Ryan flying the flag for the town on Britain’s Got Talent

As a teenager he played football for Glenavon, golf for Lurgan and volleyball for Northern Ireland.

Since the age of seven he’s been a dancer and it’s that particular talent that’s led to a recent television appearance for Ryan, now 29.

Kings and Queens, a dance troupe featuring Ryan, his partner Ksenia Zsikhotska and four other couples, impressed the judges when they passed the auditions with flying colours on Britain’s Got Talent.

Simon Cowell described their contemporary Latin American dancing routine as “incredible” while Alesha Dixon said: “If you’re not in the finals I’ll eat my arm.”

Ryan told the ‘MAIL’: “It went really well. I put the group together in January and we auditioned in February so we had three or four weeks to rehearse.

“All the couples are already champions in what we do.

“What we wanted to do with Britain’s Got Talent was make it a bit more mainstream for the kids. We’re just trying to raise the profile for Latin American dancing a little bit.”

Ryan began dancing in the Norma Martin Dance School in Lurgan just a short walk from the family home.

Ryan, who helps out as a choreographer on Strictly Come Dancing, is a former pupil of King’s Park, St James’ PS, Moira, Brownlow College, Armagh College and the University of Ulster at Jordanstown where he studied Sports Science.

He explained why he left Northern Ireland at the age of 21: “I was number one in Ireland at Latin American dancing. I moved to Liverpool to try and become number one in England and the UK. Dancing was just the biggest challenge of my life, mixing Sport with Art I got the best of both worlds.”

Now living in London Ryan said: “I try to get home as much as possible. It’s a lot more sociable in Lurgan than it is in London. When you’re in the town you see people you know. In London, no one talks to anybody.”

Of his dance team’s upcoming appearance on BGT he said: “The next stage is at the end of May. We’re preparing for that performance and World Champion
ships in Blackpool are 
in the same week.

We’ve a new routine we’re rehearsing for the next round and we’ve also got a brand new routine for the round after that if we make it because it’s filmed the following week. We wouldn’t have time to come up with something new in just a week so we’re rehearsing it now.”

Before performing for the judges again Kings and Queens are due to perform at the Balmoral Show.

For more on Kings and Queens follow them on Twitter @kqdance of like them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KingsandQueensBGT