She was a Vancouver British Columbia Dancesport Champion four times, from 1998 to 2002. In 2001, she and her partner won the Canadian Latin Dance Championship. Virshilas has appeared in the Hollywood filmsShall We Dance?, Take the Lead and John Tucker Must Die, and in the television shows Smallville, Supernatural, Psych, and others. Based in the United Kingdom from the start of her appearances in the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing series, she has since 2009 been professionally partnered with Danish dancer Klaus Kongsdal. Virshilas toured the UK with Pasha Kovalev from 26 March 2012 in their own show. She also starred in John Tucker Must Die in a minor role.
''Strictly Come Dancing''
She appeared as a professional dancer on series 7 of Strictly Come Dancing partnering cricketer Phil Tufnell. They were knocked out of the competition in week 9. Their scores were as follows :
On that week, they were in the bottom-two couples after a combination of the judges' points allocation and the audience's votes, alongside Ricky Groves and Erin Boag but were not saved by the judges. Virshilas returned for the eighth series of the dancing show in autumn 2010 and was partnered with rugby playerGavin Henson. In week 1 they scored 28 and in week 4 they scored 23 for a tango to Britney Spears's "Toxic". However, were knocked out on the semi-final. In the ninth series, she was paired with Dan Lobb who was at the time one of the presenters of Daybreak. However, they were eliminated in week 3 of the competition. On 20 June 2012, it was announced that Virshilas would not appear in the tenth series.
On the first series of the televised reality dancing competition So You ThinkYou Can Dance, Virshilas choreographed or semi-choreographed four routines for different couples:
Week 2 choreographed Mark Calape and Lizzie Gough's Viennese Waltz, which was highly praised by the judges
Week 5 choreographed Mandy Montanez and Alastair Postlethwaite's Paso Doble, which was criticized by the judges for the lack of passion, in particular, Nigel Lythgoe, series creator and judge, said it was the worst performance the pair had given over the course of the whole series
Week 6 choreographed Lizzie Gough and Tommy Franzén's tango, much to the praise of the judges
Virshilas reappeared on the second series to choreograph more routines:
Week 2 choreographed Stephanie Powell and Gian Luca Loddo's cha-cha-cha, which was praised by the judges, despite Powell and Loddo being placed in the bottom two couples by public vote and consequently eliminated
Week 2 choreographed Alice Woodhouse and Charlie Wheeller's American Smooth style waltz, praised highly by the judges
Week 7 choreographed the boys' group Paso Doble performance
Week 8 choreographed Matt Flint and Kirsty Swain's American Smooth style waltz/foxtrot
Personal life
Virshilas and her partner Klaus Kongsdal announced their engagement in January 2011. The couple married on Saturday 7 July 2012.
