They are qualities on show in her work as a dance teacher and the force behind her massive voluntary commitment to the Ballarat Foundation's fundraising event Dancing With Our Stars.

As the owner of The Dance Studio Ballarat, Ms Ross has donated her time, knowledge, studio and dancers to prepare ten of Ballarat's local identities to perform on the Civic Hall stage on Saturday night.

With 10 dancing couples taking two to three lessons per week, it has been a mammoth effort to create time in both her and her studio's busy schedule.

It adds up to around 30 extra hours of lessons on voluntary time per week on top of her usual studio teaching schedule.

"It has been great fun. I really love teaching dancing and I love when people first come in," Ms Ross said.

"I am used to being busy. I feel lazy if I am not."

Watch Ballarat Foundation's teaser video for Dancing With Our Stars below.

Ms Ross's efforts are part of a community movement to raise funds and awareness for the Ballarat Foundation's mission to break the cycle of disadvantage in Ballarat.

Local identities, many who had never danced before, were paired with dancers from The Dance Studio earlier this year.

Ms Ross chose the music and choreographed a dance for each pair and has been teaching them at the studio since March.

READ MORE: Ballarat Foundation launches Dancing With Our Stars

Community members can vote for their favourite dancer. A $1 donation is one vote and contributes to the Ballarat Foundation's fundraising goal of $100,000.

"All of the people doing Dancing With Our Stars have had to be very committed," Ms Ross said.

"We have had to approach it differently to when people just come in to learn social dancing in that we have had to teach them technique right from the very beginning. I know they are here for those two to three months so I really have to get them working hard.

"It is a fabulous idea, a great cause and a great way to raise money and spread the word about the foundation to get Ballarat involved.

"It is a whole lot of different people from all walks of life coming together. So it is a really lovely thing that everyone in the community is on board."

See Shelley Ross talk about Dancing With Our Stars in the video below.

Ms Ross first started dancing when she was nine-years-old after her mother gave her the choice to go to the movies or learn dancing every Saturday afternoon.

The week after starting lessons she participated in her first competition, performing the heel toe polka.

Since that first dancing lesson, Ms Ross said she has never stopped, leaving school when she was 15 to teach dance full-time in her home town Upper Ferntree Gully.

By 17 she was managing a studio, before moving to Ballarat at age 21.

Ms Ross took a break from teaching when she had her three children Ashlie, Abbey and Zane.

Her children did not know about their mum's history as a dance teacher, until eldest daughter Ashlie watched Strictly Ballroom and said 'mum, that is what I want to do'.

"That was when I told her that is what I have always done. Ashlie started dancing and I started teaching again," Ms Ross said.

"I was teaching somewhere else and felt very restricted. I thought there was no use whining about it, so I opened my own studio."

The Dance Studio celebrated its 25^th birthday earlier this year and has had great success training multiple Australian champion dancers in Ballroom and Latin.

"I have met fabulous people. The best thing is seeing confidence grow in people. The dancing is just a bonus," Ms Ross said.

For Ms Ross's daughter Abbey, dancing has also been a full-time career. She has a reputation worldwide for her work in Burn the Floor and as dancing partner to Chris Hemsworth in popular reality television show Dancing With The Stars.

The Dance Studio now has more than 200 students. Classes and private lessons runs seven days a week.

But for Ms Ross, running the studio is about much more than teaching dancing.

"I run this studio exactly as the studio I came from. The people who owned it were like my second parents and their daughter is still my best friend," she said.

"I run it exactly as they did. It is caring about the people not just teaching people to dance. Anyone can teach someone to dance but if you are honest with people about caring about them they will always come back and feel comfortable here."

Ms Ross has surprised students and teachers at the studio recently by dancing again after a hip replacement.

"I probably haven't been able to dance or do anything for a couple of years so it is great to be back on the floor and demonstrating," she said.

"When I was younger Latin was my best style. I still teach Latin, New Vogue and Ballroom but as I have got older I really appreciate teaching Ballroom and New Vogue and sometimes leaving Latin to the younger hips.

"I have always loved dancing. I have never found it hard. It was just a natural thing for me to do. You will find anyone who dances, it just hooks them. It is like a drug. It hooks you and you just can't give it up and you just keep wanting that fix all the time because it just feels great."

Ms Ross said she was looking forward to seeing the Ballarat Foundation's Dancing With Our Stars at Civic Hall on Saturday night.

She said Ballarat would be surprised at how much everyone has achieved.

"Supporting this event is supporting everything the Ballarat Foundation does, the way they help Ballarat. I am honoured to be asked to do it."

Visit ballaratfoundation.org/dwos/ for more information on the event and to vote.

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