Ryan McShane (born 22 January 1985) is a Northern Irish

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

r and

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

. He, alongside his professional partner,

Ksenia Zsikhotska Ksenia Zsikhotska (, sometimes romanised ''Zhikhotska''; born 11 August 1989) is a Ukrainian dancer and choreographer. She is best known for her role as a professional dancer on ''Dancing with the Stars''. She, alongside professional partner, R ...

, were the 2016 United Kingdom & British Latin Professional Champions and British Show Dance Champions. He is also known as being one of the professional dancers on the Irish version of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

''.

Early life

McShane was born in

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh and roughly southwest of Belfast. The town is linked to Belfast by both the M1 motorway (Northern Ireland), M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin rail ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He started dancing at the age of seven.

Career

In 2015, McShane toured with ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'' professional

Brendan Cole Brendan Cole (born 23 April 1976) is a New Zealand ballroom dancer, specialising in Latin American dancing. He is most famous for appearing as a professional dancer on the BBC One show, ''Strictly Come Dancing'' from 2004 to 2017. From 2005 to ...

's ''A Night to Remember'' tour across the UK and Ireland. In 2016, McShane and partner, Ksenia Zsikhotska, were crowned United Kingdom & British Latin Professional Champions & British Show Dance Champions.

''Got to Dance''

In 2013, McShane took part in the

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

dance competition show,

Got to Dance ''Got to Dance'', originally titled ''Just Dance'', is a British dance competition that was broadcast on Sky One in the United Kingdom from 20 December 2009 to 28 December 2014. Auditions for the show were held in specially built "Dance Domes" ...

alongside partner,

. They received three gold stars from the judges and advanced to the next round before being eliminated.

''Britain's Got Talent''

In 2014, McShane helped establish the ballroom dance group, Kings & Queens, alongside future ''Strictly Come Dancing'' professionals,

Katya Jones Katya Jones (born Ekaterina Andreevna Sokolova; ; 12 May 1989) is a Russians, Russian dancer and choreographer. She is best known for being a professional dancer in the competition show ''Strictly Come Dancing'', which she won in 2017 with her ...

and Neil Jones as well as his future ''

'' fellow-professionals,

and

Kai Widdrington Kai Widdrington (born 23 August 1995) is an English dancer and choreographer. In 2010, he was the Junior World Latin American champion. In 2012, he reached the final of the sixth series of ''Britain's Got Talent''. Between 2017 and 2020, he was ...

. Kings & Queens reached the semi-finals of the series before being eliminated.

''Dancing with the Stars''

In 2017, McShane was announced as one of the professional dancers for the first series of ''Dancing with the Stars''. He was partnered with actress,

Denise McCormack ''Red Rock'' is an Irish soap opera, set in the fictional seaside town of Red Rock, that aired on Virgin Media One from 2015 to 2020. Focusing on the activities of the detectives of the local Garda Síochána station and townsfolk, three serie ...

. On 26 March 2017, McCormack and McShane reached the final of the competition, eventually finishing as joint runners-up alongside

Aoibhín Garrihy Aoibhín Garrihy, Ailbhe Garrihy and Doireann Garrihy are Irish social media influencers, having played different roles in the entertainment industry. Aoibhín is an actress, having played Neasa Dillon in RTÉ One's '' Fair City'' from 2010 t ...

and Vitali Kozmin.

Aidan O'Mahony Aidan O'Mahony (born 8 June 1980, in Tralee) is a retired Irish Gaelic footballer who played at senior level for the Kerry county team. He has 5 All-Irelands, 3 NFLs, 10 Munster Championships, 1 County Senior Championship, 1 Senior Club Coun ...

and Valeria Milova were the champions of the series. In 2018, McShane was partnered with fitness model, and

UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. The larg ...

fighter,

Conor McGregor Conor Anthony McGregor (born 14 July 1988) is an Irish professional mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist. He is a former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) UFC Featherweight Championship, Featherweight and UFC Lightweight Championship, Li ...

