Jennifer Lopez She drove home the point that “I love to dance,” adding, “If you take anything away from this show tonight,

I hope that it’s—here it is: after my third divorce, that’s when I really started getting good at it, okay?” She added, “I was ready to give up on everything.

My life is a mess.” She continued that at the time she was a single mom to two 3-year-old twins and, after speaking to her mentor Louise Hay, she told Lopez,

“Jennifer, you’re a dancer, right?” to which Lopez replied, “Yes I am.” Hay said, “When you’re learning a dance and you get the steps wrong, what do you do?” To this, Lopez responded, “I just keep going until I get the steps right.”

Lopez recounted Hay responding, “That’s it, Jennifer. Always keep dancing.”

“I wish the same for you,” Lopez said onstage. “That whatever life throws at you, that you dance, and you dance, and you dance, again, and again, and again.

” Lopez—wearing a plunging fuschia gown with a feather boa and elbow-length opera gloves—instructed her band to “Hit it!” before diving into her 2012 song “Dance Again.”

Thank you for an unforgettable first night of THE JLO SHOW,” she continued. “So much love and gratitude for my incredible dancers,

Band, and the entire crew who bring this dream to life every single night.” She added, “Night one was magic…and we’re just getting started.”

Almost one year exactly after finalizing her divorce from Ben Affleck, Lopez is not dating, a source told People. “It’s all about work and the kids for her,” the insider said. “She seems happy and content.”

From stage on Tuesday night, Lopez said her inspiration for her latest residency was “the timeless movies and the classic musicals,

The entertainers who shaped the performer I am, who’s standing in front of you tonight. So tonight, if you would indulge me,

I’d like to live out some of my little girl fantasies and celebrate those memories, but in my own way. I’d like to pay homage to all the amazing entertainers that have graced this stage before me.”

While performing her 1999 hit “If You Had My Love”—which catapulted her music career—she said, “I’ve sung that song so many times, so many stages in so many different ways.

Now I sing it empowered. Because the truth is that if you wanted to have my love, you’d have to earn it. You have to treat me right. You have to respect me. You have to accept me for everything that I am.”