Not long after appearing on The Sullivans,
Dannii asked her parents if she could start
taking singing and dancing lessons. They agreed
but told Dannii she had to make a choice between
her piano lessons and singing and dancing. She
was only too happy to give up all those boring
scales! Mum, who had been a dancer with a small
ballet company before she got married, was full
of encouragement. "She didn't say, 'This is
really good, you should do this'," Dannii says.
"She just encouraged us to do whatever we
liked."
So Dannii started lessons at The Johnny Young
Talent School in Melbourne and it wasn't long
before she was appearing regulary, with other
talented students, on the TV show. Three years
later, at the age of ten, Dannii auditioned to
become a full-time Young Talent Time member. "I
always watched the show thinking, 'Wouldn't it
be great to be a member?', but I never thought
it would happen." She auditioned in front of
musical director and former team member Greg
Mills, and John Young himself. "I couldn't sing
to save myself," she says. "Greg went to John
after the audition and said, 'She's cute, but
she can't sing very well' and he said, 'I know.
We'll teach her. I just want her on the show'."
From that moment on Dannii's life was busy,
busy, busy. She went to school in the mornings
and in the afternoons would head off for dance
rehearsals, singing rehearsals, recording or
costume fittings. Television House, where Young
Talent Time was produced, became like a second
home and her fellow team members were like a
second family. The team member Dannii was
closest to was Vince Del Tito.
"We were great mates. We didn't really go out
together because we never really had the time to
go out. But we were with each other all the time
anyway because we were working all the time. We
could sit down and talk for hours, and we still
can. We just understood each other," she says.
Apart from singing, dancing and acting, Dannii's
other big interest was clothes. She designed a
few outfits for her solo numbers on Young Talent
Time and whenever she wore one of her creations
the wardrobe department was flooded with
inquiries. So it was a natural progression that
Dannii should start her very own fashion label.
Her manager approached the fashion buyers at
Myer and K-Mart stores with the idea, and the
Dannii label was born.
Starting with a small range, she designed a
selection of different outfits. They were an
immediate nationwide success, and Dannii has
been busy designing larger and larger ranges
ever since.
To see details on the YTT Reunion that Dannii
Organised in 2001, just
click here.