Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Maksim Aleksandrovich Chmerkovskiy, born January 17, 1980, in Odessa, Ukraine, is a Ukrainian-American Latin-ballroom dance champion, choreographer, and instructor who has performed on Broadway and competed as a professional dancer on the American television series Dancing with the Stars. His mother, Larisa Chmerkovskaya, is Christian, and his father, Aleksandr Chmerkovskiy, is Jewish; Chmerkovskiy has described himself as Jewish. His younger brother, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, born in 1986, is also a professional dancer.

Chmerkovskiy began dancing at age four when his parents enrolled him in a school of aesthetic education that combined instruction in manners and ballroom dance. He went on to compete in ten-dance, encompassing both ballroom and Latin disciplines. As a child he also participated in tennis, soccer, and swimming. At thirteen, a skiing accident resulted in a broken right leg requiring a titanium rod for stabilization; doctors anticipated long-term difficulties and considered a dancing career unlikely, but he recovered and returned to dancing within six months. In 1994, the family immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, where financial and language barriers presented significant challenges. At fifteen, Chmerkovskiy took a job performing at a local Russian restaurant, and the experience of negotiating pay there motivated him to pursue competitive success as a means of commanding higher compensation.

At sixteen, Chmerkovskiy and his father opened Rising Stars Dance Academy, a youth-oriented competitive dance studio initially located on the second floor of a building his father owned in Ridgewood, New Jersey. The studio relocated several times before settling in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. In 2001, Chmerkovskiy achieved his first major success as an instructor when he helped his brother Valentin, then sixteen, and partner Diana Olonetskaya, fifteen, become the first American dance pair to win a world junior championship. He also instructed dancers Serge Onik and Kiki Nyemchek, who both competed on So You Think You Can Dance, finishing in the top fourteen in season eleven and fourth in season fourteen, respectively. In addition to Rising Stars, Chmerkovskiy owns multiple social and competitive dance studios operating under the brand Dance With Me, most of which are located in the New York metropolitan area.

As a competitive dancer, Chmerkovskiy performed at the professional level in the International Latin category. Competing with partner Elena Grinenko from 2002 to 2005, he reached a ranking of second in the United States and seventh in the world among professional international Latin couples. His competitive titles include the 2005 Yankee Classic Professional Latin Championship, the 2004 Manhattan Dancesport Professional Latin Championship, the 2004 Nevada Star Ball Championship, the 2004 Philadelphia Dancesport Festival Championship, the 2003 All England Championship, the 2003 Ohio Star Ball Latin Championship, and the 2003 La Classique du Quebec Championship. He was also a semi-finalist at the 2005 Blackpool Dance Festival and a finalist at the 2004 World Masters and 2004 Moscow Kremlin Cup.

Chmerkovskiy first appeared on Dancing with the Stars in its second season, partnered with actress Tia Carrere, with whom he finished sixth. Over the course of seventeen seasons as a competing professional on the show, he reached the final round five times, recording two runner-up finishes and two third-place finishes. Notable partnerships included boxer Laila Ali in season four, with whom he reached the finals and placed third; singer Melanie Brown in season five, with whom he earned second place; and Olympic volleyball gold medalist Misty May-Treanor in season seven, a partnership that ended in week three when May-Treanor ruptured her Achilles tendon during a jive rehearsal and required surgery, resulting in a tenth-place finish. In season ten, he was partnered with Erin Andrews and finished third in the finale on May 25, 2010. His season eleven partnership with singer and actress Brandy reached the semi-finals before ending in fourth place, an elimination widely regarded as surprising given that the pair had consistently ranked among the highest-scoring couples. In season thirteen, partnered with Hope Solo, Chmerkovskiy drew controversy after publicly challenging judge Len Goodman following Goodman's characterization of his and Solo's rumba as the worst dance of the season; the pair finished fourth. On May 20, 2014, paired with Olympic ice dancer Meryl Davis in season eighteen, Chmerkovskiy won his first Dancing with the Stars title.

Between 2009 and 2013, Chmerkovskiy appeared on Broadway in two productions. He performed in Burn the Floor and Forever Tango, both dance-centered shows, bringing his competitive Latin and ballroom background to the Broadway stage.