Dancing With The Stars pros open Belfast studio to revive ballroom

Two professionals from Dancing With The Stars have opened a new studio in Belfast to make dancing part of the “social fabric” in Northern Ireland.

The married couple say House of Motion, on the Lisburn Road, will aim to reinvigorate the ballroom industry, which has “dried up” in the area.

The two pros on the RTÉ show, Stephen Vincent from Manchester and Kylee Vincent from South Africa, settled in Killinchy, Co Down and started a family.

They are seeking to revive the Irish tradition of tea dances, which were popular in the early 20th century, as well as making ballroom Latin dance more accessible.

Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars have remained popular with audiences across the island of Ireland (PA)PA Archive/PA Images - Dave Thompson

Vincent said the lack of dedicated ballroom training space in Northern Ireland has “long been a frustration”.

“In Ireland you can get access to Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing With The Stars – you pretty much have six months of ballroom dancing on mainstream television – but there is very little in terms of classes or education,” he said.

He added: “Shows like Strictly and Dancing With The Stars remain incredibly popular.

“We get the viewing figures every week and they are regularly through the roof, consistently reaching half a million people each episode.

“That’s about 47% market share of viewership, which is huge.”

Vincent said that House of Motion will place equal emphasis on adult learners and social dancers.

“The best thing about ballroom Latin is that it’s not just for kids and it’s not just for adults – it’s for everybody,” he said.

The Vincents hope to recreate the social side of dance, something they feel has disappeared.

“Back in the olden days, people used to go to dance halls and that was a big part of our social fabric,” he said.

“We’re hoping to bring that back a little bit because it has been sadly lost.”

He added: “There were some fantastic ballroom Latin dancers coming out of Northern Ireland years ago.

“For whatever reason, that industry just dried up.

“We’re going to build a really strong team of people with the knowledge and with the professionalism and experience.

“We very much want to be active with Dancing With The Stars as well, so there are going to be other great teachers teaching there.”

The studio will cover a broad spectrum of dance styles, from ballroom ones such as the waltz, tango and foxtrot to Latin dances like cha-cha, samba and jive.

The pair’s experience teaching celebrities on Dancing With The Stars has reinforced how transformative dance can be, even for total beginners.

“The premise of the show is that we get paired with celebrities who’ve never danced before,” Vincent said.

Stephen Vincent said the House of Motion studio in Belfast will place equal emphasis on adult learners and social dancers (PA)

“They have to put themselves out there on national TV.”

In the 2026 series, Vincent was paired with 1993 Irish Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh.

Speaking on time working with Kavanagh on the programme, he said: “Niamh came into it thinking, ‘I can’t do this’, there was real trepidation but by the end of week four she couldn’t get enough,”

“For me that’s the joy of dancing.

“I hear the same old saying over and over again, ‘Oh, I’ve got two left feet’. And yet, once people get into dancing, they can’t get enough of it.”

He added: “We see a vision for the business, not just being a dance studio, but that it one day might lend itself to other things within the community.

“We’re hoping to bring people together. We want to create a space where people feel like they’re part of a family.”

The Vincents supported the development of the studio through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, a government-backed personal loans scheme.