I’m back in the ballroom!

It’s that time of year again… let the madness begin!

I’m so happy to be back for another season of Dancing With The Stars. Since this is now going to be my third season, I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favourite moments so far.

Contents

1. My first dance
2. Room for one more
3. Strike up the band
4. The leap of faith
5. A special moment with the Mrs

My First Dance

Ok so this might be an obvious one but a major highlight for me was taking to the floor for the very first time. It was incredibly exciting and also a little nerve racking stood at the top of those stairs waiting to walk down for the live show. Then the moment came, “Dancing the salsa, Yewande Biala and her partner Stephen Vincent.” I just remember thinking, please go well and please don’t drop her 🤦🏼‍♂️. 

Fortunately that didn’t happen and we had an absolute ball. The feeling was so different to dancing on stage, I remember the cameras whizzing past me left right and centre as well as the audience being super energetic and supportive. Unfortunately we were the first couple to be eliminated that season, which was really tough. It was like the season was over before it even began, but I got to perform some incredible pro numbers and I also made a little guest appearance later on in the season…

Room for one more?

As the season went on, along came trios week… time to hit the dance floor again! I was thrilled to join my good friend Kai and Grainne, but best of all we were dancing the Charleston.

Kai and I have been friends for years and it was great to share the floor with him again .Plus, putting the whole thing together was a blast!

Now for those people who know me well, I absolutely love anything that’s closely related to the swing era (check this out to see why) and although we didn’t dance to traditional music the routine we came up with was a privilege to perform. We danced to a song called ‘dance apocalyptic’ and wore the most incredible suits… just take a look at the picture and you’ll see what I mean.

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Another great thing about the Charleston is the fact we could do some lifts and tricks. Our ending was a particular highlight for two reasons

1. It was something I’d never tried before.

2. It looked awesome!

Time to Strike up the band!

One of the biggest highlights of the show has got to be band week. There is a certain energy that comes from dancing to live music, especially a full band and to top it off we got to dance the jive… my favourite 🤩 

Ellen and I danced to Candyman and the theme was very much suited to the Jive era. Our routine was made up of jive steps as well as Lindyhop and Ellen did a superb job, I don’t really know who was having more fun, Ellen or myself 🤣.

The scores we got weren’t bad too, three 9’s. If you didn’t catch this routine, check it out here.

The leap of faith…

So week 5 rolled around and Ellen and I were still in the competition…FYI this was now unknown territory for me 😂. We were set to dance our next dance, Contemporary Ballroom, too Lyra’s ‘We Are Beautiful.’

The storyline was a big one as it was based on Ellen’s story. Quick summary of Ellen for those of you that have been living under a rock… Ellen Keane is a Paralympic Gold medalist swimmer and was born with her left arm stopping just below her elbow.

Lyra’s song was the perfect song to tell Ellen’s story through dance. There was one moment in the routine where Ellen basically dove into my arms from a platform (see the photo) and it was a real highlight in the routine. It was there to symbolize freedom, strength and courage, all the things Ellen has in abundance.

Again this dance was given three 9’s which for week 5 was incredible (although…I did think ‘what do we have to do to get a 10? Maybe we should get a higher platform next time 😂)

Check out our performance here.

A special moment with the Mrs.

Finally, a really special moment that I will never forget was the number I got to perform with my wife, Kylee. It was to the song ‘Better Days’ by Dermot Kennedy and the incredible choreography was put together by Lilia Kopylova and Ian Banham. 

One thing that’s great about DWTS, in particular the pro numbers, is that we have the opportunity to show off our skills. Last season the Covid pandemic was unfortunately still very much upon us, this meant that social distancing and various other protocols were strict adhered too. On the plus side it meant that there were a lot of solo dances for us pros and ‘Better days’ was the very first.

If you didn’t manage to see it, click here to give it a watch.

Now we have taken a brief stroll down memory lane, I’ll turn my attention to season 6 of DWTS and I am pleased to say that once again I’ll be a professional dancer on the show. Who knows what this season will bring, however a few things you can count on for sure are…

Incredible dancing, incredible partnerships and one hell of a TV show.

See you in the ballroom!

Oh and don’t forget to vote 😁🙏🏻