DWTS icon Nerida Cortese and son Jett shoot to Instagram fame with dance videos

It looks like Jett, the son of Shane and Nerida Cortese, is quite literally following the steps of his dancer mother and boogying into Instagrammers' hearts all over the world.

In an interview with the Coast Breakfast on Monday morning, Toni, Jase and Sam caught up with Nerida and Jett Cortese to talk about their mother-son dancing videos which have peaked at 3.6 million views on the social media platform Instagram.

Toni Street even dubbed them the "ultimate mother and son combination".

The duo started dancing and posting videos together at the start of New Zealand's lockdown in August with less than 1000 followers and have since then their following has grown to almost 50,000.

"We had no idea it would do anything like this, we just thought we would send it to our family in Australia and a few friends and see if some people would give it a go and have some fun and it's just gone crazy!"

And it appears Cortese's dancing skills have been passed down to Jett, when asked how long it takes the two to nail the choreography and whether they make up their own dances, they surprised the Coast Breakfast hosts with their answer.

"Some of them are our own choreography where we take some time to work out, it takes about an hour or so, sometimes two. But some of them are a viral reel that people request which we love doing as well." Cortese told Coast.

"They are all different styles like most of them are styles we've never tried before, so you know it's all about having some fun and spending some quality time together."

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A post shared by Nerida Cortese 🇳🇿 (@neridacortese)

During the interview, Cortese couldn't help but gush over her son, saying "he's one of these kids, anything he tries he's good at".

Cortese herself is a dance teacher and is unable to teach in person over lockdown so she enjoys dancing with Jett as a family thing but she is hoping her new-found Instagram exposure will aid in redeveloping her business post lockdown.

Dancing With The Stars professional Nerida and former husband Shane Cortese, known for his time as Hayden Peters on Outrageous Fortune and the infamous Dominic Thompson on Shortland Street, share two children together, Kees and Jett.

Unfortunately, the couple split in 2019 after their 10-year marriage.

Shane and Nerida Cortese before they split in 2019. Photo / Getty Images

The two met on New Zealand's first season of DWTS and caught the attention of the public when rumours circulated about their relationship.

Nerida told Spy at the time of their separation "We will always have the strongest family bond and our children come first, but we both need to find our own happiness outside our marriage."