Kaycee Rice

**Kaycee Caitlin Rice** (born on October 21, 2002 in Woodland Hills, California, U.S.), is a young professional dancer, choreographer, actress, model and a philanthropist living in Los Angeles, California.

At the age of 10, Kaycee did a "Werk" routine for a national dance competition, choreographed by former star dancer Tricia Miranda, which she won. Pop singer Katy Perry somehow found the YouTube video of her very first hip-hop solo ever four months later and tweeted it to about 38,000,000 of her followers. After then she became an overnight internet sensation. She was the first dance kid ever went viral by a non-televised competition video and inspired the youth in 2013. She got immediately interviewed by CNN,  appeared on the Queen Latifah Show and some national newspapers and magazines wrote articles about her, plus an exclusive interview with her entire family by UK's Daily Mail. The singer of the performance song "Werqin Girl", Shengela Laquifa Wadley, visited her in Simi Valley at Studio 13 Dance, which her mom owned,  to thank her for enormous boost in record selling.

Kaycee danced for TV shows and series, music and concept videos, classes and conventions assistance, teaching, commercials and live stage performances. Since joining ImmaBEAST in 2014 , she is considered full professional, in the sense of child labor laws allowed it.

She got most fame by dancing or starring on many hours of class routines and concept videos in high quality with some of Los Angeles' most influential and established choreographers with millions of hits over the years.

With the age of 15, Weirdo has had already a thumb thick productive and professional record, with a level of summarizing highlights that many professional dancers cannot match at the end of their careers, such as; performing on the TV broadcast with most watchers in American history, 120 millions plus 80,000 in the arena, the 2015 Super Bowl XLIX halftime show, side-by-side with Katy Perry and Missy Elliott with the age of 12; she's also been on the Oscars (2014) and featured in the music video for "All About That Bass" by Meghan Trainor (2.2 billion hits in 2018) with the age of 11. Performing on the stage with Justin Bieber and Janet Jackson with the age of 13; and many more. In 2018, she announced trying to get more focus on an acting career in future, but dancing remains her main passion. She wants to be on a movie or getting a permanent role in a TV series and is working hard for it to get there.

Kaycee was a guest dancer on the fifth season of *Dance Moms* and Nickelodeon's *School of Rock TV series* and *The Fuller House*. She got her first acting main role on Disney's short film *How to catch a ghost and* since December 3, 2019 she is playing Avery in Brat TVs new series Sunny side Up.

She did commercials, for instance, for Walmart and Nike. She gets first dance kid ever sponsored by Nike, running her own campaign and had been allowed to design her own shoe for them - design Weirdo.

She got the nickname "Weirdo" by her mom to describe the not normal behavior of her daughter, which she accepted and made it to her personal philosophy - "Be yourself and be weird." aka have self-esteem and be self-confident and don't care what others think. It seems that Kaycee was a busily student of Bruce Lee's philosophy. She runs a small wearing enterprise first the slogan "Weirdo - Just be you.", managed by her mom, which became much more than a fan merchandiser.

Weirdo got online home schooled since 6th grade  and got A-s straight in first semester of 10th grade, showing she has much more to offer than just a high career IQ. Her favorite subject was math. She finds it quite challenging. She also started writing poems in 2018 and has a talent for drawing; especially cartoons. She graduated in 2018.

Kaycee is literally famous for being humble and not to take off by success, start bragging or being cocky, even if false modesty seems sometimes ridiculous. Her parents and choreographers conventionalized her to keep ground-standing. If she wants to compare with someone else, she should trying the girl in the mirror or on video. But that was exactly what led to her popularity. Always smiling, in good mood and supportive. She is trying to keep a permanent positive outlook to the world. Her new dance partner Sean Lew said about her *"Try bowling with her. She left a trail of glitter and unicorns!"* Kindness is her number one must-have feature; for herself and others. This got public interest, because people were asking how a shy and innocent girl deals with the fact, that she was suddenly dragged into an huge spotlight of public eye by Katy Perry's tweet without asking. But she took it cool and ground-standing when "the microphones were pressed in her face" since she was ten. She had never hard feelings about that. On the contrary, she is very thankful that Katy launched her career, mined so many opportunities for her and to quote "being on a crazy ride" ever since.

Kaycee also dances many years as philanthropist, such as for http://www.idance4acure.org, and supporting to fight childhood cancer. Due her engagement and popularity, and those of many other dancers and choreographers, the funds rise very well, financing research and treatments for children with cancer and she personally has had spent some time with kids diagnosed cancer. Other engagements by her went public are Muscular Dystrophy Association , the BornThisWay/ Foundation, Camp Fire Victims and the former Lily Sarah Grace Foundation, which supported once to establish practicing arts in classrooms, for cognitive development.

