Cheryl Burke Biography (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Cheryl Bautista Burke (born May 3 1984) is a two time Emmy nominated professional dancer. As the professional dancer partner, she won the competition in the second and third seasons of ABC's American version of Dancing with the Stars with celebrity dance partners Drew Lachey (February 2006) and Emmitt Smith (November 2006). She was the first professional dancer to win two Dancing with the Stars championships. (Julianne Hough followed with two back-to-back championships in seasons 4 and 5).

Early life

Burke grew up in Atherton, California. She is of Filipino, Russian, and Irish descent. Her family dances recreationally and have a dance floor at home. At 4 years of age she began taking ballet lessons and performing locally. She then began ballroom dancing and decided to change her focus. She trained in both standard ballroom and latin dances. She began competing at age 13.

Burke is a 2002 graduate of Menlo-Atherton High School.

Dancing

Burke contends that dancing provides a medium for her to express her inner feelings and passion all the while maintaining focus and composure during extremely high-pressure situations.

Burke says that her dancing style is unlike anyone else's. She takes pride in being a "rule breaker" and feels that her greatest achievements in dancing are still to come.

Dancing with the Stars

Burke won her first championship with 98 Degrees member Drew Lachey in the second season. She won her second championship with retired football star Emmitt Smith in the third season.

Burke returned to the ballroom on March 19 2007 for Season 4, partnered with actor Ian Ziering. Cheryl and Ian were eliminated in the semi-finals on May 15 2007.

She participated in a 38-city Dancing with the Stars Tour from December 19 2006 to February 11 2007. She joined the second summer tour which visited 24 cities between June 20 2007 in Austin, Texas and July 24 2007 in Vancouver, Canada. Her celebrity partner for both tours was Drew Lachey.

Cheryl competed on Season 5. Her partner was Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton. They were the third couple eliminated from the competition on October 9 2007.

Cheryl recently participated with both Lachey & Newton in the Dancing with the Stars winter tour that kicked off December 18 2007 in Seattle, Washington. The tour wrapped in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 10 2008.

Cheryl most recently competed on Season 6 and was partnered with actor Cristián de la Fuente. Cristián actually made a reference to Cheryl's filipino heritage on the 100th episode during the mini interview segments. They made it to the finals and on May 20, 2008, Cheryl and Cristián placed 3rd in the season 6 competition.

Performances

With celebrity partner Cristián de la Fuente:

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' score			Result
		Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli
1	Cha-cha-cha/ "Bang Bang"	7	7	7	N/A
2	Quickstep/ "Americano"	7	6	7	Last to be Safe
3	Jive/ "Don't Stop Me Now"	8	8	9	Safe
4	Paso Doble/ "La Virgen de la Macarena"	9	8	9	Safe
5	Rumba/ "If You're Not the One"	7	8	8	Bottom Two
6	Foxtrot/ "Come Fly with Me"	9	9	9	Safe
7	Viennese Waltz/ "I'll Make Love to You" Samba/ "Sobe Son"	8 7	8 7	9 7	Safe
8	Tango/ "Beat It" Mambo/ "Saca Tu Mujer"	10 10	9 9	10 10	Safe
9 Semi-finals	Viennese Waltz/ "Satellite" Samba/ "Sweetheart From Venezuela"	9 10	9 9	9 10	Last to be Safe
10 Finals	Cha-Cha-Cha/ "Dancing on the Ceiling" Freestyle/ "Suavemente"	8 9	9 8	9 9	Third Place

Awards and honors

• 2005 World Cup Professional Rising Star Latin Champion
• 2005 San Francisco Latin Champion
• 2005 Ohio Star Ball Rising Star Latin Champion
• UK Championships
• 4th in U.S. in the "Under 21s."
• Dancing with the Stars champion season 2 with Drew Lachey
• Dancing with the Stars champion season 3 with Emmitt Smith
• Nominee Prime Time Emmy 2006, Outstanding Choreography for Paso Doble.
• Nominee Prime Time Emmy 2006, Outstanding Choreography for Freestyle.

Burke is the youngest nominee to ever receive nominations in that category.

Outside Her Dancing Career

Cheryl lives in Los Angeles, and has recently returned to her childhood home in the Bay Area to support local schools. In March 2006, she helped the International School of the Peninsula (ISTP) in Palo Alto, CA, raise $250,000 for its educational programs. The following weekend, along with DWTS runner-up Jerry Rice, she helped Menlo School raise funds for their school. Her sister and his son both attend that school. A one-hour dance lesson in her house ballroom sold for $31,000.

Cheryl, along with Louis van Amstel and Ashly DelGrosso, appeared on the September 22 2006 episode of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, titled Loosely Ballroom.

Burke appeared in the May 2007 issue of Stuff Magazine and the October 2007 issue of Maxim.

Cheryl, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Drew Lachey appeared on the October 14, 2007 episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

On October 20 2007, Cheryl won the Role Model Award at the 7th Annual Filipino/American Library Gala.

The "Cheryl Burke Dance" studio opened April 4th, 2008 in San Francisco, CA with assistance from Burke's mother Sherri, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, retired San Francisco 49er Jerry Rice and several other dance professionals.

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