Maksim Chmerkovskiy Biography (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Maksim Aleksandrovich Chmerkovskiy (, ) (born January 17, 1980) is a Ukrainian Latin Ballroom dance champion, choreographer, and instructor. He is best known as one of the professional dancers on the American television series Dancing With The Stars, on which he has appeared since season two.

Background

Born on January 17, 1980, in Odessa, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the former USSR, Chmerkovskiy began dancing at the age of four. His parents are Aleksandr (aka Sasha) and Larissa Chmerkovskiy. He has a brother named Valentin Chmerkovskiy who is an amateur dancer. In his native land he was one of the leading junior couples in ballroom dancing before his family immigrated to the United States in 1994.

Immigration was very hard on Chmerkovskiy and his family due to financial and language barriers. At the age of thirteen Chmerkovskiy broke his right leg in a skiing accident. Doctors said he would probably always walk with a limp due to the metal rod that was surgically implanted in his right leg. However, he was able to make a successful recovery and continued to dance.

In addition to competing, Chmerkovskiy is the owner of three dance studios in the New York City area, one of which, the "Rising Stars Dance Academy." It is home to national and international champions and is known throughout the world. The other two studios are both "Dance with Me" Social Dance Studios and one is located in New Jersey. The other studio recently opened in Long Island.

Chmerkovskiy is one of the creators, and on the board of directors of "Dance Team USA", an educational and charitable organization dedicated to recruiting, supporting, and training future DanceSport athletes. "DanceSport" is the term used to refer to Ballroom dancing in the United States. It is a very insular sport, mostly practiced by the children of families from Eastern Europe. DanceTeam USA tries to raise youth awareness and participation in the sport nationwide. Maks also has his own production company called "Maksim Chmerkovskiy Productions," which organizes performances all over the world.

Along with this, Chmerkovskiy has created a website called the Ballroom Dance Channel (BDCsocial.com) with fellow dancers Tony Dovolani and Elena Grinenko. The website is out there to help bring awareness to dancing. Chmerkovskiy and best friend, Dovolani, can often be found interviewing each other.

Accomplishments

• Maksim was ranked second in the United States for Latin Dance, and seventh in the world.
• 2005 Yankee Classic Professional Latin Champion
• 2004 Manhattan Dancesport Professional Latin Champion
• 2004 Nevada Star Ball Champion
• 2004 Philadelphia Dancesport Festival Champion
• 2003 All England Champion
• 2003 Ohio Star Ball Latin Champion

Television

Chmerkovskiy was introduced to most audiences when he appeared on the ABC series Dancing With The Stars. He partnered with actress Tia Carrere in season 2 where they finished in sixth place, and with singer Willa Ford in season 3 where they came in seventh place.

Chmerkovskiy returned to Dancing with the Stars in March 2007 for Season 4, this time partnered with boxer Laila Ali, the daughter of Muhammad Ali. They made it to the finals and finished in third place.

Chmerkovskiy appeared on Season 5 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Melanie Brown (aka "Scary Spice") Although they were the highest scoring couple with the judges, the couple received second place. Brown and Chmerkovskiy were runners up to Helio Castroneves and his partner, Julianne Hough.

On February 16, 2008, it was officially announced that Chmerkovskiy would not be partaking in season 6 of Dancing with the Stars.

On March 29, 2008 at the NW Women's Show in Seattle, Maksim confirmed that he will be back with DWTS in August.

In 2006, Chmerkovskiy, along with Kym Johnson and Ashly DelGrosso-Costa, put out a cardio workout. The DVD is called Dancing with the Stars: Cardio Dance.

Chmerkovskiy has also appeared in many TV interviews. He has been interviewed by Ellen Degeneres, Larry King, and Jimmy Kimmel, and has also made an appearance on the ALMA Awards and has guest hosted on Entertainment Tonight.

Dancing with the Stars Performances

With celebrity partner Mel B:

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' score			Result
		Inaba	Goodman	Tonioli
1	Cha cha cha/ "A Deeper Love"	8	8	8	Safe
2	Quickstep/ "Take on Me"	7	8	8	Safe
3	Jive/ "Sweet Soul Music"	9	9	9	Safe
4	Viennese Waltz/ "Breakaway"	8	9	9	Bottom Two
5	Samba/ "Spice Up Your Life"	10	9	10	Safe
6	Rumba/ "A Woman's Worth"	10	10	10	Safe
7	Foxtrot/ "Jimmy Mack" Paso Doble/ "Free Your Mind"	8 10	8 10	8 10	Safe
8	Tango/ "Personal Jesus" Mambo/ "Mambo Jambo"	9 9	9 10	9 10	Safe
9 Semi-finals	Viennese Waltz/ "Somebody to Love" Paso Doble/ "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"	10 10	10 10	10 10	Safe
10 Finals	Cha cha cha/ "Car Wash" Freestyle/ "The Way I Are" Mambo/ "Mambo Jambo"	9 9 10	9 9 10	10 9 10	Runner-Up

Personal life

While not working on Dancing with the Stars, Chmerkovskiy resides in Edgewater, New Jersey.

Maksim has a pitbull named Goga.

Controversy

After the upsetting loss in season 5 of Dancing with the Stars, Chmerkovskiy gave an interview saying he would not be back to do DWTS again. Shortly after the interview, Maksim retracted the statement saying that he was frustrated during the time of the interview, and he would be back to do Dancing with the Stars again. Maks is contractually bound to the show for five seasons. He has only completed four of those five seasons so far.

During season three of Dancing with the Stars, he and Willa Ford were rumored to be in a relationship. Neither of the two ever acknowledged a relationship other than as friends. This was cemented when Ford became engaged to Mike Modano in late 2006, after which both withdrew from the Dancing With The Stars Tour.

Currently

Chmerkovskiy is partaking in choreographing a Las Vegas show at The Wynn called Le Rêve.

Maks is set to have a cameo appearance on the soap All My Children on February 26, 2008. He will be reuniting with former Dancing with the Stars contestant, Cameron Mathison.

Maksim is currently working on another Dancing with the Stars fitness DVD with fellow DWTS professional, Cheryl Burke.

Maksim and his season five partner Melanie Brown appeared on the 100th episode of Dancing with the Stars.

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