Lexee Smith and Addison Rae on Dance, Discipline, and Dressing for Chaos

L.A.’s reigning dancer du jour talks Texas roots, toxic coaches, and killer fits with her friend and collaborator Addison Rae.

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FRIDAY 12:56 PM DEC. 6, 2024 LA

ADDISON RAE: Hey, Lexee.

LEXEE SMITH: Hey, girl.

RAE: [Laughs] What’d you do today?

SMITH: Me and my roommate walked to get a coffee.

RAE: Where’d you go?

SMITH: Alfred. Random, right?

RAE: Better than Blue Bottle?

SMITH: No, but it’s a more straight-to-the-point coffee for me. Blue Bottle is more leisure.

RAE: And then?

SMITH: And then we did a Targeé [Target] run for some essentials and now I’m here. What did you do?

RAE: I actually woke up really early. I woke up at 6 a.m. and then took a shower and a bath.

SMITH: I love that type of morning.

RAE: Yeah. It was slow because I didn’t do my workout until 10:30. And then I went to Kreation, picked us up some Loaded Gun lattes, and came here.

SMITH: It’s fucking good. It’s, like, changing me.

RAE: Yeah, you told me about the butter coffee. Where’d you read that?

SMITH: Well, I became obsessed with it because of Sunrise Shack in Hawaii. All the surfers would be like, “Butter coffee ketosis, bro.”

RAE: [Laughs]

SMITH: I was like, “What is that?” I don’t even know if that does anything for me, because it’s not like I’m shredding a wave at 5 a.m. I just like how it tastes, really.

RAE: Okay. I have a few questions that I wrote down that are a little random, and we can obviously veer off of these, but what time did you wake up?

SMITH: Today was an 8:39 day, late for me. I’m normally a 7:32.

RAE: What’s your current screensaver?

SMITH: It’s a black screen with really big pink text that says, “Wild and free.” My friend made it for me. [Laughs]

RAE: What is your best first date and what’s your worst first date?

SMITH: The best first date is whenever it wasn’t even a date at all and the worst is when there’s no spontaneity. I hate cookie-cutter dates.

RAE: Where were you born?

SMITH: Houston, Texas.

RAE: Nice. When did you move to L.A.?

SMITH: When I was 12. Weird right?

RAE: Whoa. [Laughs] Do you feel more like a Southern girl or a California girl?

SMITH: I’m definitely a Valley girl. I relate to the average Valley girl more than I do a Crosby, Texas, girl. But I have such a longing to be close to that part of myself. There’s something in me that feels very Southern-coded. I think that’s why we connect so much.

RAE: Yeah. It’s like hometown longing. I got to experience living in the South longer than you did but I feel like that’s why we get along so well. Those similarities are always present. The core Southern girl.

SMITH: Yeah. There’s a certain closeness in every relationship. Everything is so family-core down there.

RAE: Are we going to start stretching now? [Laughs]

SMITH: Yeah! [Laughs]

RAE: I’m so sore.

SMITH: Me too. My butt hurts so bad.

RAE: Same. We were just saying we need to lock in because usually towards the end of the year, it feels like it’s time to chill, and that is exactly when it’s not time to chill.

SMITH: Totally. It’s always around Thanksgiving where I’m like, “Don’t let the fatty come out.”

RAE: [Laughs] I feel that. You work extra hard on holidays.

SMITH: I almost started to surrender to it, but as soon as you get your head back in the game, it’s like, “Girl, why would we ever exit the court?”

RAE: I know. It’s so much easier to start the new year in a place where you feel really strong and fit.

SMITH: Yeah, and you’re not like, “Oh, fuck, I have to turn my life around in a day to make this year better.”

RAE: Totally. What three words describe your personality?

SMITH: Uh, curious… these are hard. Curious, intuitive, and silly.

RAE: Cute. What about three words for your style?

SMITH: Wild. [Laughs] Woman—

RAE: Another W? Wicked. [Laughs]

SMITH: Wild, woman, west.

RAE: Cute! I like that because that can mean both Western and West Coast.

SMITH: Yeah, which I think is very me.

RAE: Real. Why do you think the words are different for your personality and for your style?

SMITH: Because I can’t control my personality and I can control my style. I think my style, obviously, is something that just runs through me without thinking about it, but I do think depending on where I’m going, I dress myself accordingly.

RAE: Same.

SMITH: Because I want to be seen in a certain light or just—

RAE: Feel a certain way. I feel like both of us are very like that. Our clothes are reflective of where we’re at in our lives.

SMITH: Totally.

RAE: Sometimes I’ll wake up feeling so chaotic and I’m like, “Alright, how can I use the chaos I feel to have a crazy outfit?” So then the chaos is in my control.

