Four Rebels from Assen
Mark Ballas and Julianne Hough
Derek Hough and Aneta Piotrowska
Those who were in Assen on Thursday and Friday [last year 2002 � Ed.] could not
miss the four of them! These two young and talented dance couples with their
tremendous passion and enthusiasm in their dancing stole the hearts of the
audience from the very first round. On Thursday both couples danced the Latin
Youth final and their performance won them the first two places (Derek &
Aneta � 1st and Mark & Julianne � 2nd). On Friday, Mark & Julianne
reached the the 6th place and Derek & Aneta the 3rd place in the Rising
Star event. The story behind these young people is very interesting.
Who are they?
Mark Ballas: 17 years old and comes from Texas (USA). His name reveals
what family he comes from: the famous dancers Corky & Shirley Ballas are
his parents. Several years ago, in an interview, Corky named Mark 'Corky
junior'. If we look at the dance style of Mark and his Dad, then it�s apparent
how much Mark resembles his Dad - indeed a clone of Corky!
Derek Hough: 18 years old and from Utah (USA). Derek now lives in London
where he arrived for his, then, dance partner. He met Mark, they became the
best friends and that�s how he decided to stay in London.
Julianne Hough : 15 years old and she is from Utah (USA). Well... she is
Derek�s sister! Four years ago, Julianne came to London to dance with Mark. For
holidays, both Derek and Julianne often go back to Utah, to see their
parents and family.
Aneta Piotrowska: 17 years old and comes from Poland. Aneta started
dancing with Derek less than 2 years ago. After dancing about 6 months together
they have won the World Youth Latin champions title in Ostrava, Czech last
year! A tremendous performance in such a short time!
How do you live in London?
Derek: "Mark, Julianne and I live all in one house about two minutes
away from Mark�s parents� house. Aneta, who lives with her mother, is also not
too far from us. But we want to be together all the time, all four of us."
What training do you receive?
Mark: "Oh, that's fun!"
Aneta:"Mark, Derek and Julianne pick me up in the morning at 7 o�clock
and then we all go to the same school. We are having drama, theatre art, dance
and song"
Julianne:"In fact, all the things we are being trained in, we
like and enjoy. Naturally the most favourite one is dance."
We heard that you also play music and sing?
Mark: "Derek and I have a rock band. It is not real hard rock, but a
sort of easy listening rock music."
Derek:"It is nice, calm music to listen, it won�t give you headaches!
Let�s say it�s something of a commercial rock."
And who is a singer?
Julianne: "I am! Three of us form a pop group."
Derek:" Mark and I write all the songs ourselves. Quite often Mark also
writes the music"
What about Aneta than?
Aneta: "I prefer to sing solo.
My style is more like a Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera style."
Derek: "Aneta has really a fantastic voice."
Have your recorded any CDs?
Mark: "Derek and I had a demo with some of our soundtracks and we hope
that in the coming Christmas period the recording studio will be interested to
take more."
Julianne: "I feel I still need a lot of practice!"
Aneta:" We are all very busy, and all this demands so much time. I want
first to finish off my school.
What about dancing? Do you find time to practise?
All four of them burst in laugh.
Derek: "We actually don�t practice enough. On average it�s about four
hour per week on Friday night. In the weekends we have lessons or
competitions."
Mark: "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings we play in the
band. But for the big, important competitions we change our schedule and
practise much more."
Aneta: "Our plans change, it all depends on the coming competitions."
Julianne: "We are usually too tired to practise in the afternoon, after
we came from school. Quite often we stay in school for the whole day to do
dance, which also helps us with our own training."
Mark, is it an advantage that your name is known in the dance world?
Mark: "Not particularly. There is always a lot of talk in the dance
world. But if they don�t talk about you at all it�s not good either, is it?"
How is the atmosphere between you? After all, you are competing
against each other.
Mark: "The atmosphere between us is really good and we behave normally
towards each other.
I would say that we do not dance against each other only with each other. We
want to have fun in our dancing. If the audience reacts with enthusiasm than we
can say we achieved our target. And it doesn�t matter what the judges say."
Derek and Aneta, did you believe it was possible for you to win the
World title after eight months together?
Derek: "No! It was a complete surprise and we enjoyed it enormously!"
Aneta: "We were so happy to get to the final round, so we would have
been pleased with the 3rd or the 2nd place. Winning the World title shocked us,
in a positive manner of course!"
Mark and Julianne, did you dance the World Championships 2002?
Julianne: "No, we were not there. We couldn't go, because shortly before
the competition we decided to change the country we represent from England
to USA"
Mark: "Because of Julianne�s age we couldn't dance in Youth category in
England and because of my age we couldn't dance in Juniors any more. It wasn�t
possible because of the EADA (English Amateur Dancesport Association - Ed.)
regulations. We hope that we will be able to dance now in Youth for USA"
Who�s your biggest example?
All: "Shirley and Corky naturally. We also find Slavik & Karina
[Slavik Kryklywyy and Karina Smirnoff � Ed.] a great inspiration. They are the
future champions and also very nice people."
Julianne: "I also find Michael Wentink & Beata superb!"
How is it to be trained by Shirley and know her privately?
Mark: "It's not a problem, works well!"
Derek: "She is good teacher and a very good person"
Aneta: "At home she is a different person, she is really gentle."
Julianne: "She is so cool!"
How do you see your future: dance or music?
Derek: "We were always told that we have to try everything and try to do
it as best as we could."
Mark: "My preference lies surely more with music, but the dance life is
also not bad. If you are good you can build your future in it."
Aneta: "We, as dancers, have really great and amusing life. We travel a
lot, see a lot and it�s really nice"
Julianne: "Everything we do now is really interesting."
And a last question: what did you learn earlier: to dance or to
walk?
Mark: "I believe it was to walk, but, undoubtedly, it was so drunkenly,
just like a swing!"
All interview material provided by the
www.dancemotion.nl. Copyright 2003 by Dancemotion.
The original interview text in Dutch was printed in the December
2002/January 2003 issue of the Dancemotion magazine. All photos by Chris
Alsemgeest. Translated from Dutch.