Happy Birthday Val....

A Ballroom Dancer Steps Up to Reality TV

Valentin Chmerkovskiy of “Dancing With the Stars” talks about his Ukranian childhood, his start in dancing and how reality television changed his life.

By Alexandra Wolfe

One of the most memorable moments of dancer Valentin Chmerkovskiy’s career on “Dancing With the Stars” was seeing Bruce Willis shed a tear in the audience. He says he hadn’t expected to see the “Die Hard” actor cry, but after Mr. Chmerkovskiy danced the final round of the 2015 season with Mr. Willis’s daughter Rumer, both men had reason to be emotional.



Mr. Chmerkovskiy and Ms. Willis won the round and the entire show that year. It was a surreal victory for the dancer, who moved from Odessa, Ukraine, to New York City at age 8 with his family and then became a 14-time U.S. national champion and two-time world champion in competitive ballroom dance. Since 2011, he has been a full-time dancer on the ABC show, in which he prepares a different celebrity to compete on TV each season. His older brother, Maks, is also a regular dancer on the show.



This month, the 31-year-old Mr. Chmerkovskiy (pronounced shmer-kof-skee) is publishing his memoir, “I’ll Never Change My Name.” One of his goals is to shed light on the world of ballroom dance, especially all of the hard work and athleticism that go into it.



He credits “Dancing With the Stars” for helping to raise the profile and popularity of the activity. According to market-research firm IBISWorld, the number of U.S. dance studios has grown 3.5% annually for the past five years, to almost 70,000 as of November.



Mr. Chmerkovskiy sang and played the violin as a child in Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. In 1994, in search of better economic opportunities, his family moved to Brooklyn, where his father became a computer programmer. “There would finally be bread in the house along with the pickles and milk,” Mr. Chmerkovskiy writes.



He started dancing in school plays and enjoyed it so much that he began taking lessons, following in the footsteps of his older brother Maks, who had started dancing at age 4. On weekends, he and Maks helped the family make money by dancing in Russian nightclubs in Brighton Beach. At age 12, he went to clubs with his hair slicked back, wearing a leather jacket to look older. He learned how to perform in front of an audience and work a crowd, and started to dance competitively.



He became even more immersed in ballroom dancing when his father decided to open a dance studio after Maks complained of feeling undervalued at the studio where he was teaching. His father quit his own job, and they all moved to Saddle Brook, N.J., to open the studio in 1998.



In 2001, when he was 15, Mr. Chmerkovskiy and his partner became the first Americans to win a world junior champion title. He went on to win 14 U.S. national champion titles, the WDC World Cup and the Blackpool Dance Festival.



Maks, then the head teacher at the family’s dance studio, joined the cast of “Dancing With the Stars” in 2006. Valentin made a few appearances as well and moved to Hollywood to be a full-time cast member in 2011. He has since taught celebrity partners such as model and actress Elisabetta Canalis, actress Zendaya, meteorologist Ginger Zee and Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez. On the show, he becomes their mentor, trainer, nutritionist and therapist. His brother showed him the ropes. “Because my brother’s life changed, my life changed too,” he writes.



“I think of my dance career as before ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and after,” he says. Before, he worked out at the gym then rehearsed with his partner for hours. Now his life in Hollywood involves media appearances, publicity tours and constant feedback about his personal life.

Viewers know him for his tough-love style of teaching, as well as his sometimes flirtatious dances with partners. (He’s currently dating dancer Jenna Johnson, who is also on the show.) With all of the social media commentary around the show, he says, “All of a sudden, part of my job description was that Susan in Nebraska also approves of my attitude and character,” he says. “It becomes a rat race and a distraction,” he adds.



What he really loves, he says, is to choreograph and perform on his own. This past week he started a national tour with Maks, Maks’s wife and a troupe of dancers, with dates in 49 U.S. cities. Their family is also lobbying to get ballroom dancing into the Olympics.



In his down time, Mr. Chmerkovskiy spends time at home in L.A. He likes to visit museums, especially the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Broad and the Getty Center. “If it wasn’t for museums, L.A. would be a glorified village for me,” he says. Would he like to see the creation of a ballroom dancing museum? He laughs and says, “Maybe in my parents’ guest room.”



SOURCE: www.wsj.com


 

03.23.18 - IG stories from Meryl



03.23.18 - IG stories from Meryl 


 

Last edited by CEK40 (3/24/2018 8:57 am)