If you’re from the Old School, chances are you remember seeing Damita Jo Freeman pop locking and dominating the Soul Train dance floor back in the day. Her infamous Joe Tex and James Brown performances were crazy!

Damita Jo has a WHOLE LOT to say about some interesting facts we never knew, such as how she used to rebel against Don Cornelius and basically piss him off, how she was a close friend of Michael Jackson and even taught him the moonwalk! For some reason I always thought it was Jeffrey Daniel of Shalamar who did that, but turns out, I was wrong. Damita Jo also helped many other artists and was never one to back down from taking risks. Check out this interview she did not too long ago with SoulTrain.

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Soultrain: What do you remember about that first time you went to Soul Train?

Damita: When Don Campbell and I first went on it wasn’t that good because everywhere we danced, the other dancers complained we were in their space. So we danced in the back behind Thelma Houston, who was performing on the show that day. Other people then started mimicking how we were dancing. We won a dance contest our first time on the show also. I remember after the taping I ran into my girlfriends at Roscoe’s and they asked me where I was and I told them I was dancing on this show called Soul Train. 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.

What was it like being on the set of Soul Train in those early years?

Damita: The bathrooms at the studio were the dancers’ dressing rooms. We would have lunch at 12:00 with a box of chicken and only one Coke! We had nothing else to drink for the rest of the day! We only had one Coke and one drink of water. We couldn’t even use the…

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