Maksim Chmerkovskiy Will Not Dance Without Meryl Davis On DWTS; Maks Steps Out of Dancing With The Stars And Out of Bad Boy Role in Seattle Live Show
Dancing With the Stars announced its Dance Pros for next season and Maksim Chmerkovskiy is not one of them. Maks won't dance without his winning DWTS partner Meryl Davis.
"Good Morning America" announced that Mark Ballas, Cheryl Burke, Val Chmerkovskiy, Karina Smirnoff and Tony Dovolani are all returning for the new season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," but Maksim Chmerkovskiy won't be competing for the mirrorball trophy in the fall.
In a recent interview with The Seattle Times, Maksim admitted "I just don't want to replace Meryl and this experience with anyone else - it's so dear to me, so special, so much emotion involved into it."
"There's nobody out there that I think will come along that I will be able to connect with on this level ... I don't want to win five, six, seven times, I just want to win once. It couldn't be more perfect," Maks admitted.
Chmerkovskiy says he's tired of being typecast as the quintessential bad boy. He sees himself as a serious dancer, even if he helped create the bad boy persona. Maks told the Seattle Times "I was the last one to understand that this is a TV show, this is there for good times. I would try my best to win, I wouldn't try my best to just smile and walk around. So that was the misunderstanding between me and the show."
Chmerkovskiy started dancing in his native Ukraine when he was 4 years.
Dancing with the Stars' Maksim Chmerkovskiy will appear in Seattle Aug. 15-17, 2014, on stage at the 5th Avenue Theatre in "Ballroom with a Twist," a touring dance/music show featuring "Dancing with the Stars" pros Karina Smirnoff, Sharna Burgess and Maksim's brother Val Chmerkovskiy.
"Ballroom With a Twist" also features performers from "So You Think You Can Dance" and "American Idol."
According to E! Online, Sharna Burgess and Henry Byalikov will also be exiting the cast, along with season 17's Tristan MacManus and Tyne Stecklein. Fans will find out who the celebrity competitors will be on Sept. 4.
"Dancing With the Stars" new season premieres Monday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
