BY DC CUEVA
One of the most unique people we've had the opportunity to meet in recent years on MTV is Asaf Goren from Season 4 of Are You The One?, and who we also saw just recently on AYTO Second Chances. In two seasons, we have seen him fall in love with a fellow musician, become one of the ladies men on his season and have a personality all his own. And that came a summer after appearing on a season of one of the staples of the summer television season showcasing what he does best... as well as being spotted just recently with one of the channel's most notable and notorious ladies.
But there is a lot more to this Israeli-born entertainer who we have seen the past two summers and this spring, and in this edition of ExtraTime In-Depth, we'll look at the many facets of this guy who dances, models, even does music and cameos with some of music's best, and the most important fans in his life.
DANCING
Though he began as a judoka who won titles in his native homeland, it was another art of movement that would ultimately become Asaf's deepest passion.There are many forms of dance out there, and the popularity of dance shows on TV over the years has brought this artistic form of entertainment to a larger audience. One of them is break-dancing, best known these days as B-boying. The origins of this style of street dance dates back to the mid-1970's, when Puerto Rican and African American youngsters in the Bronx first mastered this art, and then spread worldwide from Asia to France and everywhere in between, all performed to modern music, usually to the tune of hip-hop and break beats.
For someone who received no formal dance training, Asaf got to learn from watching those he danced with and to apply their moves into his own dance routines. Below are show reels from when he began to pay his dues, and of when he took to the stage himself at an event in Seoul, South Korea.
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
The theme of its season was "Street vs. Stage," as it pitted dancers who made their name on the streets break-dancing, versus those who excelled in the traditional way in theaters. With his nickname of the "Hebrew Breaker," he entered the audition room in L.A. after waiting for many hours starting at 4AM with a Hebrew shawl and a local musical instrument called a shofar, which he gave host Cat Deeley a chance to play with it with little success.
He impressed the judges and was also the beneficiary of someone's bad luck: an injury to a member of Team Street just after the qualifying phase opened a spot for Asaf to step in after not making it to the Top 20 at first... this was a second chance before he got that second chance this past spring. He then made into week 2 on the big stage before being eliminated, and below is his audition and the journey he had in his three episodes.
ARE YOU THE ONE?
As Are You The One's first-ever cast member born outside North America, Asaf knew that how important it was to bring all facets of who he is to the dating experiment and to the cultural melting pot that in the U.S.: "I was the only foreigner on the show, and it was important for me to show more sides of me to the American audience, even though it’s just a reality show. I saw it as a great platform to represent so many things that are important to me in life."On Asaf's AYTO season last year, from the very outset he had established himself as the ladies' man in the house in Hawaii. For most of the season, he was attracted to fellow musician Francesca as they stayed together for much of their stay in the islands, even after they were sent into the truth booth and returned a no match. He also became close to several other girls in the house, but he also held the Season 4 cast's fate in his hands when he was tasked with having to pick between his heart and the house. This was the same scenario that faced Shannon this past season when she opted for her heart and it cost the house the money... for Asaf, he went with the house to pick Kaylen instead of Fran in the tenth and last matchup, which won them the money, and brought them to Second Chances.
Below are some of his highlights from last summer.
And during AYTO Second Chances this past spring, he got to recap episodes as well.
ALEXIS
And then, there's the alter ego. Being someone who loves to have fun, and in a house where there's not much in the amount of options for house entertainment, he and the roommates must find a way to be creative in entertaining themselves when not doing something that might relate to the budding romances in the house or the many challenges, truth booths, dates and match-ups we see in every episode.For Asaf, he brought a wig and ladies clothes to his two AYTO houses... and only when the right moment comes does Alexis comes strolling into the house out of nowhere and to garner a lot of laughs out of everyone. Below are two examples of Alexis walking into the house, and it doesn't include the famous kiss he had with Stephen in the Season 4 house, as seen on the Behind the Boom Boom Room special that aired after the Second Chances finale.
— #AYTO (@AREUTHE1) May 25, 2017
BRITNEY SPEARS
Unlike this past AYTO season last spring, there wasn't an actual on-air reunion for the Season 4 cast to hash things out or, better yet, duke it out. So, what could Asaf do to celebrate winning what's turned out to be the show's most recent winning season? Well, one person who was watching him on So You Think You Can Dance and was impressed by his dance moves the previous summer that she invited him to be in one of her music videos.
And last summer, Britney placed a call to Asaf to join her as a dancer for the lead single off of her latest album Glory, "Make Me." And channeling what happened the previous summer to the Israeli, the clip's concept saw Asaf being one of many guys competing for a chance to score a cameo in her video below, also featuring Bay Area hip-hop star G-Eazy.
In talking to the Jerusalem Post, Asaf had no idea of who the big pop star was until he went to the video shoot, but after it was released last August did all the major media outlets - TMZ included - started to take notice thanks to his two TV appearances. People might question whether or not she lip-syncs or not, but Asaf did say, "Britney is awesome and a hard worker and true inspiration."
