“A lot of the stereotypes and views that people have of us aren’t real.”

Dancing With The Stars competitor, Kyle Shilling is a proud Widjabul man from the Bundjalung Nation. He made Summer Bay history as the first Indigenous main star of Home and Away. Now, he is making history again as the first ever Aboriginal man to compete on Dancing With The Stars Australia.

We chatted to Kyle about what this milestone means to him and how he feels about being a role model to First Nations viewers. Both culturally and personally, being the first Aboriginal man on Dancing With The Stars is a big responsibility.

“It’s very important to me during these times. It gives me the chance to showcase that a lot of the stereotypes and views that people have of us aren’t real,” Kyle tells Chattr. “The chance to showcase my culture is something unbelievable as well to those people that, you know, won’t be expecting me to. I think it’s just a great thing for the younger generation to look up to as well. To see that they can be proud and should be proud of who we are.”

Kyle is very aware he’s an Indigenous role model on national television. However, he hopes people will see him as a person who is doing his best, too.

“I think, role model. I think, yes. But I still have a lot to work on myself and my career, and, you know, who I am as a person,” he says. What he wants people to take away from his time on Dancing With The Stars is to never say never. “I think what I’d love to leave with the younger generation is that nothing’s too late. You can go through your trials and tribulations. At the end of the day, if it’s something that you want, the only person that’s going to stop you is yourself.”

How Kyle’s Indigeneity inspires how he dances on Dancing With The Stars

Kyle Shilling on Dancing With The Stars
The 2025 season of Dancing With The Stars is far from the only experience Kyle has with dancing. Dancing is a core part of First Nations cultures all over Australia, and Kyle is a well-studied student. But ballroom is a new challenge.

“I studied contemporary Indigenous [dance], I hadn’t done any kind of ballroom, which was actually very difficult to lose or drop all this stuff I’d learned previously to then do ballroom, because you go into muscle memory, and I want to move in a certain way, but I can’t move that way because it’s not the style of dance,” laughs Kyle.

Despite some harsh comments from the judges on his cha cha cha in the first round, Kyle’s debut earned him 24 points on the leaderboard. What’s more, he’s excited about the opportunity to grow and showcase his skills for Dancing With The Stars fans. And he is excited to use them to represent his culture on national TV. Audiences are in for a fresh take on ballroom dance by way of the world’s oldest continuing culture.

“There’s another dance that we do, which is a mixture of contemporary and ballroom, and I also throw in a lot of my contemporary, indigenous and some of my cultural stuff as well, which is a great opportunity.”

Watch Dancing With The Stars Australia 2024 on Sundays from 7pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.