You Won’t Believe How Different Jennifer Lopez Looked In Her First Major Dance Audition
Way before Jennifer Lopez was a judge on World of Dance, she was a struggling dancer herself. J. Lo started taking singing and dancing lessons at age five, according to IMDb. And, after she turned 18, she worked at a law firm to pay the bills so she could take dancing jobs at night.
Clearly, all that hustle has paid off (big time), but Jennifer admits it wasn’t easy. Even so, she loved it. "I remember only getting to have one piece of pizza every day when I was a dancer," she told reporters at a press day in 2017, per the Daily Mail. "That's how I lived. I did that for a couple of years before I got my first big job. I wouldn't trade it for the world. For me, coming from that struggle, this is a dream come true for me. I don't say that lightly."
"I always consider myself as a dancer first," J.Lo continued. "I became a singer and actress after dancing. For me, it's so part of who I am."
After 16 years of dance training, Jennifer finally got her big break in 1990 when she auditioned to be a "Fly Girl" on the Fox sketch comedy show, In Living Color.
While J.Lo looks (unsurprisingly) amazing in her audition video, she definitely misses a few steps. And because In Living Color was also thinking of making the Fly Girls a musical troupe, you can even watch baby J. Lo sing in the audition.
Of course, she landed the job. Jennifer worked on In Living Color for two years before leaving to become a backup dancer for Janet Jackson, per IMDb. Eventually, she segued into acting and singing, and the rest is J. Lo history.
And though her time as a struggling dancer was ages ago, J. Lo still remembers it well. "I think I was pretty fearless. I think when you're younger, you are. Like, ignorance is bliss," she told ET just this year. "You have no idea [to think] like, 'I can fall on my face, and it's gonna scar me for 10 years.' You know none of these things."
Now, she’s freaking J. Lo, but that doesn't automatically mean she would have made the cut on World of Dance-at least, according to J.Lo. "I'd like to think I could, but I don't think I could," she said. "I don't think I would have made it very far here."
J. Lo sets a super high standard for the World of Dance contestants. "I think people, since the first season, realize that we really do have the best dancers in the world," she told ET. "Every year it gets better and better because, I think, they realize the level of quality that they have to be to be on the show. So they're like, 'We have to be better than last year, or else we're not going to get through.' And it's true."
And J. Lo’s not playing around: She recently said in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live that some of the W0D contestants will be opening for her on her "It’s My Party: The Live Celebration" summer 2019 tour.
Because Jennifer's been in these young dancers' shoes, she knows better than anyone what it's like to be a young performer in search of your big break. And every Sunday, she, Ne-Yo, and Derek Hough help some crazy-talented dancers get one step closer to achieving their dream.
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