Below is that video, and if you prefer to cut to the chase Asaf appears around the 1:45 mark. And this isn't the only video Asaf has appeared in: shortly after he was in Maroon 5's video for "Cold."
MODELING
When not dancing, chances are you can spot Asaf doing model work or, better yet, strutting down the runway, which he has many times. Last year on here, we looked at the time when he and some of his AYTO Season 4 castmates took their talents to New York Fashion Week where he got to walk up and down the runway at North America's biggest showcase of what to wear, and even had a chance to get some moves on too.As his AYTO season was airing, former Today show host Meredith Vierra and her guest, one-time MTV staple and daughter of rock's first family Kelly Osbourne, had an opportunity to watch Asaf's appearance at NYFW and his underwear on her short-lived talk show.
MUSIC
Recently, Asaf felt that dancing and modeling wasn't enough, and after being able to hang out with Britney and Maroon 5, he has started to develop his own music career. He has been on stage a lot as of late at events with small to medium-sized crowds in the SoCal area.And at one of his recent gigs, he talked to the crowd about what music means to him: "So we talked about how hard is it to be on stage. I just told my friends that I was denying it for so long that I'm scared to be on stage. Literally I'm peeing in my pants right now. I tried to stay away from performing and creating music, and I was in a low self-esteem position in my life. But I felt that it called me 'till I understood... performing and music and rapping, everything and all this art... it's my way of praying of worshiping life, and to be connected to God. So, I couldn't run away from it."
It's not surprising given that some of his AYTO Season 4 castmates have some sort of musical background -- Francesca, Prosper, Giovanni and Tori -- that one of his first musical collaborations would be with the most recent cast to cash in on the love experiment. He has done a number of music videos for his YouTube channel, but two are of most importance: he released a video with his love Francesca just after the season finale last year, and then with Tori after he & Kay were sent home. Also included is another music video called "Motivator."
And here is one of his life sets from earlier this year...
AND ASAF & FARRAH...
This article was planned to have been posted during AYTO Second Chances, but being busy with many things postponed this piece to in between cycles... good thing we put this off until this summer vacation because of what happened shortly after he & Kay were sent home from Australia. And just as we thought we had seen the last of him on MTV... we were all proven dead wrong.Just a month ago, and just before she got to celebrate her birthday recently with fellow MTV family, Farrah Abraham from Teen Mom OG had taken a break from her relationship with her boyfriend Simon when she expressed her desire to find someone else to see in her new Southern California home. And in comes Asaf, not once but twice.
First, one of the After Shows for Teen Mom included a dating game that featured him as one of the three contestants given a chance to win a date with someone who's not exactly well-liked as the other ladies of MTV's most-followed franchise in its post-Jersey Shore & TRL life. It was him who won the date, and then had the chance to go all around town including getting some pedicures.
On his YouTube channel, Asaf talked about the chance he was given to make the second crossover between the Trifecta and Teen Mom, after the brief fling between Madison of Real World Skeletons and the ex-husband of TM 2's Kailyn Lowry, Javi Marroquin.
FAMILY > EVERYTHING
But above all of these things - painting included, one takes precedent over the other and everything else in Asaf's life: his family. He has a close bond with them including sisters Omer and Noam, and whose family roots stretch back to where his journey began... all the way in Tel Aviv, Israel's second largest city at 433,000 people living within its city limits, and over 1.3 million in the metro area.
But, no doubt, the most important person in his life is the one who gave birth to him more than two decades ago. In an interview with New York magazine Get Out, he discussed his biggest fan: "My Mother is super proud of all my accomplishments that I've accomplished, which motivates me to keep going. I want to make a better life for her and my family back in Israel."
Often in social media, he has expressed his love for his mom, Rachel Goren, a dance teacher who saw him master his dance moves in their living room when he was 12. She still lives in the Jewish state, but it didn't deter Asaf from showing how loyal he is to the his #1 fan.
Back in March just before AYTO Second Chances debuted, he decided to surprise her by taking a 16-hour flight from Los Angeles back to his homeland to surprise her in her dance studio at her elementary school where she teaches the next generation of dancers the moves she tought Asaf. The moment she saw her son with balloons and flowers in his hand, she burst into tears. The video is below.
There's a saying about some who is versatile and able to do many things instead of specializing in one particular craft: "Jack of all trades, master of none." Chances are you have someone in your family, even yourself, who one moment can make a piece of ceramics or art your mom can be proud of, and the next become a master of being able to make music, and even help dad with weekend car work.
Those who follow this MTV world might have just found that Jack of All Trades: someone who can pull off some stellar dance moves on a summer showcase, then head onto a romantic reality show and score a perfect match, then models on the biggest runways in fashion, and gets asked by the defining pop star of our generation to cameo in one of her music videos. But along the way, he always finds a way to squeeze in time with the most important people in his life. That's exactly what we have found with Asaf Goren.
