Dancing With the Stars judge Sharna Burgess wants an Aussie man to tango with
She’s the Aussie country girl turned flame-haired femme fatale who’s wowed on dancefloors worldwide. Now Sharna Burgess is looking for love and has her heart set on a homegrown Mr Right.
Entertainment
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Attention Aussie men: dancing queen Sharna Burgess has you in her sights — and you need to know how to spell.
The sassy singleton — who hails from Wagga Wagga, lives in Los Angeles and is in Melbourne on judging duties for Dancing with the Stars— is ready to find love, convinced a homegrown bloke would be her perfect match.
“I love Aussie men, no shade to any of the guys in the US either, but there is definitely something about a guy who has the same kind of energy as you,’’ Burgess, 34, says.
“Aussies just vibrate on a different frequency. We have a different humour, a different work ethic and are a different breed of human. I’m definitely attracted to Aussie men.”
Single for four years, Burgess admits she can be picky when it comes to dating, but makes no apology for her deal breakers — one being correct grammar.
“I was on a dating app and I tried a few times but it didn’t work out for me,’’ she says.
“I met up with one person who became a good friend. I find it really awkward and I often find I can be super judgey when it comes to terrible grammar in messages.
“If you don’t have a vibe from them and you don’t have a chemistry and God forbid someone misses ‘there’, ‘their’ or ‘they’re’, then it’s like, ‘I’m out’.
“It’s partially my fault, too, because you just lose interest so quickly. I have this dream that I’ll be walking down the supermarket aisle or at the beach and that’s what I’m hoping for — the fairytale, not dating apps.”
Burgess has never shied away from chasing her dreams, rising to the top of dancing, choreography and TV through persistence, determination and — more recently — her unique look.
(For the record, she’s naturally blonde. Her shock of red hair happened four years ago, since earning its own hashtag #sharnared. People also regularly ask for her red hair dye formula and some don red wigs and dress like her for Halloween costumes.)
Her appearance and quest for love even caught the eye of The Bachelorette producers last year. When Burgess returned home to attend the Melbourne Cup Carnival in November, she had talks to star as the country’s most eligible woman.
“We definitely talked about it while I was there,’’ she says. “It’s a consideration … I’ve been working in television for a long time and I love The Bachelor and The Bachelorette and they’re incredible shows.
“I don’t know how I would go though. My biggest fear is, ‘What if I turn up and I don’t find any of them attractive and I have no chemistry?’
“‘(Do we say) sorry, we’re going to have to recast this?’ I can’t be that person. It gives me anxiety. But hey, maybe this offer came around for a reason. How cool if that is how I met the love of my life? It would be kind of wild.”
While her work schedule is tight, she says of being TV’s Bachelorette, “where there’s a will there’s a way”.
Burgess is no stranger to television. She’s back on the judging panel with Craig Revel Horwood and Tristan MacManus on DWTS, which this year will be filmed in Docklands.
This year’s contestants taking a twirl include actor Claudia Karvan, funnyman Ed Kavalee, ex-footballer Travis Cloke, Olivia Newton-John’s daughter Chloe Lattanzi and Angie Kent, who was the most recent Bachelorette.
Burgess joined DWTS last year after starring in 12 seasons of the US version of the show as a celebrity dance partner.
Last season, she claimed victory for the first time with US radio personality Bobby Bones.
Past partners have included ex-NFL star Keyshawn Johnson, race car driver James Hinchcliffe and ex-NBA player Derek Fisher, but her highest-profile pairing was with Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter.
They came second in 2015, and in 2017 amid rape allegations against Carter, Burgess made headlines for defending his character.
“Dancing with Nick Carter was one of the most surreal moments of my life,’’ Burgess says.
“When I was 13 and 14, I had his posters all over my bedroom.
“I remember still being in Wagga so I was very young, I would doodle ‘Sharna Carter’. I got up to the (DWTS) sound stage — because they don’t tell you who your partner is — and Nick Carter is walking directly to me and when he got to me I kind of giggled a bit.
“I’ve never been starstruck before but the memories of his face all over my wall came up and I thought, ‘What is life right now, this is wild’ … we became very good friends, him and his wife, Lauren.”
Burgess’s progression to the dance floor came from humble beginnings. Born in Brisbane, she had a loving upbringing and a carefree childhood spent on friend’s farms and waterskiing.
Her mum Lucy now lives in Melbourne and her dad Ray is still in Wagga.
“I’m an only child so when I left at 18, my parents were sad and shocked but very supportive,’’ she says.
