TDF- EP.3~ KAYLA KAISER

Episode 3 with Kayla Kaiser otherwise known as "KK The Foodie." A very laid-back interview, quite literally, as we lay down and relax to pick at her brain about life and what it means to be "The Foodie." Kayla is the bringing a new aspect straight away to the series by being our first guest that doesn't consider themselves a dancer. KK is a lovely young woman that likes to challenge herself in new and creative ways. A relatable and open book that you will enjoy from start to finish. Follow Kayla's journey on social media @kaylabellak_ 

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Host- Ty Nelson @tallglassofty

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Transcript

Welcome back everybody to another episode of TheDanceFLoor. My name is Ty Nelson, your host, And today I am joined by Kayla Kaiser, otherwise known as KK. She is the foodie here on The Valiant Lady during this contract. And we're about to get started with a new episode. This one's gonna be interesting. Kayla does not consider herself really a dancer. But she is an artist and a great person to talk to. So welcome Kayla. What's up girl, what's up? Who are you? What is your your like go to phrase if you're introducing yourself to a new person. I mean, that's tricky cause on the ship I'm constantly introducing myself to people. I’m like “what’s up I’m KK The Foodie.” But I guess in real life… I guess I'm just Kayla. Very free spirited person that is constantly doing random and new things. And what is “The Foodie.”  for people who don't know what means? So here on Virgin Voyages. I host food and drink related events as well as just a general entertainment host here on the ship. What's your first memory of dancing at least? Oh goodness. My first memory: Like a lot of people, I did ballet probably when I was like 3 or something like that. And I just remember hating leotards. I just remember putting on that. Like really tiny pink leotard of being like this, this is *** and not not vibing with it. So OK, if you started in ballet, what other styles did you learn as you grew up? I did tap dancing for a year and I very, very much remember I had these little Hello Kitty things on my tap dance shoes. I did some jazz later on, and then I did a lot of musical theater as a kid. OK, so I did do some, I guess, kind of dancing for that, but I just didn't really consider it like a lot of dance. It was more like singing and acting. OK, 'cause I was gonna say these sound like you're a dancer. No, I'm not. This was many years ago. Is there anything that you've kept up with, whether it be tap or jazz or any of the ballet, or is it just kind of like.. NO. When I was younger I really loved acting and like had my heart set on that and then my family was like “you’re never gonna be an actor.” So I kind of just moved on from it. OK. We love supportive parents. Yeah. And then I became a swimmer. I was a swimmer for 13 years of my life and taught swimming, swam competitively, but I I've never really had a set thing like I've never had a set career path like even what I do now if you asked me a year ago, I would have been like, you're joking. OK, So just kind of a go with the flow? Very go with the flow. And now that I have this job, I've let go of any and all expectations I have for my life. Even though you’re go with the flow, do you have a plan? Like are you hoping to come back here? Do you have something lined up? I would be happy to come back OK 100%. Still in the Foodie role? Yeah in “The Foodie.”  I love being “The Foodie” and I love being an entertainment host as well. After my contract ends, I really want to travel some more and continue to like, just discover new things. New cultures, new people. I am really passionate about music. OK. I've been trying to teach myself the guitar and it's it's unsuccessful, but I've been, I've been trying to, I have a guitar at home. Have you tried on the ship? Because we have a few guitarists. No, I took a singing lesson on the ship actually, just for fun. OK, How was that? It was really fun. It was really fun. How was that? It was really fun. It was really fun because it’s like a secret things I’m passionate about but I don’t really tell anyone about. OK so it's a goal to marry the two, like be a guitar player and a singer? No, no. What's something that you really grew up with that you love and that you draw inspiration from in your day-to-day life. Umm, So growing up, there's two things that influence me a lot. Umm one would be travel because my mom is from Ethiopia. So growing up, most of my family is not from the United States and even if they're not in Ethiopia, they're in like another country. So I just grew up travelling quite a bit. Like I went on like my first airplane when I was like 3 to Canada. The whole foodie aspect. I grew up with food being a big part of my life. I wasn't allowed to watch SpongeBob or anything, but I could watch the Food Network, and someone that really inspired me growing up was a man called Anthony Bourdain, who had this TV show called Parts Unknown. He would travel to different places talk about like food and history. Me and I would watch that with my mom a lot and that just was…  Low-key that would be like a dream job; would be to have like a show and like talk about food and history and culture. Well, I mean, this could be your first, you know, branch into that you start doing some some vlogging yeah. You know, I've, my friends have been like, you need to start vlogging your life 'cause it's very interesting to them Yeah and I want to, but I just haven't like I haven't been like into it enough to start, but I think I probably will. I would say unsolicited advice, things you didn't ask for, but while you're here on the ship, cause I've done this for almost five years and like this is your first contract, right yeah and you're kinda younger, which is nice cuz you have that time to grow while you're on here. If you continue to come back, bring stuff like this like bring microphones, bring a setup and just like record little things. Don't burn yourself out with it because it can get hard, especially this is