Matt Rivers

Matt was born in Australia in 1975 into a dancing family. He started training in Latin and Ballroom at the age of 14 under the instruction of his parents who were former Australian Champions. He became a state junior champion and national finalist, and then moved to San Diego, California. There in 1995 at age 19 he started teaching and competing professionally in both Latin and Ballroom. He was involved with the movie “Dance With Me: with Vanessa Williams, and the Euro MTV music video “You Take My Self Control”. Three years later in San Diego he met his wife and partner, Ula Rivers. They competed together in Latin making finals all over the country and winning the Wisconsin State Rising Star in 1999. One year later they moved to Chicago. Together they were on the cover of Polish News magazine and performed at venues such as Rosemont Theater, Navy Pier and Drury Lane. They opened up a dance studio, Rivers Dancesport in 2000, and have competed and performed all over the country since then.