Cheryl Burke
Born on May 12th, 1984, Cheryl Burke grew up in San Francisco, California. With a background of Filipino, Irish and Russian descent, Burke was blessed with a family that loved dance, and was enrolled at the age of four in ballet lessons. She continued with ballet until the age of eleven, performing at various recitals and concerts in the Bay Area, when she decided to shift her focus ballroom dancing.
At 11, Burke began training in ballroom and Latin dance, and by 13, she was already traveling across the globe to attend competitions, but still managed to graduate from Menlo-Atherton High School in 2002.
Although still very young, Burke has won several prestigious awards for her dancing, including the titles of: 2005 World Cup Professional Rising Star Latin Champion, 2005 Ohio Star Ball Rising Star Champion, 2005 San Francisco Open Latin Champion, and she also came 4th in the American ‘under 21s’ dance championships.
In 2006, Burke was nominated for two Primetime Emmys: one for Outstanding Choreography, and the other for Outstanding Art Direction For A Variety/Music Program/Special. This made Burke the youngest nominee in Primetime Emmy history for these categories.
In March 2006, Burke assisted in fundraising efforts for the International School of the Peninsula in Palo-Alto, California. The efforts raised around $250,000, and the next weekend she was back at work for Menlo School, helping to fundraise for their programs – some of her ideas included auctioning off dance lessons in her home, one of which sold for $31,000. With a heart for humanitarian and philanthropic work, Burke lives in Los Angeles but makes a concerted effort to return to the Bay Area to help local schools.
Burke has also made a guest appearance on the Disney Channel program The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, in an episode entitled “Loosely Ballroom”, which also featured professional dancers Louis van Amstel and Ashly DelGrosso.
Burke is perhaps best known for her participation on the reality program Dancing with the Stars, where she won the Championship title two seasons in a row, with partners Drew Lachey and Emmitt Smith, respectively. It was also during her time on the program that she met the brother of fellow dance contestant Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, who previously starred in the ABC program Boy Meets World.
In 2007, Burke returned to the program for Season 4, partnered with celebrity dancer Ian Ziering.
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