Dancing Queen!

armen has been a star for practically her entire life. It started from the day that little Tara Patrick (Carmen's real name) was born in Cincinatti, Ohio on April 20th of 1972. All of her siblings were considerably older than her, so she was naturally the center of attention and spoiled rotten.

"I looked like this sweet, innocent girl - my mom would put my hair in pigtails and I was very petite - but yes, I was such a bully. In the fourth grade, I had one boy carrying my bag up and down the stairs, and another one who I would take lunch money from every day. I was like, 'If you don't give me your bag, I'll beat you.' I always wanted things my way. And I usually got it."

Carmen talks about what a bad girl she was in grade school, in this wave file. (1 MB)

Carmen had an especially tight bond with her mother. To this day she still names her mother as her number one hero.

"She's always wanted me to live a life that she couldn't live because she became pregnant at an early age. She had a real hard life, so she's always saved her last dimes for me to take dance classes and singing lessons. She's always been there for me."

Carmen's mother, Patricia, reflects on her daughters early interest in dancing in this quicktime clip. (2.9 MB)

Carmen explains to Judith Regan about why her mother was so strict in this soundbite. (56 KB)

Carmen tells Judith Regan a little bit about her father, Harry (which is somewhat rare), in this second soundbite. (1.1 MB)

"Every Christmas my mom would take me to see The Nutcracker Suite, and I was so overwhelmed that I took ballet classes."

At age 5 it became evident that little Tara was born to be a ballerina. In the E! True Hollywood Story (which I hope all her fans had a chance to see), they interviewed a number of her former teachers who had nothing but fabulous things to say about her talent. One teacher talked about her very first class and how rare it was for such a tiny child to ace every position. Her teachers didn't have a single doubt that she would grow up to be a star.

"I used to spend weekends with my grandmother, and she'd take me to this little dime store where you could buy candy and stuff. The manager would say, 'You're going to be a star some day!' It's weird how many people used to tell me that. In my mind I'd be thinking,'God, I wish I could be a star, but I live in Ohio and nobody makes it out of here.'"

"My mom would kind of make me go to my dance lessons. Ballet, tap, jazz...And then I went to the school for creative and performing arts, and my life was just about ....arts. I was in the ballet company, I'd be in musicals. It took a long time for me to really want to do it. As a child I didn't want to be there. I wanted to play. I was so tired by the time I got home from doing all these classes and stuff- I didn't really want to do it. And then once I turned 14, I quite everything. I quit dance and I went to a regular school and I just wanted to be a regular girl. And after a year of doing that, that's when I started to get the passion and started to miss it. Then I really wanted to do it and that's when it became me."

Durring Carmen's youth, she collected over 200 trophies from extremely competative dance competitions and beauty pagents. And to this day she still has no regrets about her childhood:

"I would fight. But I'm glad that I experienced that. I think it builds character."

"I can remember when I was twelve years old- I was real skinny, naturally skinny. My family, we knew nothing about nutrition. Everything is fried with cheese. I would wake up in the morning and eat a candy bar and a bag of chips with a coke. I knew nothing about eating healthy. But at that age I was just skinny so it didn't matter- I could eat whatever I wanted. And I remember I turned thirteen and fourteen and my body started to develop more and I started to gain a little bit of weight. My dance teachers were NOT happy. So I was constantly being yelled at by them, they were rusian teachers and were really really strict, and they'd throw chairs across the room. It was a really strict school. And that's when I started to feel like 'I can't eat anything. I can't eat breakfast- If I don't have breakfast I'll be skinnier.' So I wouldn't eat breakfast and I'd have, like, a Starburst for lunch and then I'd go to McDonalds for dinner. So my eating wasn't healthy. And you know, it didn't work. I was starving and I couldn't concentrate on my work in school because I would feel dizzy. It was really bad and then finally I just said 'You know what, I'm just gonna eat what I eat and that's it.' I think that was my problem, nobody ever taught me how to eat properly. And I'm just now finding out- just recently in the past two years. I hired a nutritionist and now I'm learning how to prepare meals and I eat a lot of protein. And when I crave something- I go for it."

In this wave file, Carmen tells Cynthia Garret about how she was able to accept her changing body as a result of getting attention from boys.

Carmen attended the prestigious School for Creative and Performing Arts from grade four through grade nine. But When Carmen transferred to Princeton High School for her sophmore year, that's when she was able to put dancing on the back burner and was able to spend time on her other interest: Boys. (Carmen claims to have been boy crazy from the time she was a toddler.) Her first boyfriend was the "player" of the school, according to E!'s True Hollywood Story. Carmen recalls her very first date.

"Let's see... It was Craig Carrington, and I was 14. We went to a movie, I think. We didn't go out to dinner, because in Ohio, it's like a Pizza Hut or whatever. It's not like doing out to dinner in New York or L.A. I remember I was nervous because I was kind of shy and I really liked him. He still lives in Ohio, I think."

It was the normal high school that Carmen realized just how much she loved the arts. She also decided that she wanted to seriously persue a career in music as a rapper.

"The school I went to was located downtown, and so we had a big variety of kids all pushed into the same school. Kids used to rap against eachother - they used to battle - or dance against eachother in the hallways and so I would be a part of that and then go to ballet class after."

High school wasn't exactly the prime of Carmen's life. She's been quoted many times as saying it was boring. According to some of her former classemates, there isn't a single picture or mention of her in any of the yearbooks. But when it was time to graduate in 1990, she was voted as best looking and best dancer- so it couldn't have been all that bad for her.

After Carmen graduated from high school, she won the title Miss Dance Ohio. She then went to work at the infamous magic show she's talked so much about.

"When I was 18, I danced at an amusement park called King's Island. And no, it wasn't on ice. It was a magic show with singing and dancing. But talk about cheesy! I wore this very Las Vegas leotard with feathers and jewels. But although it was cheese with extra cheese topping, it was still fun."

The E! True Hollywood Story managed to dig up footage from the "Magic" show, which you can see here. (6.5 MB)

Carmen spent a breif amount of time in Cincinatti while she was waiting for her album to be released. Durring that time she taught a dance class for little girls. You can see the clip shown on E!'s True Hollywood Story by clicking on the pic. (5.7 MB)

The Carmen pictures, quotes, movies and soundbites on this page were taken from a number of different places: Later on NBC, Donny and Marie, Paisley Park documentary, Turn Ben Stein On, MTV's Cribs, E! True Hollywood Story, Judith Regan Tonight, FHM, Playboy, Smoke, Men's Perspective, E! Online, Dr. Drew webcast and the AOL chats.