Solange Reflects on Dance Dreams and Injury Trauma

 has opened up about a 'devastating' injury that ruined her dream of becoming dancer as she posed topless for an edgy photoshoot to mark her 40th birthday. 

The singer, who is the younger sister of Beyoncé Knowles, 44, was on tour with her sibling's band Destiny's Child in 2000 as a back-up dancer and had dreams of going to the prestige New York dance school Juilliard, before the injury .

She explained how her father Mathew, then the band's manager, roped her in during a difficult time for the group which saw and Farrah Franklin replacing former members LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson.

Soon Farrah also left before Destiny's Child would go to to become a huge success as a trio with Beyoncé, Michelle and . 

Speaking to AnOther Magazine she said: 'I wanted to be a dancer. I wanted to go to Juilliard and be a contemporary, modern dancer. I wanted to use my body to tell stories. I had gone on tour dancing for Destiny’s Child about a year and a half prior, and that wasn’t part of the plan.

'One of their dancers had gotten pregnant and Michelle was freshly in the group, and they needed a dancer to keep the symmetry of the staging so she could feel comfortable'. 

Solange said that during the tour she tore her meniscus with doctors telling her she would not be able to dance for a 'couple of years'.

A meniscus is a C-shaped piece of tough, rubbery cartilage acting as a shock absorber between the shinbone and thighbone in the knee and requires a long recovery. 

'It was a total devastation for me. I’d had my life planned out. And in order for me to get into Juilliard I needed to be able to go to a certain high school and audition, and now I would no longer be able to do that'. 

Then finding herself stuck on tour with her leg in a cast that Solange said she put all her pent up emotion into songwriting and two years later she released her first album. 

Since then she's gone on to drop a further three albums, headline tours and appear in movies and TV including 2006's Bring It On: All or Nothing. 

Meanwhile Destiny's Child announced their disbandment in 2005 during the middle of their world tour, with lead singer going solo. 

But fans are convinced that the band might finally be coming back together after a new picture was posted by Beyoncé father.

The girls have remained close since the split, even reuniting for a performance of Beyonce's final night of her Cowboy Carter tour in July 2025.

Destiny’s Child reunite! Beyonce joined bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams on a boat as fans were convinced the group were FINALLY coming back together