Kaycee began dancing when she was four in a half years old and began competing when she was five years old. Her mother founded "Studio 13" in Simi Valley, where Kaycee grow up, when she was seven years old, to keep up with her basic training; and had to close it seven years later at August 31, 2016 for multiple reasons. Kaycee went daily strait after school (before homeschooling) to the studio for training. Sometimes until late into the evening when her mom was closing the studio.

She is trained in various styles of dancing - ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, tumbling, acro and her strongest suits contemporary and hip-hop. Her favorite style was tap when she was younger,  but It has changed to contemporary and hip-hop later. But she loves actually all styles of dancing and finds challenging to adapt on different styles. Her former partner Gabe De Guzman described: "She picks up choreography really quickly—and she can do any style of dance you throw at her." And Dance Spirit wrote: "Armed with limitless flexibility and a natural expressive quality, Kaycee carved out her place in the competition world as a versatile technical dancer."  Her back flexibility combined with her without-first-sign spin and turn combinations with smooth transitions ending in accentuated fierce moves with not too much power became to a kind of trademark of her dance. Derek Hough, who was not used to watch Kaycee stated in The Duels round of World of Dance Season 2: "First of all, your back bend over there, the moment ... \*showing move\* ... the turn around, was sick, absolute stunning!" She made a stretching routine video, to show how she kept that flexibility. Gabe described her with "She's like Elastigirl from The Incredible. She's that flexible." Her new partner Sean Lew stated: "She has no bones."  But actually he should know better after experiencing Weirdo's martial arts unplugged - she has a Blue Belt in Tae Kwan Do - during rehearsals of World of Dance by getting it twice in the testicles and one time straight in his head with her leg, of course accidentally.  Like most top professionals she has an incredible musicality. Everything is on time in a fraction of second with fierce accentuation, body language and face expression.

According Tricia Miranda's rule "Stop dancing! Start performing!" she is going into class with the attitude, she is on stage and never is holding back. Weirdo is watching the mirror to the minimum and gets full focus on the camera in front of her. That's why on hundreds of videos she is performing she looks like live-on-stage show casing and these videos got up to 60M+ views at the end of 2018.   Soon people are realizing that headlining new videos by "ft. Kaycee Rice" could be always good for a couple millions of additional hits.  - One million hits equals to at least $2,000 USD income as a YouTube Partner Program member. - Those have given Kaycee world fame by name, way before her NBC World of Dance performances with Sean Lew and makes her a permanent viral phenomenon beginning at the end of 2016 when her mother had to shut down the studio and she massively took filmed classes in LA. And since working together with Sean as duet, they both doubled their individual popularity. Dance Spirit wrote after an interview with her: "I don't feel like I'm a big star," she says. "I'm just a normal person, who loves what she does, and loves sharing it with the world." Humble to the last. But actually, especially in the hip-hop community, Kaycee is already a viral star. By quality of performing. By quantity and variety of dances. And by quality and quantity of getting attention. Kaycee and some other kid dancers are literally a big economical influence on many video editors by making compilation and reaction videos from other videos of or by her, and those increase her popularity again.

In 2017, she was nominated for the Industry Dance Awards for favorite dancer 17 & under, together with Mackenzie Ziegler, Kalani Hilliker, Tate McRae, Bailey Sok and the winner Nia Frazier. At the end of the year, statistically in 2017, she is shown on 6 of the top 50 (12%) most viewed first release dance videos published on YouTube in 2017.

In 2018, she competed with Sean Lew in season two of NBC's *World of Dance*. Both were nominated for the Industry Dance Awards 2018 for most fierce dancer under 18, together with Charlize Glass, JT Church and the winner Eva Igo. As absolute surprise must be considered her nomination for a Streamys Award - The Oscars of Web - in the category Dance together with 1 million Dance Studio, Dytto (Courtney Nicole Kelly), Kyle Hanagami and the winner Matt Steffanina with still sweet 15 years old. She also started teaching her first dance classes with her own choreography. All of her first three classes of about 80 dancers were sold out in advance. Two months later she was co-/assistant choreographer for Red Velvet's new music video "Really Bad Boy". At the end of the year, statistically in 2018, her fans were able to watch every fourth day a new taped dance by her (about 90 in total) and she is shown on 12 of the top 100 (12%) most viewed first release dance videos published on YouTube in 2018.

