Update Part 2: I'M AN AUNTIEEEEEEEEEEEE & Going to ROME

Also, Just wanted to let THE WORLD KNOW:

My sister gave birth to a beautiful little girl by the name of Lucy Evangeline Rogers on April 13th, 2014!

SHE IS THE CUTEST!!!!

Lucy Evangeline Rogers <3

Flashback to the very first day Jackie and Phil told us about baby Sesame on the way!! 

TEARS OF JOY

I seriously can't wait to meet her officially... I've already met her through Facetime but she probably doesn't remember because she was sleeping. Also she was like four days old and I don't think anyone can remember stuff from when they were four days old. She's got such a cute derpy face. HEH. I'll be meeting her in the summer after my Rome trip...

Which leads to my ROME trip!

I'm officially going to ROME with seven other dancers from UCI-- three undergraduate students(including myself) and four Graduate students. This was actually a really last minute decision, but I've decided since I wasn't able to study abroad this summer, I can DANCE abroad-- which is basically like studying abroad. It's going to be really cool because we are working and collaborating with musicians at the University of Rome and doing three performances there. Last time I was in Europe I was in Austria performing with my old dance studio.... and it was the best time of my life, though I admit I was quite young at the time and didn't really understand how precious it was. SO i'm super excited to go again to Europe for dance. I'm also just really excited to travel to Europe satisfy my traveling crave I've been having ;)

Also who knows, maybe I'll meet an Italian popstar who will ask me to impersonate his Italian popstar duo partner that looks coincidentally exactly like me and then I'll have to sing and dance and present an award at the italian pop music awards and then---- oh, right that's the Lizzie Mcguire movie.... woops.

I'M READY FOR MY OWN LIZZIE MCGUIRE MOVIE! Lexi Friday takes on ITALIA WOOOO

Update Part 1: Dance Escape & first UCSB/UCI Exchange Performance

It's been a while since I've updated, but I've finally found time to blog a little bit before things start getting crazy again. 

I'm in my Spring quarter at UC Irvine, and it's so far been a great quarter-- although I'm finding it incredibly hard to find motivation in doing homework.

I just got finished with two dance shows this quarter:
1. Dance Escape

Dance Escape was a great Graduate choreography show, and I was really lucky to have been casted in two very different but equally awesome pieces.
The first piece I was in was called "81?728" choreographed by Cara Scrementi. Cara was a choreographer that after seeing her piece in New Slate this year, I knew I wanted to work with during her time here at UCI. Her choreography is so quirky and brilliant-- I was more than ecstatic when I saw I was casted for her piece. Though her choreography was a bit of a challenge for me because of its precision and intricacy, it was something that I was really proud to have worked hard and perform it with other talented dancers. Also, I really loved the music we danced to... I'm still listening to it even after the show is over!

Listen to:
Adieu by HitRecord
My family's role in the world revolution by Beirut

A++ songs, yo.

Here's a cool photo from her piece!

I'm in yellow on the far right in the back... Check out Emily (front, center) and her super amazing leg!
Photo By Lisa Bates

The second piece I was in was called "And then what happens?" choreographed by Steve Rosa. I've taken social dance from Steve earlier in the year, so I already had in mind that this was going to be a really fun piece. And I was right! It was a lot of dancers I've never danced with before, so it was great being able to meet some new dancers. We were a pretty goofy cast (in the best way of course!) and it was never a dull moment in class and on stage. Steve was a blast to work with and I definitely had a lot of fun.
Here's a photo of us embracing our weird selves ;)

The second show occurred right after the weekend of Dance Escape::

The dance ensemble I'm apart of ,UCI ETUDE ENSEMBLE, travelled to Santa Barbara to do a research performance exchange with the dance department over at UCSB. It was an amazing experience and definitely too short. We spent the day in SBm took pictures at the beach, and performed Donald Mckayle's repertoire from "Songs of the Disinherited" as well as our Dance Visions piece "Even as the river and the sea are one."

I wish we had more trips like these, because it was such a great way for our ensemble to bond-- even if it was for a brief time. The only thing is, I wish Mr. Mckayle was able to come with us. :(

Here are some photos from the trip!

Even as the River and the Sea are One

Original Class of 2014 <3

Class of 2015 <3

Her Campus update- New Article, and Blogger Network!

Hellooooo internet.

Just a quick little post about my beautiful friend, Matlynn Henry, whom I've had the pleasure to spotlight for this weeks Campus Cutie. She was one of my closest dance friends growing up, and we ended up going to UC Irvine together! She's a lovely gal. She's a dancer, loves to nap, and enjoys watching Disney movies. Click the caption below her picture to read more about her!

