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Dancing was in my bones from when I started ballet at two.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 June 2018 source ↗
The question
As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
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Others on this question
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Shinya Yamanaka
Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012
I was born in Osaka, Japan. It was 45 years ago. My father has a small factory in Osaka, and we lived next to his factory
Shirley MacLaine
American actress and author
At three, I knew I was too tall to be a ballerina, so that wasn’t going to happen.
Julian Lennon
English musician, photographer, and philanthropist
A steam train driver.
Kate Mosse
English writer
First I wanted to be in the circus, then a tap dancer, then prime minister. I have failed at all three.
More from Shirley Ballas
View profile →I would be much more available for my brother when he was not well and try to understand more about mental health, which I didn’t know anything about at the time.
In my dreams: I’ll feel as if I am falling towards a white light and then suddenly I wake up.
We’ve Only Just Begun by The Carpenters.
Getting the job on Strictly at the age of 56.
When I found out that I was having my baby. They told me I was having a little girl and I named it Elizabeth. Then, when the baby was born it was my beautiful boy, Mark.
People close to me throwing me under a bus for a crust.
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