How Hollywood dancer Katya Virshilas is teaching ballroom to new generations – after appearing in Shall We Dance with Jennifer Lopez, she moved to Hong Kong and opened her own studio …

Jan 10 , 2022

Dancer-choreographer Katya Virshilas at Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong, in September 2021.
Photo: K. Y. Cheng — Dancer-choreographer Katya Virshilas at Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong, in September 2021. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

XXIV 2021

Former star of reality series Strictly Come Dancing, Virshilas has worked with Antonio Banderas and Richard Gere, and appeared in TV shows like Smallville and Supernatural

Becoming Canada’s national ballroom champion at age 16, she married fellow dancer Klaus Kongsdal, with whom she opened Ballroom Bees – and keeps time with her Rolex Oyster Perpetual

Former Strictly Come Dancing star, Canadian national ballroom champion and choreographer for So You Think You Can Dance, Katya Virshilas moved to Hong Kong four years ago – and soon after that co-founded Ballroom Bees alongside her Danish husband, former world ballroom champion, Klaus Kongsdal.

“We were living in London, I was pregnant with our first child and I wasn’t touring. We were on the couch watching Game of Thrones when my husband said, ‘I think we should move to Hong Kong’,” says the mother of two. It was not such a random idea as Kongsdal had a lot of work in China and East Asia at that time. It was not such a hard decision to up sticks either, as Virshilas was used to moving – born in Lithuania and raised in Israel, she moved to Canada at age 13.

It was in Canada that she fell in love with ballroom dancing and became the national champion by age 16. She then got into the film industry, where perfect timing played an important role.

“I was training in Vancouver when Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere were training for the movie Shall We Dance,” she says. The movie’s choreographer and casting director knew she was the national champion and said there was the perfect part for her as Stanley Tucci’s girlfriend.

“They gave me a script and I went to the dressing room. I read a few lines in front of a camera. Then I flew to Blackpool in England for the British Open ballroom championships,” says Virshilas, who learned she had got the part while there.

I can’t teach a two-year-old how to waltz … I make it a game, making it super fun and cool

Katya Virshilas, Ballroom Bees co-founder

“I was able to do the film, train Richard, and also rehearse.” That role led to more acting work in Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas, John Tucker Must Die and television shows such as Smallville, Supernatural and Psych.

It was perfect synchronicity when she first met her husband while a dancer on one of Britain’s most popular TV shows, Strictly Come Dancing. “My husband is nine years older than me. I was a huge fan of his dancing. And when I was introduced, I was star-struck,” she says. “I used to watch all his competitions when I was a junior.”

Soon after they married, they visited Hong Kong. “I fell in love with [the city] because it reminded me a lot of Vancouver with the ocean and mountains,” she remembers. “But Hong Kong has more grit and fun and speed, which I really like.”