Matlynn Henry '16

I was also very happy to see that both my Campus Cutie articles made it to Her Campus Top Chapter Articles! This has never happened to me before, so it's a really big deal for me. 

Konstantinos and Thanasis Kaplanis

Matlynn Henry!

While I'm on the subject of Her Campus, I am very pleased to state that after applying to the Her Campus Blogger Network, I got an email saying I have a spot in the Network! Nothing makes me happier, and it's quite exciting because I'll have an even bigger incentive to keep this blog updated. I'm going to try and put a focus to my blog, since right now it's just a compilation of pop culture and personal life. I've recently been writing a lot about music, so I might make a tag for it. Not sure yet what I'll do, but either way, I'm just really happy to get this blog on a roll!

NYE Resolutions for 2014

Every year I think of a couple new years resolutions to tie me over for the year and most of the time the resolutions stay in tact for a good month before I completely forget about them.

So to with hold the tradition of making new years resolutions and forgetting about it, I'm gonna go ahead and list some resolutions for the year and hopefully I'll keep some in mind as this year develops.

Resolutions

1. Own it. As in, muster up some confidence and be proud of what I like. Ok, so maybe I am a little weird, and I am a little awkward and normal people would probably prefer talking about something other than the last regeneration of Doctor Who. But honestly, there's no need to feel ashamed of it. Lexi of 2014- Quit dampening your self esteem over something as stupid as a bad  conversation.

2. Write more. Seriously.

3. Learn to cook entrees other than Top Ramen and eggs. Just because.

4. Think before you speak.

Especially in front of a cute boy. or a potential job employer.

5. Going off of that last resolution, I'm gonna go ahead and put work on my listening skills this year. I tend to zone out unintentionally when someone is speaking, so this year I'm gonna work on being more attentive and present in conversations. ( I guess this can relate all the way back to #1 resolution, since sometimes I'm terrible at keeping a conversation)

6. Don't make promises you can't keep. Simple enough.

OH and a bonus:
Broaden my vocabulary.
 as in stop using "f*cking" as an intensifier. There are other words to emphasize your enthusiasm.

In fact, let's try and tone down the cursing this year.

Those are the only New Year Resolutions I can think of at the moment. I would say "stop using dance as an excuse for not going to the gym" but I'm kind of aiming for realistic resolutions.

Happy New Year!

Change is gonna come :)

Happy Friday! (Hey look, It's actually a post on Friday too)

I've got some really exciting news!!! I don't know if I can contain it all into one itsy bitsy little blog post-- so bear with me if it's a bit long...

To get it out of the way:

1) On Monday, I auditioned for an ensemble at my school called Etude Ensemble, which is run by the legendary Donald Mckayle. Etude is an ensemble of about 18 dancers who perform old and new repertory of Donald Mckayle. Ever since joining UC Irvine, I've always wanted to be apart of this ensemble, so auditioning for this was very important to me. And though I may have been running off of little to no sleep, it turned out to be a great audition!!! :D

I can happily say I am now apart of the Donald Mckayle Etude Ensemble at UC Irvine for the 2013-2014 year! Words can't describe how incredibly happy I am to have received the news Tuesday morning. Again, this quarter has definitely been one of the roughest life transitions I've gone through, so it was a blessing to hear news like this. It's inspired me to keep working hard and pushing myself to be the best that I can be-- and I'm so thankful every day that I am fortunate enough to be in such a great university that offers opportunities like this.

2) I just have been hired as a new camp counselor for Steve and Kate's camp! Yay, I have a summer job! I've always wanted to go to a summer camp when I was little, so I guess I'm living those childhood dreams! yippee

And now for some other highlights/lowlights of my week:


1) I trekked out to LA with a friend of mine to watch a small show called PopRocks on Tuesday the 28th! It was put on by Andy Mientus, Michael Arden, and Lady J and it was night full of seriously fun singing. I also met some really cool people. It was just a great night out and I loved every minute of it! Though I wish there were a couple of musical theatre covers thrown in there, the pop songs they covered were like candy for my ears :D

[Photo Credits to Amelia Lourdes]

2) Last weekend, I was supposed to go home to possibly train for a summer camp job as well as present a scholarship check to one of the new Beach Blanket Babylon Scholarship winners. However, unforeseen plans with school came up and I ended up not being able to go... Which I was pretty sad about because I had a good friend of mine in the competition and also knew of the other two dancers.