“They knew I was determined in following my dreams and I was also stubborn.
“We were in the suburbs but I certainly had a lot of friends from school who lived on farms. We’d go out and play spotlight on the paddocks and had lots of fun with sleepovers.
“I had a big love for horses and I was always out there trying to spend some time with the animals. All my friends were around and it was a safe time when I’d say to mum, ‘I’m going to so and so’s house’ and you’d know it would be OK. It was a beautiful way to grow up.”
Burgess started ballet at four and ballroom dancing at eight. At 15, she found herself at crossroads when fate intervened.
“I got to a point where I would secretly wish that I could just be a normal kid because I never could be,’’ she says. “It was one of those be-careful-what-you-wish-for moments.
“I was at the World Championships representing Australia and I busted my knee in the semi-finals.
“That led to two years off the dancefloor and my (dance) partner didn’t want to wait for me to heal and I lost motivation. I wanted to hang out at a shopping centre and do the things you think are fun at that age.
“About two years later I realised something very special was missing in my life and that was dance.
“Without it I was feeling a little displaced and lost. So I got straight back into dance and within 12 months I decided that if I wanted to get back into competition at the level I was at, I had to go to London where all the world’s best coaches were.”
Once in London, she quickly became a high-level competitor, training seven days a week and working three jobs to support her coaching.
“Recovering from injury is tough,” she says. “When I came back into dance after two years off I was very frustrated because I felt like my body wasn’t doing what it used to do.
“I was nervous about my knee even though it had more than enough healing time. I went into overdrive of pushing myself because I hated that I felt I wasn’t as good as I used to be.
“It set me back but was probably exactly what I needed. It really made me value every single bit of it and what it takes, especially when doing it in another country and there’s not mum and dad to go home to. It was brutal but really solidified my love for dance.
“I didn’t end up being a world champion, I went in a completely different direction but all those steps led me to that point.
“When I was living in London, I was doing office temp work which I was terrible at. I was so used to moving and being active. I was also working in a sandwich shop part-time and teaching dance on weekends. Me and my partner there were teaching lessons and there was a lot of lack of sleep.”
While Burgess was figuring out her next move and negotiating visas, she and her then partner Patrick met Jason Gilkison, Australian professional ballroom dance champion and choreographer.
He approached them to work on Burn the Floor, which came at the perfect time.
“We discussed it and said, ‘Let’s just do it for six months and see’ because we were purists and wanted to be world champions and didn’t want to go into the performance world,’’ Burgess says.
“But I’ll never forget it. It was 2006 and I went to Singapore with Patrick and we were in rehearsals for two weeks and I was blown away by how much I loved it.
“I got to understand the beauty of performance and entertainment and storytelling, and people appreciating dance when it’s not just a competition when you’re trying to impress everybody and be what you need to be. I found a whole new love for dance and self-expression and Gilkison became a true mentor of mine and I honestly owe my creativity, my choreographing style, my storytelling, where I am today, I owe it all to him.”
Burn the Floor had made it to Broadway in 2009, the same year Burgess was scouted to appear on the American version of DWTS. After a stint back in Australia because of her dad’s ill health, she returned to London to choreograph 3D dance movie Street Dance 2 before signing the US contract for DWTS in 2011.
“I can’t believe how fast the last eight years have gone,’’ Burgess says.
“I get asked that every season, whether I’ve been with any of my dance partners.
“The first few years of the show I was in a relationship and the last few years when I’ve been single, I just haven’t had that connection with someone. I haven’t opened myself up either. I’m very professional and don’t want to mix business with pleasure.
“What if it gets complicated and you’re halfway through the season and you’re forced to be with each other? It sounds like hell for me. It has worked out for people in the past, but every season there was speculation and every season it would be like, ‘wow your chemistry is amazing’.”
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Burgess is a true leader in her field. Now she’s just hoping she can find all the right moves in her personal life.
“I’m still single and definitely ready to share my life with someone,’’ she says.
“I’m at that point. I was a serial monogamist for most of my life and once I ended my last relationship, which was four years ago, I realised I had no idea who I was as a woman without a man and without trying to live with someone else and mould into their life.
“I wanted one to two years of self-discovery. Those years went very fast, my career started to take off and it’s amazing what can happen when you start honouring your own dreams and creativity. I’ve definitely been more and more ready as the months go on.
“God help me when I get around babies, my ovaries explode. I’m so ready.”
DANCING WITH THE STARS RETURNS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, NETWORK 10, 7.30PM