the roots down for my vocation, I was
lost. Didn’t know what to do. And I guess
that was when my life just turned totally
upside down.
JE: What did you do?
KD: During that period, being a 15
year old, I left school, got a job as an
apprentice in an accountants. To me
it was just an apprenticeship, it wasn’t
like ‘I’m going to be an accountant’, it
was just the case that I wanted to get
a job. I was proud, you know, I didn’t
want to sign on, I didn’t want to do that.
I wanted to work but in my own head
I was thinking, “this is not for me. This
is not what I’m going to be doing.” In
between that time, myself and three
other guys used to hang around together
and, don’t laugh, a disco competition
came along. So, we were at this youth
club every week which was like a disco.
15, 16 with girls coming onto the scene
so you know, you’re out dancing and
stuff. It was only an eight o’clock or ten
o’clock type thing. Anyway, we started
dancing and stuff and we enjoyed it.
We actually enjoyed the dancing and
we were going to this disco, not for any
other reason but to show off and to do
our dance moves. We got together just
as a bit of joke really and started just
messing about rehearsing our dancing
and stuff. For some reason this lady got
in touch with us and said, “you guys
would be great for an upcoming disco
competition.” We didn’t think anything
of it. Anyway she got us together and
trained us for the competition. I think it
was the 1981 Youth Club Disco Dance
Championships and they did regional
heats and so on. We did this routine,
she had us in the regional heats and we
went up to Manchester and we won.
Again I didn’t think anything of it. The
final was in London and we went down
from Liverpool to Hammersmith and we
won. So within the space of about three
months we were in the local paper. We
were the UK Disco Dance Champions.
Then one of the choreographers at the
time said, “you know, you guys, you’ve
got something there. You can make a
career out of it.” Coming from Liverpool,
playing all of that football, with the kind
of friends that I had, I was thinking,
“really, do I need to go to dance college
- how is that going to look?” But, I had a
really good think about it. I’m the type of
person that if I decide to do something,
I do it 100% and I thought, “I’m going to
do this. I’m going to do it.” So, I made
the decision. Actually, going on from the
UK Disco Dance Championships, gave
us a little bit of fame really within the city.
We got asked to do local gigs and that
kind of thing. And if I’m really honest, I
quite liked it. I quite liked being singled
out and I think more so because of the
fact that it could have been so different
six months earlier.
So, I enlisted in a dance college in
Liverpool and I trained. I trained every
day for three years, so much so that I
got my teacher’s qualifications in ballet,
tap and modern. And there I was, out of
nowhere, after three years of hard work,
a qualified dance teacher and performer.
There was nothing really regional where
I could progress there. All of the work
was in London. So, I moved to London
to look for work and started to audition.
That was difficult as well because I’ve
seen the London scene and all of the
dancers were already in cliques and in
groups and that kind of thing. Anyway,
I auditioned, worked really hard and
got my first job as a backing dancer
on an ITV show and then it just built on
from there. I started to do auditions in
London on a Saturday for lots of light
entertainment shows, which aren’t on
at the moment. I mean, I don’t know
how old you are, Jason, but there was
shows like Live at Her Majesty’s and The
Cannon & Ball Show. They all had light
entertainment shows. Do you remember
the old shows on TV?
JE: I do.
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