Petra Murgatroyd: 10 Things You Didn’t Know

Petra Murgatroyd is a professional dancer and she is the most famous for being a member of the dance troupe of dancing with the stars. It is a show where celebrities are teamed up with a member of the dance troupe, who teaches the celebrity how to dance. Each week, the teams will learn and then do a different style of dance. After competing, one team will be eliminated. This continues until all of the contestants have been eliminated, except for one. That team would be the winner. If you want to know more about Petra and her private and professional life, you should read on.

Petra’s Early Years

Petra Murgatroyd was born on July 14, 1986, in Auckland, New Zealand. When she was just 18 months old, she moved to Australia. Because she moved there at such an early age, she considers herself to be Australian. She found her love for dancing when she was just 4 years old when she took up classical ballet. For 12 years, she trained at the Kirov Ballet School, and she was taught by Madame Lubov Nikonorenko. Since then, her passion for dancing has never died.

Switching From Ballet to Latin Dancing

When Petra was 16 years old, she suffered an ankle injury while dancing. Because of the injury, she was forced to give up ballet. Since dancing was still a great passion of hers, she decided to start studying Latin dancing.

Petra’s Dance Competitions

Before she started competing in the dance competition, Dancing With the Stars, Petra was competing on her own. She has only been training in ballroom dancing for just a few months, and she won the W.A. Amateur Latin State Championship in 2002. In 2003, she competed again and she won again. Her next competition was the Great World City Championships, where she placed second. After being bitten by the competition bug, she continued to compete. She was a semi-finalist in the Lion City Championships in Singapore and then later, she entered the Australian Open Championships, where she was a finalist. Finally, in 2005, she entered the Blackpool Dance Festival Latin competition, where she won the under 21 division.

Petra’s First Professional Dance Job

Petra’s first job was with the cast of Burn the Floor in 2004. She toured the world with the group for 6 years. Finally, when Dance the Floor made it on Broadway in August 2009, Petra was the lead female dancer in the group. This was considered to be a huge honor since it was her first real dancing job.

Petra’s Career on Dancing With the Stars

Petra joined the cast of Dancing with the Stars dance troupe during season 12 of the show. By season 13, she became a regular member of the cast, which meant that she would be training her own contestant. During her first season, she was training basketball player, Metta World Peace. Unfortunately, they were the first couple eliminated. During the second season, when she danced with football player, Donald Driver, she came in first. During season 15, she was paired up with actor, Gilles Marini, and the couple came in sixth place. She came in sixth place again during season 16, and her partner was Sean Lowe from The Bachelor.

During season 17, while dancing with Brant Daugherty, she didn’t do as well and she came in seventh place. The next year, while teamed up with Jame Maslow from Big Time Rush, her team did better and came in fourth place. During season 19, she and partner, actor, Tommy Chong, finished in fifth place. Sadly, during season 20, while paired up with football player, Michael Sam, the couple was eliminated in week 4, leaving them in tenth place. She had to sit out season 21 due to an ankle injury.

During season 22, she was paired with Finally, Petra redeemed herself. She was paired up with deaf actor and model, Myle DiMarco and they were crowned the champions. This was actually great for her since she wasn’t going to be returning to Dancing With the Stars for season 23 because she was pregnant. She said that she was happy to be going out with a win.

Sway: A Dance Trilogy

In 2014, Petra began dancing in Sway: A Dance Trilogy in New York. She was dancing alongside some very amazing dancers, including Miskim Chmerkovskiy, who she would eventually got engaged to. The show also included his brother Valentin, Tony Dovolani, and dancers from So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars, and instructors from Dance With Me Studios. The show got rave reviews.

Petra’s Personal Life

In 2007, Petra began dating one of her fellow cast members, Damian Whitewood. The couple dated for 5 years and broke up in 2012. It didn’t take long for her to move on, and she started dating Maksim in 2012 and the couple dated on and off. In 2015, the couple were broken up but then announced that they were back together. While doing a performance for Sway on December 5, 2015, Maksim proposed to Petra onstage. Their wedding is planned for July 2017.

Petra’s Pregnancy

On June 29, 2016, Petra announced that she was pregnant with her first child and she is due in January 2017. According to a report in early December 2016, Petra says that she is so big that she is having difficulty getting up. She isn’t worried, however, because she has her fiancee by her side.

The Cutest Couple

Petra and Maksim are a very cute couple. He is often posting photos and videos of the very pregnant Petra, and he often calls her his queen. The couple is very excited about their new baby.

Petra Couldn’t Hide Her Pregnancy

According to Petra, she had a hard time keeping her pregnancy quiet during season 22 of Dancing With the Stars. She was often sick and her partner found her a few times sleeping on the couches or the floor of the rehearsal room. By the May 25th finale, she was a few months pregnant and it was obvious. Even though she tweaked her costumes a bit, you could still see her baby bump.

Petra’s new role is will soon be Mommy, however, chances are it won’t be long before she gets back on the stage.