kind of advice for anybody who wants to start doing silly projects or just, you know, film themselves. Don't think of it as like, I gotta get this out there and don't do it because you're expecting like super big results. But consistency in today's world is like the quantity sometimes is better than just like overall quality. So don't feel like you have to be a perfectionist with what you produce. Like just produce what makes you happy, produce what's fun. And then as you get bigger and bigger with it, and this is coming from someone who's not even a big person, but I understand the aspect of it. Once you get bigger, then you can be like, oh, I remember I had this passion project. I want to do that now. And don't be afraid to just like do 'cause I think you would be great. I do think you would be great for something like that or even just like, here's what I'm doing today. And you have a great personality and a bubbly like spirit and the way that you invite people in. So just consider it, I think it'll be fun for you. I want to yeah. With the whole like perfectionist mindset is like I've recorded vlogs before. I try to do cooking vlogs when I was in college and like just videos of me cooking 'cause I would host dinner parties for my friends and I would just hate every single one of them. Like I would, I would spend an hour just recording myself. Uh-huh. And I'd look back on it and be like “this is horrible.” and never post them and it's definitely just a perfectionist thing I’m sure they were fine. Have you looked at him since? No, every time I look at an old video, I'm like, oh, that was actually pretty cool. Interesting. So maybe give it a shot, look back and be like, Oh, this is actually cute because we are our own words critic and especially in the moment, like, but when you get older and you look back at you're like, that was actually pretty cool for me with my dancing. I look at old dance footage of like I was, I was really dancing and you might be like, oh, this vlog is adorable. Like you might cause especially as you get away from that moment, you kind of remember and you love that memory and you love yourself more in that moment. So try to check it out like soon and be like, oh, this is actually cute and so I get to rerelease it or anything. But you could maybe find inspiration. You might release it. I think you maybe should. We’ll see. See who has given you that, like advice you've listened to your whole life and not so much like what's inspired you 'cause we're talking a little bit about both, But like, is there a mentor in your life? I know you mentioned Anthony Bourdain is someone you watch, but is there someone in your life, like maybe a family member who helped you learn how to cook or someone that you really were inspired by and he took that advice from them. I would say I'm kind of the black sheep in my family OK, where I've everything that I've done is like so different from anyone in my family but someone that I do and I've always looked up to is my mom like a very close relationship with her and she is the person that taught me how to cook and also very just supportive of what I do for the most part. For the most part. What is he not supportive of? A lot of things that I do. Like, OK, that's what I was gonna say. I, I, my mom, being from a third world country, is just very conservative. The first person in my family to have any tattoos, but I'm also the first person to have a bachelor's degree. So it's like OK, up and down. But everything that I do is pretty unconventional to them. But they're just happy that I don't ask them for money. So that's a win win. Hell yeah. OK. But I would say yeah, I just have to go with my mom, I guess. I mean, she left her country when she was 20 and didn't speak a lick of English and just mosied on down to California. Yeah, and just started a whole new life and now she's very successful and she lives and does what makes her happy. And she encourages me to do the same. So that's a big motivator. We're both people that kind of live for pleasure, which, like, sounds like a bad thing, but it's not. Yeah, she does what makes her happy as a person. And It shows. And that's just how I want to be. That's probably all you can ask for. Yeah. I mean, we only have the one short life that we live, so I think it's a great idea to live it with pleasure and to do what you want and make you happy. Kind of goes with what the whole theme is, I guess you could say. Is there any like motto that she's ever said that you said that stuck with you? A Motto? Yeah, yeah. She's like, hey, don't pluck your chickens unless it's a Tuesday, you know what I mean? Like, no, I've never heard that. I like, there's no motto like that. I just made that. So. Well, I actually have a tattoo. A little quote. Oh, that's my mom's favorite quote. And it's “Amor Fati.” in Latin. And it means to love your fate, love one's fate, whatever your fate may be. So I guess that could be a motto, Her favorite quote. That's dope. Love your fate. OK Yeah. So it's a latin quote and just means to love one's fate and accept whatever happens in your life. To just love it and fully embrace it essentially 'cause you can't really control it. I love that. A little back story in this episode. KK originally sent me something and I was like, OK, cool, So what should we do? She's like, I'm thinking hip hop contemporary. And this morning when we had breakfast to kind of like talk it over, she was like, yeah, I don't know what those are. I don't really, you know, I'm not really in the styles. And I was like, oh, she was like I just named 2 styles that I know and I was like OK that's fine, that's fine. I feel like it’s a popular style right? Like a hip hop/ contemporary to me when I think of dancing I feel like it’s just people moving their bodies to like however they connect to the music. This is true. And so I don't really know. I learned what Krump is today. She did. And that was a transformational experience. So we should definitely Krump. We might Krump at each other for the dance. We'll see. A little Krump off if you will. I don't think I would win. That's my only issue, and