And in the video where he described his love for music, Asaf writes, "Don't let anyone decide for you, God gave you all your dreams and ideas for a reason. U must follow your goals and dreams and face your fears! There is no other way. Be brave and shine through your failures. Anything is possible. XTRDNRY" Those are some inspiring words from someone with many sides to him.
Presenting the kinds of stories through the prism of Are You The One? and The Challenge/Real World franchise is only part of DCBLOG's extensive coverage of the MTV Trifecta. DC ExtraTime brings you a different side of the many people and the biggest moments and most fascinating stories of TV's most dynamic reality ecosystem. And these stories appear in its own In-Depth posts such as this one, after our weekly episode coverage, and on DC@TUMBLR at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com.
If you're a first-time visitor to this site, bookmark DCBLOG for these ExtraTime stories, plus our exclusive SocialPulse running diaries of social media play-by-play of every episode, and episodes recaps, analysis and more from the Trifecta... all of which are posted on here every weekend. We'll be offering wall-to-wall coverage of the new season of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 starting with a season preview coming up before its premiere on July 18, plus a two-part Midyear Reality Debrief on the first half of 2017 in reality TV coming up this weekend.
When you can, please help spread the word of this site by sharing and retweeting these links to your fellow fans so that everyone else can enjoy this site's high-caliber content. As always, share your thoughts on our posts on Twitter at @DC408Dxtr, and tweet us your questions for our Challenge posts with me and Andrew Kirk with the hashtag, #AskDCBLOG.
Thanks for checking out this edition of DC ExtraTime In-Depth, and to all of you, a very and safe 4th of July. See you back here this weekend.
- I AM DC
But, no doubt, the most important person in his life is the one who gave birth to him more than two decades ago. In an interview with New York magazine Get Out, he discussed his biggest fan: "My Mother is super proud of all my accomplishments that I've accomplished, which motivates me to keep going. I want to make a better life for her and my family back in Israel."
Often in social media, he has expressed his love for his mom, Rachel Goren, a dance teacher who saw him master his dance moves in their living room when he was 12. She still lives in the Jewish state, but it didn't deter Asaf from showing how loyal he is to the his #1 fan.
Back in March just before AYTO Second Chances debuted, he decided to surprise her by taking a 16-hour flight from Los Angeles back to his homeland to surprise her in her dance studio at her elementary school where she teaches the next generation of dancers the moves she tought Asaf. The moment she saw her son with balloons and flowers in his hand, she burst into tears. The video is below.
My Mom Gave Me her Life.Saved me and Loved Me When I had Nothing.took a 16 Hours flight home to Thank her. Tell ur mom u love her pic.twitter.com/k16j3MZSm8— Asaf Goren (@asafgoren1) March 15, 2017
There's a saying about some who is versatile and able to do many things instead of specializing in one particular craft: "Jack of all trades, master of none." Chances are you have someone in your family, even yourself, who one moment can make a piece of ceramics or art your mom can be proud of, and the next become a master of being able to make music, and even help dad with weekend car work.
Those who follow this MTV world might have just found that Jack of All Trades: someone who can pull off some stellar dance moves on a summer showcase, then head onto a romantic reality show and score a perfect match, then models on the biggest runways in fashion, and gets asked by the defining pop star of our generation to cameo in one of her music videos. But along the way, he always finds a way to squeeze in time with the most important people in his life. That's exactly what we have found with Asaf Goren.
And in the video where he described his love for music, Asaf writes, "Don't let anyone decide for you, God gave you all your dreams and ideas for a reason. U must follow your goals and dreams and face your fears! There is no other way. Be brave and shine through your failures. Anything is possible. XTRDNRY" Those are some inspiring words from someone with many sides to him.
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪
Presenting the kinds of stories through the prism of Are You The One? and The Challenge/Real World franchise is only part of DCBLOG's extensive coverage of the MTV Trifecta. DC ExtraTime brings you a different side of the many people and the biggest moments and most fascinating stories of TV's most dynamic reality ecosystem. And these stories appear in its own In-Depth posts such as this one, after our weekly episode coverage, and on DC@TUMBLR at dc408dxtr.tumblr.com.
If you're a first-time visitor to this site, bookmark DCBLOG for these ExtraTime stories, plus our exclusive SocialPulse running diaries of social media play-by-play of every episode, and episodes recaps, analysis and more from the Trifecta... all of which are posted on here every weekend. We'll be offering wall-to-wall coverage of the new season of The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 starting with a season preview coming up before its premiere on July 18, plus a two-part Midyear Reality Debrief on the first half of 2017 in reality TV coming up this weekend.
When you can, please help spread the word of this site by sharing and retweeting these links to your fellow fans so that everyone else can enjoy this site's high-caliber content. As always, share your thoughts on our posts on Twitter at @DC408Dxtr, and tweet us your questions for our Challenge posts with me and Andrew Kirk with the hashtag, #AskDCBLOG.
Thanks for checking out this edition of DC ExtraTime In-Depth, and to all of you, a very and safe 4th of July. See you back here this weekend.
- I AM DC
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