SMITH: I love that. I was reading this book called An Apprenticeship [or The Book of Pleasures] by Clarice Lispector; I just love her so much. There was a conversation with her and her lover in the book, and he was like, “The way that you showed up to the ball and hid behind your eyeliner, I love it just as much as whenever you don’t feel like hiding.” There are times where I’m like, “I need eyeliner,” and also eyeliner me is a different version than no-eyeliner me.

RAE: I feel like I haven’t seen you with your eyeliner on in a minute.

SMITH: But I go into eyeliner season. It’s really intense.

RAE: I’m not much of an eyeliner girl, usually.

SMITH: You’re not.

RAE: If anything, it’s the tiniest smokey smudge line. But if I do a crazy makeup vibe—oh, no. [Door opens] What is this! [Laughs]

SMITH: It’s not as romantic as you think.

RAE: Lexee just got flowers.

SMITH: I just got bestie flowers from my friend I was with last night.

RAE: Oh, okay. Aw, those are beautiful. You think there’s a note attached?

SMITH: Should I look?

RAE: Yeah, we can keep it between all of us. [Laughs]

SMITH: “I love you bestie. Sisters for life.” [Laughs] So real. Just straight to the point.

RAE: Perfect.

SMITH: Aw. This is a sign to send your bestie flowers.

RAE: Yes! Alright. What are your fashion nos? Like, you wouldn’t be caught dead in this?

SMITH: I’ve never resonated with a Croc. But I think everything can be worn right if you’re wearing it correctly. You know when you’re dating a guy and people are like, “Oh my god, what were his shoes giving?” I think you could wear anything that is typically disgusting to me, and if you just stick with it so hard—

RAE: You’ll believe it, too.

SMITH: If you believe it, I believe it and I’m down.

RAE: Same.

SMITH: I’m not annoyed by any choice except for a Croc.

RAE: I like that. I only had one pair of Crocs ever, and it was a hot pink pair that someone painted my name on.

SMITH: That’s cool. What else?

RAE: It’s so hard. I feel like I know so much about you.

SMITH: I know.

RAE: What do I even ask?

SMITH: It’s silly.

RAE: [Laughs] Should we?

SMITH: Yeah.

RAE: Okay. I’m going to pause. [Recording resumes]

RAE: Our Croft Alley just got here. Lexee, did we get the same thing?

SMITH: I got two turkey, one tuna.

RAE: Okay. A little compromise. Something that I feel is so fun about us being friends is your trust in me for food. [Laughs]

SMITH: Yeah. Anytime we go out, I literally don’t even look at the menu because we have bestie taste buds.

RAE: They’re very complementary.

SMITH: Anytime we want health, we both want health. And anytime we want leisure, we both want leisure.

RAE: We’re very in sync. Like when we were in Paris and I was so locked in, you were like, “Let’s go,” because you were ready to be locked in, too. It’s so much easier whenever there’s somebody doing it with you.

SMITH: It’s so nice to just be like, “We’re in it together.” I think that’s why our workout vibe is so amazing, because I wouldn’t push myself as hard if we weren’t both fucking grinding next to each other. It’s like, “Alright, if this bitch is in, I’m in, too.”

RAE: That’s why we work so well when we’re next to each other on the treadmill, especially for long-distance runs. Both of us struggle with that, and then to see each other not giving in—

SMITH: It’s like, “She’s not going to jump off.” It’s a playful competition. It makes me feel like a little kid training.

RAE: Same!

SMITH: And I crave that. Whatever happened to lowkey having a toxic coach? I’m sorry. I want to get whooped. I want intensity. I want harsh criticism. I feel like everything got so soft.

RAE: I think the only toxic thing I’m okay with having in my life is a coach. [Laughs]

SMITH: Not too toxic, but just really say it with your chest.

RAE: Totally. And he does that so well. Shout-out Pauly Solo. We love you! Alright—dance. [Laughs] Get up and dance. No, I’m kidding. The topic is dance. What’s your least favorite style of dance?

SMITH: To do?

RAE: Yes. What’s the style that you struggle with the most?

SMITH: I feel like I cannot go hard, hip-hop crazy vibes anymore. I don’t know if I’m just not tapped into my masculinity enough these days to want to do that, or if it’s just being channeled through another thing, but it’s really hard for me to do that and believe myself.

RAE: Really?

SMITH: I just don’t think I’m giving Step Up 3D anymore.

RAE: [Laughs]

SMITH: That was my dream when I was 15, but now I’m just like, “I like my feet to look pretty and my lines to be accentuated.”

RAE: And you love a heel. Interesting. What would you call your style of dance?

SMITH: Wild Woman West. [Laughs]

RAE: [Laughs] That’s actually perfect. What’s your dream song to choreograph to?

SMITH: Hmm. In my head I’m hearing that song that goes, [sings] “Oh, you beautiful doll. Great big, beautiful doll.”

RAE: Oh, my gosh. I love that. It’s so true to you. Would you ever teach?

