Ian started dancing reluctantly at the age of 10, when his parents split up and his father decided to take dance classes. At the time, he was in the school rugby and football teams and was not interested in dancing at all, but his father asked him to take his younger brother along to a Saturday morning dance class. After getting to know most of the pupils at his brother’s dance class, he was finally enticed onto the dance floor.
Mary Richardson, a former Latin American champion put him through a rigorous medallist regime. It became immediately apparent that he was born to perform and took to dancing like a duck to water. By the age of 14, he had completed all his grades and won almost every competition that he had entered. From there, he went on to the open circuit where he achieved international success by becoming the European Youth Latin American Champion. This started a ten year partnership with Melanie Walker, with who he competed all over the world, representing England in many world and European championships.
Ian turned professional in 1997 and partnered up with the former Latin American world champion, Inga Haas. After just nine months, they were runner up in the British Professional Rising Stars.
Ian decided to further his dance career by moving to Holland to train with the renowned choreographer and dance coach, Ruud Vermay. There, he formed a four year partnership with Natalia Panina, with whom he won the Dutch Championship. They also made the final of both the World Showdance Championship and the European Professional Latin American Championship. Subsequently, Ian went onto dance with Daisy Croes, from Belgium, who now appeard on the Belgian version of Strictly Come Dancing.
After five years in Holland, Ian became increasingly homesick and missed his family and friends, so he decided to go back to his roots and return to his home town of Reading. During this period, he became aware of the first series of Strictly Come Dancing and whilst watching it on television, thought to himself “I ought to be on that show”. By the summer of 2004, Ian had started to dance with Camilla Dallerup. Their first competition was the International Championships at the Royal Albert Hall, where they made the semi final and in November of that year, they made the final of the British National Dance Championships. By that time, Ian had also secured my place in the second series of Strictly Come Dancing and the rest, as they say, is history!
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