When Mark Ballas isn’t hitting the ballroom floor with celebrities on Dancing With the Stars, he’s hitting the stage with his wife BC Jean.
In fact, it was their shared love of performing that first brought them together.
“We met at a singer-songwriter night at a mutual friend’s house,” Jean told Riff Magazine about how she met the pro dancer. “It was kind of like a fun party night where singers and musicians would get up and perform.”
After the event, the two exchanged numbers and eventually started dating in 2012. The couple later announced their engagement in January 2016 and tied the knot that November.
In addition to joining together in matrimony, they have also joined forces musically with their band Alexander Jean, a combination of their middle names.
From her musical background to her relationship with Ballas, here’s everything to know about BC Jean.
She comes from a family of performers
Jean comes from a very musical family, telling Broadway Wiz she was “introduced to cool music at a young age.” She noted that her grandparents previously worked with Perry Como and Fred Waring, while her father was a guitar player and inspired her to play the instrument.
She’s a dancer as well
Speaking with Broadway Wiz, Jean talked about how she got involved with singing, acting, and dancing at a young age. “I was always around dancing. I loved music first because without music you can’t move and vice versa. They go hand in hand for me,” she said, noting that she started doing musical theater classes when she was 4.
“I went to a high school and college for musical theater,” she added. “I started playing guitar at age 9 and then I started getting really heavy into dance when I was about 12. So, always been in the arts.”
It was love at first sound for her and Mark Ballas
In an interview with Riff Magazine, the couple opened up about their first interaction with each other, where Ballas was blown away by Jean’s singing at a party. “He couldn’t see me; he could only hear me,” Jean said. “And I think he liked what he heard.”
“Right when I got there, the whole room was just watching this girl on stage, and she was killing it,” Ballas added. “Her voice gave me the feels of a Janis Joplin. I was just blown away.”
After exchanging numbers, the couple developed a fast connection, with Jean noting “we realized we had great chemistry both on and off the stage.”
They eventually joined musical forces when they formed their band Alexander Jean, a combination of both of their middle names, in 2015.
She wrote one of Beyoncé’s biggest songs
In addition to being a talented musician, Jean is also a skilled songwriter, who penned “If I Were A Boy” for Beyoncé. Writing the song about a personal breakup, Jean told Songwriting Magazine, she originally wanted to record the track herself, but when Beyoncé heard the demo, she wanted to have it on her album.
“I wrote from such personal experiences, I never imagined that someone else would ever want to sing about my ex-boyfriend!” Jean told the publication. “So I was like, ‘Tell her, thank you,’ but they were like, ‘No, you don’t understand, she has to have this song!’ Then I got lots of calls from lots of people being very, very persuasive, and the next thing I know, Beyoncé is singing the song and I’m getting signed to Clive Davis’ label, J Records.”
She’s a proud dog mom
Jean and Ballas share a sweet dog named Hendrix, of whom they regularly share photos on social media.
She considers Mark Ballas her muse
Speaking with PEOPLE about their music together, Jean noted that she and Ballas are both super-inspired by each other when creating new work. “We’re each other’s muses,” she said. “For some people, spending that much time together doesn’t work out well for them, but for Mark and I, we’re a balancing act. When one’s down, the other picks them up.”
Read More: Who Is Mark Ballas’ Wife? All About BC Jean