SMITH: I don’t know. It’s hard for me to take a position where I feel like I’m standing on a stair above. I like to be on the same level when creating and collaborating. Maybe there’s a way to lead a class that feels like how I would want it to feel. I don’t know if it’s my purpose to teach, but I love to collaborate, so maybe one day.

RAE: Do you feel like you learn better from someone like that, or do you learn better from collaborating with someone on the same level as you?

SMITH: Both are vital. You need harsh structure to be amazing in anything. But what I loved as a little kid were the teachers that made me feel more explorative, because I think that’s a strength of mine. I lack structure more than exploration.

RAE: Yeah, I understand that. I feel like I learned so much from you in the studio.

SMITH: I feel like I learned so much from you in the studio. You always push it. You’re the type of person that if somebody looked you in the eyes, they would look away first.

RAE: Really?

SMITH: It’s like you don’t care. You’re just going to hold it.

RAE: Yeah. I’m pretty comfortable in the uncomfortable.

SMITH: You are. So it teaches me to be uncomfy—or like, fine in unknown territory.

RAE: Aw. That’s what it is more than being uncomfortable. It’s just scary to confront things that you haven’t explored. Someone said recently that embarrassment is an untouched feeling.

SMITH: Exactly. It’s just where the brain goes when it doesn’t know what else to feel.

RAE: Yes. Because it’s never felt that feeling before. I feel like that’s very relevant in the studio. When you and I are—

SMITH: Locked in.

RAE: Locked in and moving and listening to each other’s movements, the music’s always blasting so loud. When we’re in the dance studio, there’s always a crazy playlist. It can be anything.

SMITH: Yeah. Every time we intuitively choreograph something, we never marry it to a genre because we’re just making a phrase. I’ve never been in the studio consistently one-on-one with somebody where we’re both reaching a trance state. Whatever we’re channeling, we’re not judging it. There’s so much exploration.

RAE: It’s so true. When we’re doing our little choreography game, there’s a lot of freestyle moves. Let me explain to the readers: It’s us putting together small phrases. They’re usually—

SMITH: Thirty seconds.

RAE: But it’ll be each two to three counts, and then we’ll switch off.

SMITH: It could either be a “one, two” or it could be “one, two, three, four.” The first time we ever got into the studio, we were like, “Fuck. Let’s just play the choreo game. I’ll do a move, and then you do a move. And if I did this, what would you do?”

RAE: It’s like a puzzle.

SMITH: It’s very Chicago. “I go, she goes.” [Laughs]

 

RAE: Whee! [Laughs] Yeah, no, it is. And once we get into the groove a little bit more, we get a lot more exploratory. Sometimes the best move in the whole phrase is when one of us does something and the other one just bursts out laughing.

SMITH: That’s always the top choice. It’s like, “Ew, why would you do that you weirdo!” I think anything you can do is something that makes people be like, “What the fuck is she doing?” It is the best. It’s almost uncomfy, but it’s done with so much confidence.

RAE: Like, “I need to feel that.”

SMITH: “That’s weird but she also looks really hot, too. And I don’t know how that could possibly look hot, because I can’t picture myself feeling hot doing that.” You have to just literally—

RAE: Surrender.

SMITH: Everything is about full sending.

RAE: It’s so true. A lot of our moves I’m sure are very confusing, but we like to provoke.

SMITH: We love it.

RAE: What’s life without it?

SMITH: Literally nothing! [Laughs]

RAE: What are you going to do for the rest of the day?

SMITH: I need to organize my closet. I feel like if I organize my closet, I’ll feel organized inside.

RAE: That’s real. The closet is a reflection.

SMITH: Yeah. I need to get rid of some things. I need to color-code. My shoes are in a good place, but I have to make all my garments look prettier.

RAE: I feel like you always have your shoes in a good place. You’re pretty organized with that.

SMITH: They’re always all right there.

RAE: Accessible, ready to grab.

SMITH: I have a rule. All of my shoes need to fit properly in my closet or I’m over them. I don’t like when things are stacked and crazy. I want it to all look pretty. So then that’s my rule for excess. Maybe one day I’ll have a Dita Von Teese walk-in closet.

RAE: Oh, a girl can dream.

SMITH: That’s when I’m allowed to have that many shoes. Fuck. I feel like we should rewatch Dita Von Teese’s Architectural Digest if we have time. [Laughs]

RAE: Should we finish this and go watch the Dita Von Teese Architectural Digest?

SMITH: Wait. I need that more than I need anything in my life.

RAE: [Laughs] Let’s go.

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Hair: Alex Thao at The Only Agency.

Makeup: Eden Lattanzio using Hourglass Cosmetics at Forward Artists.

Nails: Ginger Lopez using Aprés at Opus Beauty.

Fashion Assistant: Mariah Kock.

Production Management: Cecilia Alvarez Blackwell.

Post-production: Taylor Ug.