Shirley Ballas, mom to Dancing with the Stars icon Mark Ballas, is sharing how she’d love to team up with her son one day on the ballroom floor.
Shirley, a famed professional dancer in her own right and current head judge of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing, got to chatting on a recent episode of the Joe Vulpis Podcast about how dancing with Mark on either of their respective TV shows is her “biggest wish.”
“My biggest wish as a mother is that I would be able to dance something with my son on Strictly Come Dancing or Dancing with the Stars,” she said. “I think it would resonate for every household in the country, I feel like I can still move and I can still do what I like to do.”
The 65-year-old is known as “the Queen of Latin” as she’s won international championships in latin dance throughout her career. She became a judge on the UK ballroom dance competition show in 2017.
Her husband, Mark’s father Corky was also a professional dancer, however the two separated in 2007. The DTWS staple was born in his father’s native state of Texas but did a lot of dance training in England and Europe.
As for Shirley joining forces with her son, she said she’d love to do so with Mark taking the lead.
“I would like to do a serious number with him,” she said. “And I love his dynamic flow I love his creativity. I would love to have that experience as if I was his student. I would really like to share that.”
Related: Shirley Ballas Throws Subtle Shade at Derek Hough and Fans Are Loving It
And while her life, and now Mark’s life, has brought them around the world and provided extraordinary experiences, Shirley still does think about her son’s upbringing and how her career impacted her parenting.
“I wasn’t there when Mark had chickenpox, my brother shaved all of his curls off because I was in Japan, and he wanted him to be a bit tougher on the housing estate,” she told Hello! in 2024. “I wasn’t there for measles, first days of school, I was away for five Christmases. I look back at that and think, ‘Should I have stayed away?’ But then I think, ‘Okay, I was able to give a good living to take Mark to the places he wanted to go to in his life.'”
And maybe a spot on DWTSor Strictly will be next.
This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the Celebs section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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