In 2019, she won a Shorty Award in the category "Best in Dance". She was nominated together with Auti Kamal, Brittany Cavaco, Chelsie Hill, Cynthia Irobunda, Dytto, Fik-Shun, Jade Chynoweth, Justin Peck, Omar Z. Robles, Shiggy and The Kinjaz in her category.  On the same day she was performing the NBC World of Dance World Final intermezzo show on season three on air together with Sean Lew and Ian Eastwood while NE-YO was singing on stage. They got the honor to be in line with dance legends like Les Twins, Keone & Mari Madrid, Derek Hough, The Kinjaz, The Lab, Charity Anderson & Andres Peñate and Michael Dameski. While still 16 years old, in October, she had her first oversea class teaching - in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic! She was hanging out in the Caribbean for a convention weekend with her mom, Sean, her dance parents Will and Janelle, having a first class flight and of course, a meet & greet like every time. After a short pit stop at home she tried out Maui in Hawaii for a family and birthday week vacation after that.  After two taken classes in LA she changed the ocean again and joined Sean in Iceland at Reykjavik for his after-birthday family vacation.  - Before jet lack had vanished her next booking in France was confirmed and Kaycee leveled up to international dance teacher, while she appeared first time as a series regular as Avery James on Brat TV and took serious first step towards acting career. From the the End of 2018 until her Short Award in May 2019, she said she got some coolers and described the year as a roller coaster ride, but at the end of 2019 it seems she can watch her career form the top of the hill.

## Her Progress

In 2018, on the NBC World of Dance show season 2 she performed with her new partner Sean Lew as Sean & Kaycee, getting second in Divisional Final and they became one of the most popular acts of the show with a lot of special clips and interviews by NBC. They got huge laudation during the show. Jennifer Lopez eulogized them as with "If anyone in this competition can be called prodigies, it's Sean and his partner Kaycee." ... "You have a real talent" ..."technically perfect" ... "You move me in a way I cannot explain sometimes." and actually broke out into tears after Sean & Kaycee had the nerves to perform half of their qualifiers routine blindfolded in front of 8.5 million watchers (air day + 7 days) on national television later (taped 4 months before), making an huge impact in the dance community. Jenna Dewan stated in an interview later: "I swear to you, they are the future of choreography and dance." After first airing the adorable couple was no longer treated as dance stars, but as common celebrities, who pointed out that they are just best friends and not dating (yet). Below are the scores of the rounds they participated in.

 Jennifer Lopez
 Derek Hough

 Jennifer Lopez
 Derek Hough

 Misty Copeland
 Jennifer Lopez
 Derek Hough

## References

1. ↑ DailyMail EXCLUSIVE: Katy Perry's Tiny Dancer: How the superstar turned one little girl into an internet sensation
2. ↑ Kaycee Rice- interview at CNN Los Angeles for Showbiz Tonight- Katy Perry's Tiny Dancer
3. ↑ Shangela surprises Kaycee Rice
4. ↑ KAYCEE RICE IMMA Channel
5. ↑ Kaycee Rice IMDb data
6. ↑ 50 FACTS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ME⁉️😝 - Kaycee Rice
7. ↑ GONE FOR 3 WEEKS?!?! - Kaycee Rice
8. ↑ Sean & Kaycee - The Zoo LA TV
9. ↑ Kaycee Rice - Weirdo Wednesday - Q and A Part 2🤗⁉️
10. ↑ Kaycee Rice meets Parker Monhollon
11. ↑ Sean Lew and Kaycee Rice Dancė Nėtwork Interview
12. ↑ "The Voice Within" - Christina Aguilera (2013 Show Of Strenth Telethon For Reagan)
13. ↑ KC's IG account
14. ↑ KC instagram Studio 13
15. ↑ Get To Know: Kaycee Rice
16. ↑ Kaycee Rice Interview July 2013
17. ↑ Gabe De Guzman and Kaycee Rice Are a Stage Match Made in Hip-Hop Heaven
18. ↑ Sean Lew & Kaycee Rice To the Pointe with Kristyn Burtt
19. ↑ Sean Lew - "Bloppers" video - Behind the scene of World of Dance
20. ↑ JASON DERULO feat. FRENCH MONTANA - "TIP TOE", Choreography by @nikakljun
21. ↑ Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money - Choreography by Tricia Miranda | @timmilgram @rihanna
22. ↑ Jason Derulo - Swalla ft Nicki Minaj - Choreography by Jojo Gomez - ft Kaycee Rice
23. ↑ 8 Dance Stars Doing Social Media Right
24. ↑ Most Viewed Dance Videos Published In 2017 | Top 50 Videos Of 2017 Choreography
25. ↑ Kaycee Rice (2nd channel)
26. ↑ Top 100 Most Viewed Dance Videos Published In 2018
27. ↑ Michelle Obama, Noah Centineo, Marie Kondo, John Mulaney Win 2019 Shorty Awards
28. ↑ KC#s IG Maui
29. ↑ Sean's IG Iseland
30. ↑ Jenna Dewan Online Interview

## External Links

* Official Site
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Instagram
* YouTube