Julianne Hough
Julianne Hough (born July 20, 1988) is an American professional ballroom dancer and country music singer. She is most-widely known for being a two-time winner of ABC's Dancing with the Stars. She earned a Creative Arts Primetime Emmy nomination in 2007 for choreography. ABC's 20/20 called her one of the "very best dancers on the planet."
Hough's brother, Derek, is also on Dancing with the Stars and is a winner himself. Hough was signed to Mercury Nashville Records in December 2007. Her self-titled debut album was released May 20, 2008, debuting at #1 on the Billboard Country Album chart and #3 on the Billboard 200. It sold 67,000 copies its first week, and has sold over 300,000 total copies. On October 12, 2008, she released a holiday album, Sounds of the Season: The Julianne Hough Holiday Collection, which as of January 5, 2009, had sold 157,000 copies.Early life
Hough grew up one of five children from an LDS (Mormon) family in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. Her brother Derek Hough is also a professional ! dancer. She has three sisters, Sharee, Marabeth, and Katherine! . All fo ur of her grandparents were dancers, and her parents met while on a ballroom dancing team in college in Idaho.
Her formal training began at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah, where she danced with Josh Murillo, among others, in Latin Ballroom; she began dancing competitively at nine.
Her parents sent her and brother Derek to London for a year later to live and study with their coaches, Corky and Shirley Ballas, and to spare them the strife of divorce. The Ballas' helped tutor the two Hough children alongside their own son, Mark, while schooling ! them at the Italia Conti Academy. They received training in song, theatre, gymnastics and many forms of dance, including jazz, ballet, and tap. The three children formed their own pop music trio 2B1G ("2 Boys, 1 Girl") when Hough was twelve, performed at dance competitions in the U.K. and the U.S., and showcased in a UK television show. At fifteen, Julianne Hough became the youngest dancer, and only American, to win both Junior World Latin Champion and International Latin Youth Champion at the Blackpool Dance Festival. After five years in London, Hough returned to the U.S., first living with her mother for a year and attending Las Vegas Academy then returning to Utah to live with her father and graduating from Alta High. She then moved on her own to Los Angeles to begin her career.
