Alexis Ren had an emotional dance during Monday’s episode of Dancing With The Stars. Dancing with her partner, Alan Bersten, the two performed a Contemporary dance to The Fray’s How To Save A Life, performed by Ray Chew Live. The dance was dedicated to her mother, who Ren lost to cancer back in 2014.
“On Mother’s Day 2014, my dad came downstairs to my room and he said, ‘Something’s wrong with mom.’ My mom had stage-four cancer … She fought a long battle for six months, and I’ll never forget those months with her,” Alexis explains to her dance partner after learning that the theme for the week is Most Memorable Year.
Alexis revealed that the following January, she lost her mother to cancer. But who is the dancer, who tearfully danced her way into everyone’s hearts last night with her beautiful contemporary routine?
Needless to say, Alexis Ren has plenty of things in the works, considering she’s only 21 years old.
While Alexis Ren hasn’t introduced her boyfriend on Dancing With The Stars just yet, it does sound like she’s in a serious relationship. On Instagram, he appears to go by the name of Sky Bear.
He often posts that he loves her and is proud of her, including after last night’s routine. Bear describes himself as a peak performance enthusiast, business owner, philanthropist, mixed martial artist, and a yoga practitioner on his Instagram account.
He appears to run Kauai Adventure Fitness and according to the company’s website, Bear was born in Hawaii on the north shore of Kauai in the Wainiha Valley.
After losing her mother to cancer, Alexis Ren struggled with an eating disorder. She opened up to Cosmopolitan about her eating disorder, revealing she would feel guilty about eating food.
At the same time, she met Jay Alvarrez, a model and music producer. While he tried to help her with her eating disorder, she realized that it wasn’t working. After traveling together for 11 months and making YouTube videos of their adventures, they ended things.
In a YouTube video, she opened up about her life, revealing that she lived in Tokyo, and that she was homeschooled. Alexis also revealed that she’s learning to stick up for herself, that she was a trained ballerina, she’s living in Hollywood, and that she considers close friends her family.
One of the things that she prides herself in is when people compare her to her mother. Alexis reveals that it is one of the biggest compliments she can get.
She’s from Santa Monica, California, and she has seven tattoos, including her mother’s signature. In her video, she also explains that she’s working on music that you can hear on Soundcloud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYy7F0qocwY&t=186s
These days, it sounds like Alexis Ren is doing much better and has become a role model for other young women struggling with loss, eating disorders and self-image issues. Maybe some of these themes will resurface in her upcoming dances.
Dancing With The Stars airs Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.