.
But I think part of wisdom isknowing that you can still say
the truth, but with kindness andconsideration, because what
you're saying you can't reallytake back words.
So I think the hallmark ofsomeone who is thoughtful and
wise is someone who doesn't justsay whatever they think,
(37:23):
because you there is anin-between of saying the truth
but also saying it kindly andrespectfully, and to try to do
your best to communicate whatyour intentions are, as opposed
to just like when we're younger,our throwaway comments that
that we're like, oh, it'stotally fine, because I think
we've all done that and later onit sticks with someone, because
we also remember when someonesays something to us and we're
like that really hurt and why amI still thinking about it like
(37:44):
years later, but of course thatperson probably didn't mean it
that way, but it makes you kindof think about that.
So I totally agree Any other.
So we covered a goodrelationship with yourself,
learning from your mistakes.
I know you talked aboutperformances as well and I know
like in a dance technical aspect, we kind of, like you mentioned
, you watch yourself dance oryou watch like the other
(38:05):
performers and you kind ofapproach dance like that.
Is there anything else in termsof learning from your mistakes
or any other takeaways?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Sorry, I just spilled on myself.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
I didn't listen to that last part.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
No, it's all good, just any last takeaways for
lessons learned on makingmistakes, I think a lot of
people can relate to that.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
When you're in class make mistakes, that's your time
to really mess up, because whenyou're on stage, that's when
you're going to be more harsh onyourself.
If you did make a mistake andbe like, oh, why didn't I
practice that more before it'sbecause you're so scared to mess
up that you wouldn't letyourself.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
and my mind just went okay, no, that's, that was
complete thought because, also,it's not just dance, it's like
life, right, don't be afraid tomess up.
Dance teacher told me a longtime ago that you can't look
good and get better at the sametime, which is exactly what
you're saying, which is youcan't try to look perfect when
you're trying to grow, becausegrowing necessitates you making
(39:04):
mistakes.
Exactly so, yeah, and I thinkthat's obviously we're talking
dance, but we actually it's youknow applies to a lot of yeah
everything else cool.
Yeah, I think that's wraps upthat, or any last things you
want to bring up for thosetopics?
No, okay so rapid firequestions.
Okay, I know you're preparingfor this, all right.
(39:25):
So first rapid fire questionfor season two we changed it up
a little bit.
So first one is the billboardquestion.
So if you could put up a signfor millions of people to see,
what would it say?
Speaker 2 (39:37):
authenticity over perfection nice.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Any reason for that?
Speaker 2 (39:43):
because I feel like when I see people dance and
they're actually beingthemselves rather than trying to
copy whoever they're coveringin in the dance cover, it turns
out to be way higher quality andit just makes me happier to see
them enjoying how they areinstead of putting down
themselves and being like oh, Ihave to follow this because I
(40:05):
don't trust myself to make myown judgments or decisions on
this dance move or, yeah, italso applies to other things in
life but this is just an exampleof like k-pop?
Speaker 1 (40:19):
yeah, definitely, I like that.
Next question is what is yourfavorite failure or something
challenging that you learned themost from?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I thought I had an answer, but I'm like going blank
, my favorite maybe somethingthat that was challenging, that
you thought wasn't good.
Nice, I used it.
There you go.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
That set you up for success later.
On.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
My favorite failure, well, I would say one year that
I wasn't participating inLawlery.
I had no events during KCON tobe, at and I was sort of
disappointed because I was likeexpecting something being like
oh, I've done all this stuff theyears before and I was really
(41:08):
disappointed that I couldn't bepart of this group that I've
worked so hard on and they weredoing great things like they're
having so many panels andperformances and stuff, and at
the time I was sort of jealousof them.
And now that I realize, likelooking back at it, I'm very
(41:30):
grateful to have been put inthat sort of mindset so I can
see how far I've gotten untilnow where I wanted it so bad to
be part of a group that was verytalented and well put together
and put so much hard work intotheir performance.
And, yeah, I'm glad that I gotto experience both sort of parts
(41:52):
of being a fan and a performer.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
This one might be a little different, might be the
same.
It's called Self-InflictedWound.
So do you have a story aboutsomething that went wrong in
your life?
That's your own fault and youcan't blame anyone else but
yourself because you did it toyourself.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
It's Self-Inflicted Wound you did it to yourself and
self-inflicted wound, I wouldsay, letting people decide my
worth.
In school I was very quiet,like when I went to public high
school.
I was always changing or liketransferring, so I would never
make friends.
(42:30):
I would be sort of like morehidden to myself and in my head.
I'd be like no one wants to bemy friend, like I'm kind of I'm
not an interesting person to bewith and like over the years it
sort of just stuck with me and Ididn't make the effort to talk
to anyone.
