Forget singing to crowds of thousands or appearing live on national TV.
Lisa Scott-Lee, from the UK pop band Steps, says the most frightening performance of her life was the one time she didn’t even get onstage. It was when she sat back to watch 150 pupils from the showbiz school she founded, Dubai Performing Arts Academy (DPA), appear in front of an audience for the first time.
“This is far more nerve-racking for me than it ever was performing with Steps – even at [London’s] O2,” she said, on the eve of two shows at Dubai’s Madinat Theatre on Saturday.
“If I’m going onstage, I feel comfortable as a performer, I’ve been doing this a long time. This is terrifying for some of the little ones.
“They’re so young and we’ve become so very close. I just wish I could be backstage to hold their hands.”
The show – a musical revue made up of pop songs and famous scenes from West End musicals including Matilda, Annie, Fame and Chicago – marked the first formal performance by the school and brought down the curtain on a successful first term of lessons.
DPA was founded in October by Scott-Lee and husband Johnny Shentall, a former member of the pop band Hear'Say, star of West End shows such as Footloose, and dancer with Robbie Williams and Diana Ross. The pair met in 1999 when Johnny, now aged 36, worked as one of Steps' backing dancers.
The couple have a combined 25 years in show business and through the academy, the aim is to share their stage skills with the UAE’s young stars, focusing on the three corner stones of the performing arts – singing, dancing and acting. Classes for 4-to-18-year-olds take place daily at various locations, including Fitness First gyms in The Lakes and The Meadows.
“We’re both very, very hands-on,” says Scott-Lee, the school’s principle.
“I know every child’s name – and all the parents’s names, too. Johnny’s not as hot on the names, but he’s getting better.”
The project is the latest chapter in the celebrity couple’s love affair with the UAE. Along with their children Jaden, 7, and Star Lily, 5, the pair emigrated four years ago and Scott-Lee has become a red-carpet regular ever since. She also briefly lit up drive-time, co-hosting a radio show on Dubai 92.
But the seeds of the move date back much further, to when the couple bought a home on Palm Jumeirah 13 years ago – a knee-jerk reaction following the sudden demise of Steps.
Formed in 1997, the quintet enjoyed sudden and sustained success for their brand of pure pop, scoring a run of 14 consecutive UK top five singles and selling more than 20 million records. But disaster struck – for Scott-Lee at least – when, in December 2001, the band broke up.
“Steps split and a week later, I came on holiday to Dubai – everything is to do with Steps,” says Scott-Lee. “It was terrible – I would have been happy to carry on, I’d be in Steps until I’m 100, I love it.
“I didn’t know we were splitting. It was a very last-minute thing – I booked a holiday to Dubai and we bought a house on the Palm.”
Waiting for the house to be built, Scott-Lee went on to pursue a lukewarm solo career. Later her and Johnny invited camera crews into their lives for close to a year to film MTV reality show Totally Scott-Lee.
Things went full circle when in late 2011 – almost exactly a decade after the split – Steps reformed, beginning a hectic year which included two sell-out tours, two reality TV shows, a new album and a chart-topping hits compilation. But, in early 2013, the band announced another hiatus.
“It’s complicated,” she says, discussing the decision. “The TV documentaries were challenging, you’ve got cameras following you constantly – on a personal level it’s pretty intrusive, and it’s tiring.”
But Scott-Lee is adamant this is far from the end of the Steps story and hints about big news on the horizon.
“Steps are still together and we will continue touring. We talk on practically a daily basis – and there’s a lot to talk about, there’s a lot that we still want to achieve,” the 38-year-old adds.
Fans and DPA students, however, will be pleased to hear Scott-Lee’s pledge that, whatever demands her band makes the couple will remain settled in the UAE.
“I’m a sucker for a blue sky,” she laughs. “The Dubai community has been so welcoming, the children are in school, we’ve got the academy, so this is our home.”
That warm welcome includes regularly being recognised and Scott-Lee says it’s rare for a day to go by without being asked to pose for a picture. “It’s the dads the most – they can get quite embarrassing,” she laughs.
There are moments, however, every once in a while, when she might prefer a moment’s anonymity.
“It gets a bit much if I go to brunch,” she adds, recalling a recent Friday outing to Jumeirah Zabeel Saray on the Palm.
"Tragedy came on and everybody was doing the dance and looking at me – it spread from table to table and I had to go along with it.
“It’s so surreal, one moment I was sitting eating some lovely food and the next the whole restaurant had turned into a Steps video flashmob.”
• Find out more about the Dubai Performing Arts Academy at www.dubaiperformingarts.com
rgarratt@thenational.ae
