Paula Abdul cleaned toilets to get her big dancing break.
The ‘Straight Up’ hitmaker dreamed of becoming a dancer but couldn’t afford classes and so offered to clean the studio and the bathrooms to pay for a place.
She recalled: ”A couple of days a week, we’d stop at a dance studio where my girlfriends took ballet classes and I’d do my homework and watch from the sidelines but the whole time I’d be moving my foot to the beat along with them.
”One day, the dance teacher asked me if I wanted to join the class and I whispered to her and said my family can’t afford classes and she asked me, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ And I said, ‘If I clean the floor and the windows and the bathrooms, will you let me take dance class?’
”And I learned there is always a solution to keep us in line with our passion. Gratefully, I cleaned the bathrooms, cleaned the studio and I started my very first dance class and my world would never be the same again.”
And the 54-year-old singer-songwriter and television personality quickly moved through the ranks and was soon dancing in an adult class.
Speaking to the attendees gathered at WE Day – which was held at The SSE Arena in Wembley, London on Wednesday (22.03.17) – she added: ”At just eight-years-old, I was moved into an advanced dance class with adults and I felt such a wonderful sense of accomplishment.
”But there was one lesson where the dance teacher asked me to come to the centre of the floor and demonstrate a dance combination and when it finished, I beamed with pride, only to hear my teacher say, ‘Look class, look at Paula with her short squatty arms and legs …’ and then I heard some of the dancers laughing and giggling.
”I felt very ashamed for the very first time so I ran to the washroom and cried with embarrassment. But I didn’t hear my dance teacher finish the sentence by saying, ‘But you see Paula still executed the moves as beautifully as ever … she still outdanced all of you.”’