So I sort of made up this sortof this false story, false
(42:54):
narrative in my head that I wasundesirable to be around, or no
one sort of wanted to be aroundme.
So I feel like that was aself-inflicted wound that I
could have avoided.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
But since I wanted to be the victim, I let myself
like judge me even harder yeah,it's always, it's always easier
to just make ourselves thevictim right than to take
responsibility oh yeah, um, so Iknow we talked about regrets,
but if you could redo one thing,what would you redo differently
?
Speaker 2 (43:28):
like a thought experiment obviously well, just
to experience it.
I would love to perform on thekcon stage again just to enjoy
them.
Yeah, but you said there's isas a regret, so I can't think of
anything, right?
Speaker 1 (43:44):
now, if you could give your younger self advice,
what would it be now?
Any time period any age be moregrateful of how your?
Speaker 2 (43:56):
parents accept you and support you since I only
recognized that maybe last yearor just recently, and I feel
like I could have given so muchmore love to my parents and
really show them my appreciationwhen I was growing up.
But since it had always beenthat way, I always was like I
(44:19):
want more.
I don't.
I'm not happy with this.
You should pay for me more tobe even like a better dancer.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Like entitlement, sort of yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:30):
So I feel like I could have been a better
daughter, Definitely.
I know now yeah definitely.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I think that's one of the hard things too is I think
it's a universal sort ofexperience for kids to take
their parents for granted asmuch as they like, accept us and
love us unconditionally andprovide for us, and we're just
like, yeah, that's always goingto be there.
And then you become an adult oryou grow up and you're like wait
, I really appreciate all thisstuff.
And now that, when you moveinto I don't want to say like
building a family yourself,right, but when you start to get
(45:00):
to that age where now there'speople younger than you and you
kind of like a mentor figure oreventually, if you have kids or
you look up after people, andthen you're now self-sacrificing
to help other people and you'relike wait, my parents did so
much for me and I realized thattoo, as I'm getting older and
like, dancing around a lotyounger people and you know I
want to help them to grow.
And then I'm like wait, you know, like this feeling of maybe
(45:22):
being unappreciated, but thenit's no, but our parents have
even more of that and we don't.
It's like the tip of thesurface because, like, they love
us unconditionally but we don'teven consider that.
Yeah, so yeah, I feel that inthe last few years, what new
belief, behavior or habit hasimproved your life?
Speaker 2 (45:41):
I will say behavior.
I have started to treat my lifeas like a video game, sort of
taking everything, as if I canchange anything that I want.
I can like dress up however Iwant.
I'm like I'm just playing agame, and that's not saying I
don't take life seriously, butit makes more control over like
(46:05):
different aspects it makes itmore.
It makes me more mindful makingchoices that I want to see in my
character in the future.
It helps me to see my life inlike a 3d perspective sort of,
or maybe 4d, I'm not sure butyou know sitting on the back end
and being like, oh, I can seehow this is going oh, like in a
(46:28):
third party, sort of thirdperspective, but there's third
party perspective.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
Yes, yeah, I gotcha, yeah, I like it.
Who would you call successfuland how do you define success?
Speaker 2 (46:41):
who?
As in a specific person, yeah,okay, I'll say my older sister.
Uh, since she is living thelife right now.
She's in sweden.
She's a professional balletdancer with well-paid company.
Like she gets summer off.
She gets paid during the summerbecause it's funded by the
(47:03):
government.
It's really nice.
Even during covid she was likechilling, you know, yeah, I feel
.
Yeah, I feel like she'ssuccessful because she's
following her passion and she isalso able to be stable and she
has two cats.
She's super happy with herboyfriend and I'm just like over
(47:25):
the moon that she's in such agood place.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
Nice.
How much older is she?
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Three and a half years.
Three and a half years, okay,nice when did she?
Speaker 1 (47:35):
you said switzerland sweden sweden.
When did she move over there?
Maybe five years ago okay, soshe's been there for a while.
Wow, that's, that must bereally cool, living in another
country she I think she just gother citizenship so she can go
back and forward and, yeah, shedoesn't have to get a visa
anymore, that's crazy.
When I think of Sweden, I thinkof Frozen.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Is that where?
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Frozen is based off of, or is it another country?
Norway?
Speaker 2 (48:01):
Norway.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Thank you, norway, norway, I remember going to
Switzerland and I was like thislooks just like Frozen.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
But it's like that area.
Speaker 2 (48:08):
Yeah, that's so cool.
The houses, yeah, the houses.
I love Switzerland.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Have you been?
Yes, I'm assuming.
How was it like?
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Switzerland yeah or any place.
I guess Switzerland.
Well, Switzerland is myfavorite place.
I went to visit my aunt there.
She lives there and she took usto a lot of nature places and
the forests are so mossy andvery close to earth and
everything.
