Diane Birch Labels Herself a 'Klutz'

Posted on Jan 24th 2011 3:00PM by Linda Laban
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Mark Baptiste

It comes as a big surprise to hear indie-pop songstress Diane Birch describe herself as "really clumsy." The woman behind last year's buzz clip, 'Valentino,' oozes confidence and cute in equal doses but admits that when it comes to dancing, she's a "klutz."

"When I was growing up it was forbidden in my parent's religion to dance," says the Brooklyn-based singer, whose father was a Seventh-day Adventist minister. That didn't stop her from dreaming of being a dancer, though. "I always wanted to be a ballerina, but it was not considered appropriate to dance."

Birch was allowed to play sports, though, but that proved to be something of a rude awakening to her natural abilities. "I had to do gymnastics, which lasted a very short period of time," she recalls. "I'm not the most flexible, so it wasn't my sort of thing."

Later, she had another wake-up call when she decided to take dance lessons.

"I always thought, 'Oh I can dance, I have good rhythm.' Then when I was living in L.A., I took a hip-hop class and it was one of those horrible moments, like at the prom when everyone's on the dance floor and they have these amazing moves. It was like, 'Oh my! I'm just terrible.' These people [in the class] had these effortless movements and I felt like the biggest klutz. I thought maybe I'm not as good as I thought I was."

Birch recently followed her 2009 debut album 'Bible Belt' with 'The Velveteen Age,' a seven-track covers set featuring the Michigan native performing with New York's Phenomenal Handclap Band. The EP includes songs by the Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees and was released in December by S-Curve Records.

Though singing comes more naturally, Birch swears she will never shy away from dancing no matter how awkward she feels. "I'm down for a challenge," she says. "If it's something that's difficult, that's what I want to try and do. I love to dance, but in a more sort of casual way."

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