As one of the more successful of many Soul Train Dancers, Damita Jo was instrumental in standing up for better working conditions for the dancers. Biography. I talked to Bobby Kennedy’s wife and Red Skelton, who was another guest, even made a drawing of me. You worked with and choreographed so many people. I remember at the 1984 American Music Awards, where he won a lot of awards, I saw him backstage and all of these cameramen and news people were around him. You even had the chance to choreograph Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down tour. Michael happened to be in the audience for this show. Soultrain.com: Besides James Brown and Joe Tex, what are some of your other favorite memories of artists that came to Soul Train? With all of these accomplishments, what are you working on now? Imagine how much confidence you'd have to have in your dancing ability to accept an invitation to dance with James-fucking-Brown on national television. Her show went around the world. We taped three shows on Saturday and three shows on Sunday on an 11AM to 6PM schedule. They, too, won the national dance contest and won a car. Dick Clark asked me what dancers I could recommend for the next season, and I recommended Tyrone Proctor and Sharon Hill. Her *first weekend* as a Soul Train dancer, and her mom called the cops on Don Cornelius! I don’t mind the girls looking like the guys in terms of wearing the caps and other gear, but they should maintain their femininity. I remember during the second weekend I was on the show, all of the dancers had been dancing all day and were tired and thirsty. We were just watching them from a distance. Then I pulled my girlfriends on the floor and we all started locking. (laughs). Damita:  Michael Jackson was a good friend. Damita: He had asked me to dance with him before his performance so when the song (“I Gotcha”) started, he pulled me up on the stage and I danced. Damita: Don opened up many doors. My training as a ballerina gave me the foundation for dancing later on. The dancers would usually be at the studio before the crew. We bowed and curtseyed before Prince Charles. At one point. I choregraphed 500 street dancers, 100 regular dancers and 25 children. Damita: I had done some plays at The Music Center and someone called me about this play. Soultrain.com: Only one Coke and one drink of water all day long and you couldn’t use the phone? MetaFilter is a weblog that anyone can contribute a link or a comment to. Soultrain.com: You really fought to get the dancers better conditions and treatment in Soul Train’s early days. Soultrain.com: One of your greatest honors, and there were so many, had to have been choreographing the 1984 Olympics Closing Ceremonies. A typical weblog is one person posting their thoughts on the unique things they find on the web. Publicity Listings But the dancers would be there so early, well before the call time. But my mother told me there were other ways to get on television. I went on tour with an opera show for a month and when I came back, my girlfriends, Don Campbell, and I and some other friends were back at Maverick’s Flat dancing and locking. [Former Los Angeles mayor] Tom Bradley was also there. Damita:  Goldie Hawn was very sweet. She said she liked our dancing and invited us to this new television dance show called Soul Train. Soultrain.com: Looking back and seeing how dance has evolved, do you feel that you and the rest of the early Soul Train dancers were responsible for and laid the blueprint for the hip-hop, breakdance movement and phenomenon? There was a lady running around the club named Pam Brown and she saw me and Don dance that night. Soul Train was really ““roughing it” in the early days! We brought in something fresh and new. Other people taught him the move also. Damita Jo Freeman is arguably the most creative dancer in Soul Train history. I not only did choreography for the show, but I also did some of the lighting and directed episodes, but I only got a credit as choreographer. Damita: I choreographed its very first awards ceremony in 1987. Basic HTML is allowed. That was my first time at a club. I even did stand-ins for Lola Falana and Diana Ross during rehearsals for the show. Was that planned? Soutrain.com: The late Joe Chism of the Soul Train Gang was a very dear friend of yours who you helped get on Soul Train. Soultrain.com: Did you choreograph any of the Soul Train Music Awards specials? Soultrain.com: Interesting. We had nothing else to drink for the rest of the day! Amazing woman, so many stores. Sometime later, Soul Train dancers Little Joe Chism, Perry Brown, Jimmy “Scoo B Doo” Foster, Pat Davis, Gary Keys, Alpha Omega Anderson and I opened for James at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Michael Jackson, who was a guest on one show, was a judge and selected Joe and me as the winners. We would have lunch at 12:00 with a box of chicken and only one Coke! Grand Prairie, TX I was able to go to Las Vegas, New York City, Europe and Madrid. Official Sites, View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Blacktresses: From Gabourey Sidibe to Diahann Carroll. Damita: Yes. Soultrain.com: You even had the honor of dancing for the Queen of Engand. It was a lot of fun working with Clifton and the cast. Damita: It’s wonderful. Soultrain.com: One of your greatest honors, and there were so many, had to have been choreographing the 1984 Olympics Closing Ceremonies. Although the producers gave me no credit, I choreographed the entire closing ceremonies that year. This was a step I did while I trained as a ballerina. She is known for her work on Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985) and Private Benjamin (1980). Her rubbery, flexible movements and trademark leg kick were visual treats to watch every Saturday. Indeed, she was bestowed Soul Train’s “Best Creative Dancer Award” at the first Soul Train Gang reunion. You were one of the first people, if not the first, to teach Michael Jackson the Moonwalk, or as it was originally called, the Backslide. Soultrain.com: What do you remember about that first time you went to Soul Train? I also chose several of the dancers to perform during a Rolling Stones concert. |  This was her first time producing a film. Jimmy Scoo B Doo Foster and I were trying to teach the host Cannonball Adderly how to do the Slow Motion dance step. I saw these dancers (Don Campbell, Little Joe Chism, and Jimmy Scoo B Doo) do a unique style of dancing and it was the most magical thing I’ve ever seen. Lionel had to tend to some other business and asked me to entertain Michael. How are you able to do that? I showed it to him and then I told him I learned the move from watching Marcel Marceau. |  How did that come about? Damita: Yes! We opened the doors. But after that episode aired, the show’s ratings went up. They were interested in coming to the show and when we all went to the club The Climax, I announced if anyone wanted to come to the show to be at Dinker Park at 7AM. No production personnel would be at the studio. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. Soultrain.com: So is this when you first went to Soul Train? “Did you see that girl dancing with Joe Tex?” “Who is that girl who kicks her leg way up?” “That girl was getting down with James Brown!” Damita Jo Freeman is arguably the most creative dancer in Soul Train history. Soultrain.com: When did your journey with dancing begin? Damita: Smokey Robinson, The Dramatics, The Jackson 5 and The Whispers are some of them. Soultrain.com: You also reprised the role of your character in the TV version of Private Benjamin, right? None of my dancing was choreographed. I was on tour with him for three years. Soultrain.com: Was dancing and being in the entertainment industry something you always wanted to do from when you were a child? Soultrain.com: Since you were friends with Michael for many years, how did you feel when he became a megastar from Off the Wall onward? We only had one Coke and one drink of water. Fantastic moonwalking story.

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