Derek Hough life and biography

Derek Hough is young, charismatic, and loves to entertain. He was one of the dancers on the first "Dancing With the Stars" tour and is currently a choreographer on the BBC (UK) hit show, "Dance X." Born in Salt Lake City, UT, Hough has been dancing since he was 11 years old. He moved to London at the young age of 12 with his sister, Julianne Hough - also a dancer on "Dancing with the Stars" - to live and train with his dance coaches, Shirley and Corky Ballas. While living in their house, he became best friends with their son, dancer Mark Ballas who he also started a band with. In addition to a successful dance career, Hough also performed on London's West End and played the lead in "Footloose." He tried to juggle dancing and theatre, but found it to be too difficult. He recently took a break from competing to focus on acting and singing before signing on to his sister's show, "DWTS." Some of his professional accomplishments included World Under 21 Latin American Champion, two time Open British Champion (Blackpool), two time International 'Open to the World Champion and two time US Open Champion.

Although his professional dance partner is Polish dancer Aneta Piotrowska, who appeared on "Dancing With the Stars" Poland, Hough was partnered with actress Jennie Garth, bringing the nervous actress to finish in fourth place during season five of the U.S. version of "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, 2005- ). For season six, he was again partnered with a beauty with confidence issues, "American Pie" (1999) actress, Shannon Elizabeth. Not long into the season, rumors began to fly that Hough and Elizabeth were growing closer, particularly after Hough was rushed to the hospital twice in one week - first, for a neck pull and then for food poisoning. And when Elizabeth was crucified by the judges for her slow Mambo moves, Hough defended her honor, while at the same time, ranting at the judges for not noticing other couple's faults. It was, indeed, a side fans had never seen of the normally even-tempered dancer.

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