STRICTLY stars Motsi and Oti Mabuse once struggled to find a dance teacher while growing up in South Africa because of racism.
The sisters, who grew up in the bitterly divided country, often had to travel to school on separate buses to white children.
Although it didn’t stop the pair from fulfilling their dreams of becoming professional dancers.
The siblings begged their parents to let them learn after seeing black and white couples compete at a ballroom tournament while on holiday in Durban.
Motsi, 38, told The Mirror: “Finding people to give us the instructions was difficult.
“It was a very difficult time in South Africa, so to be a little girl and push yourself in this type of dancing, where there are no other black girls, was really tough.
“And when we did get the chance to learn the waltz and the cha cha cha, at a weekend club, we were soon better than the teacher.”
As they were no dance classes in their local area, mum Dudu hired a room at a local kindergarten for them to train in.
The dance show judge continued: “Our parents made a lot of sacrifices because dancing is not the cheapest sport.
“The dresses are expensive, so my mum learned to sew, and she started a catering company to pay for the lessons and the travel abroad for competitions.”
Motsi went on to reveal how dance helped her escape from her tough childhood.
She added: “I’m so thankful for dance because if I had grown up with just the bitterness of the very hard childhood we had, and I’d never experienced the love of the dance world, then I probably would have been a very sad person.”
Motsi, who previously worked on German TV show Let’s Dance, has a one-year-old daughter with Ukrainian dancer husband Evgenij Voznyuk.
Meanwhile, Oti, 29, is happily married to Romanian dancer Maris Iepure.
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The pair are set to go head-to-head at the National Television Awards.
The glamorous siblings are both contenders in the TV Judge category, Motsi for her debut on Strictly Come Dancing and Oti for rival BBC1 talent show, The Greatest Dancer.
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