's sister, Erin McGregor. The couple survived three dance-offs, the most for any couple in the history of the series, before being eliminated in the semifinal in a dance-off against eventual series winners, Jake Carter and

Karen Byrne Karen Byrne (born 30 May 1992) is an Irish dancer and choreographer. She is known as being a judge and, previously, a professional dancer on the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars. Early life Byrne was born in Ballyfermot in Dublin. She ...

. In 2019, McShane was partnered with Mrs. Brown's Boys star

Eilish O'Carroll Eilish O'Carroll (born 5 November 1952) is an Irish actress, writer, comedian and cast-member of the popular BBC sitcom, '' Mrs. Brown's Boys'', where she plays the title character's best friend and neighbour, Winnie McGoogan. She also played D ...

. They were the first couple to be eliminated from the series. In 2020, McShane was partnered with

B*Witched B*Witched are an Irish girl group consisting of twin sisters Edele and Keavy Lynch, Lindsay Armaou and Sinéad O'Carroll. Originally active between 1997 and 2002, they enjoyed success in both Europe and North America between 1998 and 2002 ...

singer

Sinéad O'Carroll Sinéad Maria O'Carroll (born 14 May 1973) is an Irish singer and businesswoman. She is best known for being a member of the girl group B*Witched. Career 1998–2002: B*Witched In 1998, Edele Lynch formed the girl group Butterfly Farm with h ...

. They reached the eighth week of the competition before being eliminated in a dance-off against eventual winners,

Lottie Ryan Lottie Ryan (born 15 October 1985) is an Irish television and radio presenter with RTÉ, Ireland's public service radio and television broadcaster. She is a daughter of the broadcaster Gerry Ryan, and shared his agent, Noel Kelly, until she ...

and

Pasquale La Rocca Pasquale La Rocca (; born 24 June 1989) is an Italian dancer and choreographer. Best known as former Italian Ballroom and Latin Champion, La Rocca joined the second series of the Belgian version of ''Dancing with the Stars'' and successively par ...

. Highest and Lowest Scoring Per Dance ¹ These scores was awarded during Switch-Up Week.

Series 1 The IBM Series/1 is a 16-bit minicomputer, introduced in 1976, that in many respects competed with other minicomputers of the time, such as the PDP-11 from Digital Equipment Corporation and similar offerings from Data General and HP. The Seri ...

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 26.9; Place: 2nd

Series 2 Series 2 could refer to: * Apple Watch Series 2, a smart watch by Apple * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 2, the automobile model * BMW 2 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 2 series, line of nVi ...

; Celebrity partner : Erin McGregor; Average: 24.7; Place: 4th

Series 3 Series 3 may refer to: * 3 Skypephone Series, the mobile phone series * Apple Watch Series 3, smart watch * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 3, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 3, the automobile model * BMW 3 Series, the automobile model li ...

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 13.5; Place: 11th

Series 4 Series 4 could refer to: * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 4, the automobile model * BMW 4 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 4 series The GeForce 4 series (codenames below) refers to the fourth generation of Nvidia's GeForce line of graph ...

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 23.3; Place: 7th

Personal life

McShane and professional partner, Ksenia Zsikhotska were in a relationship previously. Since 2017, McShane has been dating model,

Thalia Heffernan ''Dancing with the Stars'' is an Irish reality television series, airing on RTÉ One, that started on 8 January 2017. It is currently hosted by Jennifer Zamparelli and Doireann Garrihy. The show is based on the original UK version, ''Strictly C ...

. Despite not dancing together, McShane met Heffernan while she was a contestant on the

first series First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of the show. They have two dogs together. On 30 December 2019, five days before the launch of the fourth season of ''Dancing with the Stars,'' McShane was assaulted outside a nightclub in his hometown of

. He received facial injuries, resulting in him needing stitches.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McShane, Ryan 1985 births Living people British ballroom dancers People from Lurgan Dancers from Northern Ireland Choreographers from Northern Ireland