Mark Alexander Ballas Sr. (born December 25, 1960), known as Corky Ballas, is an American retired competitive

ballroom dancer Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television. ...

who holds several

Latin dance Latin dance is a general label, and a term in partner dance competition jargon. It refers to types of ballroom dance and folk dance that mainly originated in Latin America. The category of Latin dances in the international dancesport competi ...

championship titles. His son,

Mark Ballas Mark Alexander Ballas Jr. (born May 24, 1986) is an American dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. Ballas is a professional ballroom dancer on the ABC program ''Dancing with the Stars''. He began competing on the show ...

, is a professional dancer on ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. His father was

George Ballas George Charles Ballas Sr. (June 28, 1925 – June 25, 2011) was an American entrepreneur. He invented the first string trimmer, known as the Weed Eater in 1971. He is the father of ballroom dancer, Corky Ballas, and grandfather of professional dan ...

, who invented the Weed Eater lawn-trimming device.

Personal life

Ballas was born in Houston, Texas. He is the son of

Mexican-American Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...

Maria Marulanda and

Greek-American Greek Americans ( el, Ελληνοαμερικανοί ''Ellinoamerikanoí'' ''Ellinoamerikánoi'' ) are Americans of full or partial Greek ancestry. The lowest estimate is that 1.2 million Americans are of Greek descent while the highest es ...

, the inventor of the Weed Eater lawn-trimming device. His paternal grandparents, Karolos ("Charles") Ballas and Maria Lymnaos were immigrants to the United States from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. He has three sisters, Michelle, Maria, and Lillian, and one brother, George. He has one son,

. Corky and

Shirley Ballas Shirley Annette Ballas (née Rich, formerly Stopford; born 6 September 1960) is an English ballroom dancer, dance teacher, and dance adjudicator. She specialises in the International Latin division, where she won several championship titles w ...

also raised and trained

Julianne Hough Julianne Alexandra Hough (; born July 20, 1988) is an American dancer, actress, and singer. In 2007, she joined the cast of ABC's ''Dancing with the Stars'' as a professional dancer, winning two seasons with her celebrity partners. After leavin ...

and

Derek Hough Derek Bruce Hough (; born May 17, 1985) is an American professional Latin and ballroom dancer, choreographer, actor and singer. From 2007 to 2016, Hough was a professional dancer on the ABC dance competition series ''Dancing with the Stars'', w ...

. Corky now teaches dancing in San Antonio via his dancing studio, and his website. His plans for the future include more television performances as well as an online interactive dance instruction via hundreds of videos.

Career

Corky and Shirley were 1996 Open to the World International Champions, 1995–1996 Open to the World British Champions, twice British National Champions, Star - World Cup - UK - Champions, and seven times undefeated United States International Latin Champions. Ballas judges professional competitions and teaches. He is based in Los Angeles, California and Houston, Texas.

''Dancing with the Stars''

Ballas has trained many of ''

professionals including

Karina Smirnoff Karina Smirnoff (russian: Карина Смирнова, links=no; born January 2, 1978) is a Soviet-born American professional ballroom dancer of Ukrainian origins. She is known as a professional dancer on '' Dancing with the Stars,'' where s ...

Tony Dovolani Driton Dovolani (born July 17, 1973), commonly known as Tony Dovolani is an Albanian-American professional ballroom dancer, instructor and judge. He is known for his involvement in the American version of ''Dancing with the Stars'' on ABC. Dovolan ...

Edyta Sliwinska Edyta may refer to: People * Edyta Bartosiewicz (born 1965), Polish rock singer * Edyta Dzieniszewska (born 1986), Polish sprint canoer * Edyta Geppert (born 1953), popular Polish singer * Edyta Górniak (born 1972), Polish pop singer * Edyta Herbu ...

, Alec Mazo,

Brian Fortuna Brian Fortuna (born September 20, 1982) is an American professional ballroom dancer, choreographer and instructor. Biography Brian Fortuna is currently starring in Theatre Production's Limited ''Over the Rainbow'' as Danny Cassidy. He rec ...

, Jonathan Roberts,

Anna Trebunskaya Anna Trebunskaya (russian: Анна Требунская; born 28 December 1980) is a Russian born American professional ballroom and Latin dancer, known for her appearances on ''Dancing with the Stars''. She now lives in Los Angeles and dances ...

, Jessie DeSoto and, his son,

. On August 25, 2008, the show's producers announced Corky himself would compete as a pro on

season 7 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

, alongside his son and former pupils. He was partnered with 82-year-old actress

Cloris Leachman Cloris Leachman (April 30, 1926 – January 27, 2021) was an American actress and comedian whose career spanned nearly eight decades. She won many accolades, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 22 nominations, making her the most nomin ...

. For Season 11 Ballas was partnered with

Florence Henderson Florence Agnes Henderson (February 14, 1934 – November 24, 2016) was an American actress. With a career spanning six decades, she is best known for her starring role as Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom ''The Brady Bunch''. Henderson also appeare ...

. They were eliminated in Week 5 of the competition.

Performances

With celebrity partner:

*Score was awarded by stand in judge

Michael Flatley Michael Ryan Flatley (born July 16, 1958) is an Irish-American dancer. He became known for Irish dance shows ''Riverdance'', '' Lord of the Dance'', ''Feet of Flames'', and ''Celtic Tiger Live''. Flatley's shows have played to more than 60 milli ...

. With celebrity partner:

References

External links