Derek Hough Opens Up About Being Bullied as a Young ‘Boy Dancer’

Getty Derek Hough

Derek Hough opened up about being teased when he was a child due to his love for dance. The “Dancing With the Stars” pro dancer turned judge reacted to a TikTok video of an 11-year-old male ballet dancer who revealed that he was teased by his peers.

In the clip shared in February 2023, the young dancer, Gabe, said he is often told that “dancing is for sissies, it’s girly.” The tween added that dancing requires “more effort than it takes to be a football player. “It’s not only a sport it’s an art,” the child dancer said in the video. “It doesn’t matter what other people think it matters what you want.”

Hough, 37, smiled and nodded in agreement as the clip played.

“I’ve seen understanding and admiration of dance grow each and every year and it warms my heart to see young kids know their worth and be supported in their passion,” Hough captioned the clip shared on his Instagram page. “I am so proud to see how far the appreciation of dance has come in the last 15 years.”

Derek Hough Admitted He Struggled With Being a Dancer as a Young Boy

Hough started dancing with his family when he was a child living in Utah. “We started dancing in our living room with our family when we were kids,” he told Deseret News in 2017. The future six-time mirrorball champion and his sister, Julianne, on to train with professional dancers at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, England.

Hough reflected on his start as a dancer in the caption to the TikTok clip of the young ballet dancer, and he credited the mentors whom he worked with for helping him work through it.

“Growing up I struggled at school with being a ‘boy dancer,’” Hough wrote. “I would get teased, feel embarrassed, and didn’t feel like I fit in. Luckily I had amazing mentors and dance teachers who helped me realize how special being a dancer was.”

Derek Hough’s Family Was Forced to Move Over the Bullying

Hough has been open about how his interest in dance led to him being teased. In 2014, he revealed that he was threatened by bullies.

“On one occasion, they would tie my ankles up with a very rough rope, hang me from a tree upside down and spit on me and call me names and even held a gun to my head,” he revealed at the time, per E! News. “I didn’t tell anybody—my parents, teachers, my friends, my sisters. I kept it to myself.”

He noted that his family ultimately moved over the bullying and that dance became his “safe place.”

In 2016, Hough told fans that when he was bullied, it felt like his dreams would “never come true.” That same year, he shared a lengthy Facebook post in which he revealed that in the end, the bullying “fueled” him to reach for the stars.

“When I was younger, I found myself getting bullied at school because of my passion for dance,” he wrote. “I never understood why someone would feel the need to overpower others, but what I realized was that power over others is weakness in disguise.”

“I didn’t perceive the bullies to be strong or powerful people,” the DWTS veteran added. “I knew that I was accomplishing something so great that they just felt they had to put me down. This fueled me to #persevere and pursue what I loved doing even more. I took control of my life and followed my dream of becoming a professional dancer.“

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