‘Bachelor’ star Clayton Echard’s ‘haters are my motivators’ when it comes to dancing

This is part five of a six part series. Read the other parts here or visit @WeArePauseRewind for more information.

Clayton Echard knows that as a six foot five, athletic former “Bachelor” star, pivoting to dance seems an unlikely move.

THE BACHELOR – The Bachelor: Women Tell All Get ready for a night of drama, laughter and maybe even a few tears when Claytons former flames reunite for the first time. Seventeen women will come together to hash out their differences, clear up any misunderstandings and apologize (or not) for bad behavior; but will it all be taken in stride, or will some ladies be hung out to dry? Later, the pressure is on when the Bachelor himself, Clayton, steps into the hot seatthese women arent holding back! Plus, a few special surprises and everyones favoritebloopers! Buckle up, because its all about to go down when a special two-night Bachelor event begins with The Bachelor: Women Tell All, MONDAY, MARCH 7 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EST), on ABC. (Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty Images)CLAYTON ECHARD

But the 33-year-old does not care one bit what anyone thinks of him or his moves.

“I’ve always wanted to dance,” Echard told PauseRewind’s Elizabeth Stanton, explaining that a DVD of the 2004 movie “You Got Served” was his inspiration. “We would turn it on, and we would be in the basement, me and my brothers, dancing when all the dance battles are playing in the movie. It’s one of my favorite movies growing up.”

He continued, “And I just always wanted to dance, but I was always too fearful of dancing for fear of judgment from others.”

But after appearing on “The Bachelor” as a “not well-liked” lead, Echard “took a moment to reflect.”

“I said, ‘You know, hey, a lot of people don’t like you. And I reflected, and I was like, hey, well, I don’t even like myself, because I’ve created a version of me that like was a facade. I created a version of me that was meant to impress people, but I don’t like this version of me, so how about I build back up the real version of me for once?”

Echard asked himself what he would do differently and the immediate answer was dance.

INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 03: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Clayton Echard attends iHeartRadio 102.7 KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball 2021 presented by Capital One at The Forum on December 03, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

“So I joined a class and I’m glad I did it. It’s movement therapy, it’s so healing. It’s incredible the people you meet. I mean, it’s a connector, it really is. And I’ve just loved it ever since. So I’ll just be dancing until I can’t dance anymore.”

The Arizona-based realtor and solar salesman has been sharing his progress over the past few years, initially focusing on hip hop dancing before he recently added salsa into the mix.

And he’s well aware of how he looks and moves, but he simply doesn’t care.

“I mean, I just looked at it like you were already at the bottom so people can’t tear you down any further,” he said, adding people mocked him and accused him of having a “shame fetish” for posting his videos.

“I’m not ignorant to the fact that I look very stiff. I don’t look like a natural. I see what you all see. I just am not stopping because I just because I look bad doesn’t mean I can’t become good,” Echard said. “And thenI mean, my ego just drove me. Every day I woke up, it was like, the haters are my motivators. It was the same thing. It was just like, I will become a good dancer, no matter how long it takes. And I hit that mark.”

THE BACHELOR – ABC’s “The Bachelor” stars Clayton Echard. (Pamela Littky/ABC via Getty Images)

Echard has been dancing for about three and a half years and finally started to earn praise from other hip hop dancers while still admitting he feels he’s “ended up an average hip hop dancer.”

Some of the criticisms have come from people he knows, like Gabby Windey, who appeared on his season of “The Bachelor” and was one of the women he confessed his love to in “The Rose Ceremony From Hell.”

Windey quipped on the “Las Culturistas” podcast last year that Echard’s videos “will make you run you’ll wish you didn’t have eyes.”

Echard posted a response video afterwards, and had the initial reaction of wondering “why are you still talking about me when you had your own season and you had your own men, group of men, and you even had an ex-fiancé, and yet you’re still talking about me?”

He continued, “But then here I am on a podcast, doing the same thing. SoI’ve reflected and realized that it’s like, well, she was talking about me because the interviewer has brought me up, so she responded in the same way that, like, when people ask me about her, I respond. So it’s probably a bit unfair that I was like, ‘Oh, well, why are you still thinking about me and talking about me?’ Because she’s like, I just am responding to a question in the same way that here I am now.”

THE BACHELOR – 2610B After a rollercoaster season like none other, The Bachelor himself, Clayton Echard, returns to face the three women he fell in love with. Jesse Palmer will guide emotional conversations throughout the evening as the bombshell conclusion to Claytons season plays out. What happens next is anyones guess, but it all goes down LIVE. Plus, an exciting surprise announcement that no one will see coming on the finale of The Bachelor, TUESDAY, MARCH 15 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EDT), on ABC. (Craig Sjodin via Getty Images)GABBY WINDEY, CLAYTON ECHARD

Echard said he is “not afraid to give my input” when he’s called out, but ultimately “I wish her the best.”

He added, “Obviously, she wants nothing to do with me, and I don’t feel the same way. I mean, I would be willing to have a conversation with her at any point because I look back at the time we had together and I had a lot of fun. She’s very funny, I thought we did get along well when we were together. So it’s unfortunate, because I do think reality television, it can bring a lot, and it can cause a lot of extreme emotions. And anyways, she feels strongly about how things were last left between us and that’s just that. You know, I can’t falter for it.”

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Part six will be available tomorrow.