Jason Gilkison is an Australian professional

ballroom dance 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. ...

champion and choreographer.

Early life

Gilkison was born in Perth, Australia. He was raised by his single mum, Kay. At age 4, he began dancing at the Perth ballroom dance studio, founded by his grandparents Sam and Ronnie Gilkison, the first of its kind in Australia. Gilkison has lived in Sydney, London, England and

Los Angeles, United States Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the w ...

. He realised he was gay when he was 16 or 17.

Dance career

At the age of 7 Gilkison was first paired with

Peta Roby Peta Roby is an Australian dancer and choreographer. With dance partner Jason Gilkison, she won multiple Australian national titles. Roby has also worked with Gilkison on the stage show ''Burn the Floor''. Early life Roby was born in Perth, Aus ...

. Gilkison formed a professional partnership with Peta Roby in 1980 and were undefeated Australian Latin champions from 1981 to 1997. At age 23, Gilkison and Roby were the ranked pair in Ten-Dance Competition. In 1990, Gilkison and Roby received the "Young Australian of the Year" Award. In 1991, they became the residing teachers at one of London's most prestigious ballroom schools, where they remained for seven years, training many of the world's leading dancers.

Stage

Gilkison has served as choreographer and director for the ballroom dance stage show ''

Burn the Floor Burn the Floor is a live dance show which has performed around the world, including on Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in New York City and the West End of London, West End in London. Since 1997, Burn the Floor has performed in over 130 countries w ...

'' Gilkison's longtime dance partner Roby served as associate producer of the show. ''Burn the Floor'' began touring in 1999 and reached Broadway, Manhattan in 2009. In 2012, Gilkison choreographed ''Dancing with the Stars: Live in Las Vegas'', a live stage show at the Tropicana in Las Vegas featuring celebrities and dancers from ABC's

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 ...

. The production opened in April 2012 and ran for twelve weeks.

TV and film

In 2008, Gilkison became a contributing choreographer for Australian version of the American reality dance-off series '' So You Think You Can Dance''. Months later he joined the US version. ''

Superstars of Dance ''Superstars of Dance'' was an American reality television show, first broadcast on January 4, 2009, on NBC. The show featured dance routines from eight countries from six continents. It was hosted by Michael Flatley, co-creator of ''Riverdance'' ...

'', which he co-choreographed with Nakul Dev Mahajan. As of 2014, Gilkison worked as the director of choreography on BBC One's ''

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 ...

''.

As choreographer

So You Think You Can Dance

So You Think You Can Dance Australia

As judge

In 2014, Jason Gilkison joined the judging panel on the 4th season of So You Think You Can Dance Australia alongside Aaron Cash, Shannon Holtzapffel and

Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreograph ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilkison, Jason Australian ballroom dancers Living people Australian choreographers So You Think You Can Dance choreographers LGBT entertainers from Australia Year of birth missing (living people)