Todrick shares the difficulties he’s faced in dance and looks back on just how far he’s come.
a lot of kids in my school made fun of
00:01
me and called me names those things hurt
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but every day when I stepped into the
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dance studio it was like all of that
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stuff was erased and I didn’t remember
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that it even happened because I just
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loved dancing so much
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dance means everything to me because I
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grew up in a place that was not the most
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safe where I’m from people get involved
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in the wrong things and it could be a
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way to get your life taken away if you
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fall into the wrong group I started
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taking dance at a very young age I think
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that I was just searching for what it
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was that I wanted to do lo and behold
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one holiday season I went to the
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Nutcracker and it was like a light
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switch came on and I knew immediately
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when I saw the performance that that was
00:49
what I was supposed to be doing
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[Music]
00:55
my mom quit her job and found only job
00:58
that would allow her to leave early to
01:00
drive me an hour and a half every day to
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be in the nearest town without a dance
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studio
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I still remember pulling up to the
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studio for the first time and only still
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seeing young girls only still seeing
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people who didn’t look like me who are
01:12
not my skin color but I I’m so glad that
01:16
I faced my fears and walked into the
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dance studio that day
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[Music]
01:21
everybody around me loved the fact that
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I found something that was like my
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calling and that I was passionate about
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and people supported me for the most
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part where we were from it was just
01:31
unheard of for a boy to be dancing
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especially a black boy a lot of kids in
01:36
my school made fun of me and called me
01:38
names those things hurt but every day
01:41
when I stepped into the dance studio it
01:43
was like all of that stuff was erased
01:44
and I didn’t remember that it even
01:46
happened because I just loved dancing so
01:49
much
01:53
when I graduated high school I decided
01:55
to go audition for Disney World and I
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got hired to dance in the Beauty and the
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Beast show where I was in fact a spoon
02:02
since then I have gotten to dance in
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five or six Broadway musicals West End
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shows I have choreographed for people
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like Beyonce and Taylor Swift I’ve
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gotten to work with kids across America
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teaching master classes and there’s not
02:18
a time where I’m standing in a room and
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Beyonce’s asking me what leg do I dance
02:22
on todrick that I don’t think back to
02:24
that moment where I started dancing and
02:26
realized like how far it’s come
02:32
dancing just makes you feel free
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makes you feel liberated it makes you
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feel like you can escape reality and you
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can let everything go you can jump you
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can you know scream with your body
02:47
there’s so much for me to achieve left I
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have so many dreams if I had to stop
02:53
right now with the things that I’ve done
02:55
I would still be grateful for the career
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[Applause]
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anything I’ll ever stop dancing I think
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that it’s just in my blood it’s in my
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DNA I think I’ll be an old man if you
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play a good throwback cardi B song I
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will find some way on crutches on a
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walker with a broken hip I will find a
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way to twerk
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[Music]
03:29
you
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