When you think of the woods ina fairy tale, that's Switzerland
(48:38):
.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
Yes, definitely fairy , tale land.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
It's so nice.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
I definitely want to go back.
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you try or what would
you be doing now?
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Investing.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Oh yeah, what kind.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Like stocks.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Okay, well, well, why so?
Speaker 2 (48:55):
because I feel like if you were successful, then it
wouldn't take so much time andthen you could.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
It's like passive income so you see it as like an
efficient way to make money ifyou're good at it, right?
Yeah, I like it and then youcan spend your time doing some
other stuff yeah, stuff, thatstuff just arts and crafts, yeah
.
What is one of the best or mostworthwhile investments that
you've ever made, like time,money, energy, etc.
Speaker 2 (49:20):
I would say being forced to do ballet when I was
younger, because it has reallyhelped me to become a
well-rounded dancer that I amnow.
Yeah, going to the studio everyday for almost 15 years and
having very strict teachershelped me learn discipline,
technique and a lot of necessarythings to become a good dancer.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
All right.
Last two Favorite recentpurchase let's say under $50 or
$100 that has impacted your lifethe most in the last six months
.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
We can change the parameters of the price or the
time I will say these not theseglasses, but the red glasses
that I wore at kcon, because Ifeel like it's sort of indirect
but you know, the office sirentrend has been going around on
TikTok and Pinterest andInstagram and I feel like those
(50:21):
glasses really helped to catchthe attention of whoever was
underneath me.
I was really committing to thisaesthetic and actually I was
worried that I was going to falloff on stage so I was like
taking a risk to to wear it.
But I was like, no, I'm gonnawear these glasses.
Yeah, they're so cheap.
I got them on shein, I think,um five dollars maybe and yeah,
(50:45):
they changed my life nice.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
I like it.
It's five dollar glasses butprobably helped you stand out a
lot and blow up nice.
Okay, last rapid fire questionany favorite books, movies,
videos, articles, media, etc.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
That you share or recommend the most well, today I
am dressed in the sort ofaesthetic as coralline so this
has been my favorite tv series,not series, but movie for
halloween and getting into asort of comfy, nostalgic, creepy
(51:19):
fall atmosphere.
So I recommend watching it toanyone who loves sort of
thriller and claymation, andit's really well produced.
There's so many details and somuch lore that's involved.
I can spend so many days justwatching it over and over again
(51:40):
and each time I'll find a newdetail yeah, coralline is a
coralline, right.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
It's a cult classic, for sure.
Who's the director for that?
Tim burton?
That's right, timber no it,it's not.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
I forgot his name.
Speaker 1 (51:54):
Oh, yeah, that one guy.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
But people are very adamant that it's not.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Tim Burton oh okay, all right, so that's a misnomer
sort of thing.
Sorry to correct you, coraline,let's see.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
Henry Selick.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
Henry Selick oh.
Speaker 2 (52:07):
I see Interesting.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
Okay, we were wrong, you were right.
Speaker 2 (52:10):
No, no, I didn't even know the name Nice.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Cool.
So, coraline, definitely.
Okay, that is it for the rapidfire questions, so we can go
into our ending.
I always like to end withgratitude, something I learned
from my mom.
So, lex, what are you gratefulfor?
Speaker 2 (52:25):
I'm grateful for my ability to see bad experiences
as helpful experiences, and ithas really helped me to not
spiral into a depression anymore.
So, yeah, I'm grateful for mymentality.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
Very nice, and do you have any final ask from the
audience or any final takeawaysyou want them to have from this
conversation?
Speaker 2 (52:59):
I want to inspire the viewers to be more playful in
their everyday lives.
Even if you're doing mundaneactivities such as driving or
cooking, maybe add someintention in there and have some
fun.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
I love it.
Have some fun and intention.
So, lex, that is pretty much itfor the show.
Where can we find you?
If the audience would like toconnect or see what you're up to
, we'll have all of your linksto your socials and everything
in the show notes.
But where can they find you?
Speaker 2 (53:27):
You can find me at Oleggy on Instagram, tiktok and
YouTube.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
Nice what does Oleggy come from?
Tiktok and YouTube Nice whatdoes Oleggy come from?
Speaker 2 (53:38):
What is that name?
It's a very warped version ofmy name, alexa.
I think one of my friends wayback when used to call me Alexa,
so that's where the Gs camefrom.
And then I think my balletteacher said olexa, a lot with
an o, so then I sort of combinedthose like olexa and then olegi
so it's like a playoff of thosethings.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
Nice, I like it, cool , all right, well, we'll wrap it
up.
So thank you again, alexa orlex, for being here and just to
sign off for the audience.
So thank you, guys for tuningin.
Just a reminder to always bekind to others, especially
yourself, and that you canalways learn something from
someone if you just take thetime to listen.
So thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (54:21):
Thank you so much.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!