26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Strictly Come Dancing star's nephew pirouettes to football in Hong Kong
Numerous sporting stars have tripped the light fantastic on dancing television shows, but a winner of 14 national ballroom competitions from Denmark has leapt from dance floor to football field in Hong Kong.
Jonas Sorensen joined Hong Kong Football Club at the beginning of this year after arriving to work as a dance teacher for the business owned by his uncle and aunt, who live in the city.
They happen to be Klaus Kongsdal, a former world ballroom champion, and Katya Virshilas, whose three Strictly Come Dancing partners included former cricketer Phil Tufnell. His father, Jasper, is also a former European ballroom championship runner-up, but now a future in Hong Kong football could beckon for Sorensen Jnr.
'I started dancing when I was two or three; it's in the blood,' Sorensen, 20, said. 'It was a bit different among my friends – not that many boys are ballroom dancers – but I grew up with it, so it felt normal.'
After he quit competitive dancing during the Covid-19 pandemic because competitions had dried up, Sorensen went all in on football.
He moved to Hong Kong last summer for his job with BallroomBees, but had to wait until the new year for visa clearance to play for Football Club.
