Shirley Annette Ballas (née Rich, formerly Stopford; born 6 September 1960) is an English

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. ...

dance teacher Dance education is a practice whereby students are taught a broad understanding of dance as an art form or trained professionally in specific dance genres. Dance education also encompasses a research area in which scholars conduct original resear ...

, and dance adjudicator. She specialises in the

International Latin 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 ...

division, where she won several championship titles which earned her the nickname The Queen of Latin. In 2017, Ballas was appointed head judge on the BBC TV show, ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

'' following the departure of

Len Goodman Leonard Gordon Goodman (born 25 April 1944) is an English professional ballroom dancer, dance judge, and coach. He has appeared as head judge on the television dance programmes ''Strictly Come Dancing'', a programme where various celebrities c ...

Life and dancing career

Ballas was born and raised in

Wallasey Wallasey () is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England; until 1974, it was part of the historic county of Cheshire. It is situated at the mouth of the River Mersey, at the north-eastern corner of the Wirral Pe ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

(now Merseyside), England, with brother David and mother Audrey. The children's father left the family when Shirley was 2 years old. She began dancing at age 7, and began performing competitively the following years. At 15, Ballas moved to North Yorkshire to partner British Ballroom Champion Nigel Tiffany, which she described as "a difficult time". Two years later, she moved with Tiffany to London, where their partnership ended after dance teacher

Nina Hunt Nina Hunt (1932–1995) was a Manx Latin American dance coach and choreographer. She had a high reputation for coaching competitive Latin dancers. Biography Hunt was born in 1932 on the Isle of Man. She came to England to become an actress an ...

convinced her to audition to partner with dancer Sammy Stopford. The two married when Ballas was 18, with the relationship ending five years later. As dance partners, their best result was winning Professional Latin at

Blackpool Dance Festival The 8-day Blackpool Dance Festival is the world's first and most famous annual ballroom dance competition of international significance, held in the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool, England since 1920. It is also the largest bal ...

in 1983. In 1985, she married

Corky Ballas Mark Alexander Ballas Sr. (born December 25, 1960), known as Corky Ballas, is an American retired competitive ballroom dancer who holds several Latin dance championship titles. His son, Mark Ballas, is a professional dancer on ''Dancing with the ...

. Together their best results were winning Professional Latin at Blackpool Dance Festival in 1995 and 1996 The pair moved to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

to compete in the US. Their only child, professional ballroom dancer

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 ...

, was born in 1986. The couple later divorced in 2007. Ballas stopped competing in dance competitions in 1996, becoming a dance coach and judge for ballroom and Latin American competitions.

Television career

''Dancing with the Stars''

Ballas has appeared 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 ...

'', giving master classes and commentating on the show.

''Strictly Come Dancing''

On 9 May 2017, it was announced that Ballas would be joining the judging panel of ''Strictly Come Dancing'' on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

, replacing

as head judge. She made her first appearance on the panel four months later - at the launch show of series 15 on 9 September that year.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballas, Shirley 1960 births Living people People from Wallasey English female dancers British ballroom dancers English expatriates in the United States Dance teachers Ballas family