I'm very competitive. Oh, OK. Well, we're definitely not gonna battle each other in the dance. This is a collaboration. Okay? Collaborative Krump. I think you'd win. I don't think so. You have so much being nice. No, you have so much spunk. You know, you, you, you, you believe in yourself. I think my spun goal against me so far. Alright, that's very 10th place in Mario Kart. Won't forget it. Well, OK, So what is your song choice? Has it changed from what we were thinking or do you wanna still stick with that? I think I'm gonna stick with it. OK, My song choice is Cry for Me by The Weekend. Now, I chose the song for a couple of reasons. One, because when I first heard the song itself, I just thought it would be a good song to dance to. While I don't have much professional dance experience. I feel like I can envision things in my head when I listen to music. Like I just, that's how I've always been as a person and also seeing other people dance and like videos and stuff. I love watching those and I just was like, I could totally see this being like a dance that like other dancers would dance to. Now it's me. And I think it'll be a mix of all things. And I also love The Weekend. I grew up listening to The Weekend when I was like 12. Fun fact, he's Ethiopian. So that was like really cool for me to hear like another famous Ethiopian person that's an artist, another famous, you're the first famous I'm the first one, yeah, of course and so I've always loved his music. It's like kind of like a broody, like hopeless, romantic kind of music. I love The Weekend, yeah. Have you ever been to the Universal Experience? No, I've never been to Universal. He had his own maze. Well, I guess that was more maybe in California, but I think possibly they could have done it in Florida. I don't know. He had his own maze like like a haunted thing. I'll be honest, it wasn't great because I mean, you don't really equate, I don't think the weekend to to like scary. Some of his videos are very interesting concepts, but I loved it cuz his music's playing the whole time. So people are jumping out trying to scare you and I'm just like (cry for me singing). That's insane. I've never heard of that. Yeah, I saw The Weekend perform though, when I was 14, and I cried. It was wonderful. And his voice was so much better live than it was over like Spotify, I was just like, so moved by it. But yeah, love The Weekend. So I'm very happy to be doing this to one of his songs. What's a specific goal besides learning the guitar and maybe taking a singing lesson? What's something that– those are not goals? OK, work, work. What’s the goal? I would say. Honestly, I think actually that all has to tie into a general goal that I have for myself was to push myself in areas that I'm not confident. So like things that I'm confident in would be, you know, public speaking, traveling to random places, hosting, those things I'm very confident in. But things that I'm not confident in is, I think just applying myself to stuff that inspires me, but I haven't taken risks to be a part of it. OK, yeah, work. I mean, you, you're not like harp on it, but you are younger and it's nicer because you have the chance. Now if you, if you already have that mindset, now you're gonna have like such a rich and full life 'cause you get to like enjoy things and putting yourself out there is hard, as we all know, but I think it's rewarding. What would you say is like the first thing you're looking forward to that you think is gonna test your limits? What's something if you could go do right now that would challenge you? What would what would that be? What we're about to do, Oh yeah, top of the list: we're creating a dance out of nothing. And I am someone that is not confident in my dancing skills and being on the ship surrounded by very, very talented dancers has been very inspiring for me to want to learn. What's nice about this project is it really is just about fun. It's to inspire people who listen. And you know, I think you've done a great job with that with like the words you've said and the stories you've given. I think you're gonna do great because what what's nice about this is the dance doesn't have to be super technical. It doesn’t have to be really like a hard thing. It's just to showcase your personality, which I I believe you're gonna have a great like output of your personality. That's it's all about having fun. We'll see how it goes. I think it's gonna be great and I believe in that. I really do believe in that. I believe in you. I think we're gonna have a good time. If you say so. I think we'll have fun. I'm already having fun, so I'm excited for it. OK, well, with that, that means it's time to actually get into it. Already, Yeah. Are you excited? Oh, what's your where can people find you? And what's next for you? That's the real question we need to ask before we just wrap everything up. Well, maybe you never know. I might start making vlogs. We'll see. OK. But my Instagram handle is Kayla. Kayla Bella. BELLAK under score. OK Bella middle name is Isabella as well. Oh Isabella. OK cute. And what's like your go to you just on Instagram? You want anything? I have a TikTok but I don't know what the username is. I haven't used TikTok in a very long time. That's OK. I think it's like Kayla something 111 11:11 it's like. OK, look, 11:11 was my first tattoo. You know, it's numerology. We love it numerology, but it's probably Kayla 1111 and you might see a thirst trap when I was like 18 on there. Uh oh. So haven't been on Tiktok in a long time. Damn, that's a while since 18. That should be where you do your blogs. Bury the thirst trap. Yeah, bury the thirst trap, everyone. Everyone thinks we're the **** with our freshman in college. You're still the ****. Own it. Alright. Well, now that we know where you can find KK, once again, huge thank you to you. Thanks for being our second person on the podcast, Booyah. Thanks for having me, Ty. As always. Thank you for joining us people. We appreciate you listening, watching whatever form you're seeing this in. And hopefully one day we'll see you out on TheDanceFloor. See you next time.