Viva Las Vegas! Derek Hough will be taking over Sin City with a performance residency starting in June 2020.
The Dancing With the Stars alum, 34, announced his upcoming performance series on Live With Kelly and Ryan on Monday, February 3, and spilled the details about what fans can expect from the residency to Us Weekly exclusively the same day.
“It was something that was actually brought to me a couple of years ago but the timing wasn’t quite right,” Hough explained. “So when I was approached about doing the Vegas residency again, I was like, ‘Oh man. This is the right time.’ I was just really excited about it. It’s going to be great! The room is so fun because it’s more intimate than what I’m used to playing … What’s really cool about this venue is there’s tables and stuff, so I’ll be able to basically turn the whole room into my stage.”
The ballroom pro kicked off his career at the age of 12, when he and his sister Julianne Hough moved to the U.K. to further along their dance training. Derek has garnered a long list of impressive credits over the years, including the lead roles in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Millfield Theater and the West End run of Footloose. No stranger to the stage, his passion for dance eventually brought him to Broadway and later to DWTS, where he scored a total of six mirror ball trophies from 2007 to 2016.
Having such a lengthy career already, Derek already had a good idea of what would make his Vegas show stand out. His residency will be a “kaleidoscope” of “everything from Motown to rock & roll, to Latin salsa music and ballroom,” and will even try to pay homage to “classic” Vegas performers like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
“For me, having live music and a live band is really important. It just elevates the whole show and the crew of dancers I’ve assembled is extraordinary,” Derek told Us. “I’m going to create a space where if a friend happens to be in town whether it be my sister, or Jennifer Lopez, or Ne-Yo or whoever, I can say, ‘You know what, let’s do a song together, or dance together and just have fun with it.'”
The World of Dance judge’s passion for the performing arts will be the main attraction of his show in Sin City. While speaking to Us in August 2017, shortly after leaving the DWTS cast, Derek explained what he loves most about being a performer.
“I’m an advocate for dance and I’m an advocate for entertaining. I’m an entertainer. I’m here to serve. I’m here to serve the audience and to create stories and to serve the world of dance. So any way I can help, I’ll be happy to do it,” he told Us exclusively at the time.
Derek and his sister, 31, were a dynamic duo on the ABC series. Though the siblings’ collaborations have been few and far between since touring together in 2014, Derek reassured Us that the former America’s Got Talent judge is “having a blast” and “crushing it” in her professional life.
Tickets for Derek Hough’s Las Vegas Residency go on sale Friday, February 7, and performances begin on June 2.