But, staying in Irvine worked out anyways because it was actually one of my dearest UCI friends 21st birthday so of course, I was able to celebrate his birthday with good company. Had loads of fun, and to put it bluntly: I have some really awesome friends.

3) I got to do a photo shoot over the weekend with one of my best friends here at UCI. She's always liked taking photos as a fun little hobby, so I'm really glad that she's starting to do more with it because she definitely has an eye for the camera.

Here's some snapshots :D

If you like her photography and want some photographs done for any occasion for a cheap price, please contact her at her Facebook Page ---> Lauren Woo Photography

As for the downsides of this week, I cracked the internal screen of my Droid Razr Maxx which was heartbreaking because it was definitely one of my favorite phones to this date-- What happened to the Gorilla Glass being unbreakable?! So I'm currently back to my old phone from last year, which I just reactivated. Thought it's obviously much slower and not as high tech as my Razr Maxx, it will have to do for the time being. It's funny going back and looking at all my old conversations and pictures from a year ago.

Another downside is that a lot of the seniors this year will be graduating! :( It makes me incredibly sad because I feel like I didn't get a chance to spend a whole lot of time with them this quarter... It's been extremely busy for them this quarter, and I really do hope our paths will cross again. In fact, I'm sure they will, because the Dance/Theatre community is really small (something I've realized over my year off).

And with that, I'm signing off! Nighty :)

Macaroons, Dance Concerts, and the Importance of Live Art

Happy Friday!

It's been a great week so far, both academically and physically. I've been having some really great dance classes, I got two midterms back that I did extremely well on, and I did an interview for a summer job that also went well.

Oh, I also had my first macaroon ever so that was an experience. In fact as I type this up right now, I'm chowing down on a hazlenut flavoured one and drinking a cup of tea. I'm feeling fancy fancy freeeee (although I probably shouldn't be eating a dessert since my stomach isn't feeling too great. we'll call this sacrifice)

Anyways, I think the main thing I want to blog about is the importance of live performances. In my last post, I talked about how I was home to watch my younger brother perform with his highschool, School of the arts. School of the Arts in San Francisco is a very Ballet and Modern based school, so their dance concert was mainly works of contemporary ballet, modern, and the occasional jazz pieces.  These kids are all in their teens-- from 15 years old to 18, and all of them have got such talent. My brother kicked some serious butt (of course I'm being biased, but let's be real here... he's an awesome dancer) and it was just so cool to see him dancing in something completely different from Billy...

Except I do have to make note of one of the pieces that kind of reminded me of a continuation of Billy's "Shadow Dance" right before "Grandma's Song".  This piece used interesting lighting to create shadows onstage, and of course my brother whos obviously a seasoned expert on shadow dancing, had an awesome little duet with another dancer where he used his hands to create shadows that fit with her shadow. It was pretty cool and probably would have been the result of Billy's shadow dance if he didn't see Grandma sifting through his private stuff.

There were loads of other talent on the stage as well, and I have to make note of these two dancers... both tall and both are red heads... These guys were featured quite a lot and boy can they move! holy man, I was shaking my head in awe. The two of them had a duet, and it was so epic and ginger. Not sure why there's the idea that gingers are "soulless" and "unfortunate" because honestly, after Ed Sheeran, Rupert Grint, Karen Gillan, Prince Harry (The list go on), and now those two kids..... I Beg to differ. Gingers ROCK.

So despite it being a great show, I think watching this show and watching my younger brother perform was kind of the inspiration behind my working hard in classes this week. Not to say I haven't been working hard in class, because I definitely do, but this week I had a different motivation behind me. After watching a live performance of dance, I was motivated to really work hard in classes so I can perform again. And I think it's really important, especially for artists, to constantly be exposed to live art. I'm really fortunate that the university I go to offers live performances weekly, whether it's a dance concert thesis, a live improv comedy club, or a jazz music night. Not only do you get a sense of inspiration and motivation while watching talented performers, you gain an even bigger appreciation and respect for the art. Don't you agree?

With that said, this weekend is going to be full of live performances: I'm seeing my friends dance in a student choreographed dance thesis, I'll be working on a dance-chemistry collaboration video, and then on monday I'll be attending a musical theatre night show in LA (with andy mientus and michael arden! I've only recently found out who they are, but my golly can they sing!) I'm so excited for these events and I love surrounding myself with such talented people who may have a different focus in the arts, but all have the same passion and drive. :D It makes me just want to embrace all of them in a lovely hug.

That's all for now! Lovely weekend to all and to all. xo