Valentin Chmerkovskiy retires, joins Dancing with the Stars

Photo credit: Thomas Morton

The recent news that high level dancer, Valentin Chmerkovskiy at 25 has prematurely ended his competitive career has sent shockwaves throughout the ballroom dance community.

Like when Stefano Di Fillippo decided to switch from IDSF to WDC, Valentin issued a letter that explainned his reasons, which were primarily due to the politics in dancesport competitions today.

Valentin was dancing with Daria Chesnokova (girlfriend of Slavik Kryklyvyy) and at Blackpool 2011 he placed third. He was first the US and 9th in the world in the Amateur division.

He will be joining his brother Maksim Chmerkovskiy and be a pro on the 13 season of Dancing with the Stars. I think of all the male pros, he is probably the most talented.

He joins other high-level dancers such as Alexei Silde and Anna Firstova (who really did not get to reach their potential as professionals) in retirement. He was a truly great dancer who could have made the finals as a professional. Maybe he will one day decide to compete again (like Maxim Kozhevnikov), but that is rarely the case when a dancer joins DWTS.

To speculate, I think that Slavik might take Daria has his next partner. She is a very elegant dancer and high level who I think could hold her own against Slavik. If he does, let's hope that it lasts longer than his last partnership with Anna Melnikova.

UPDATE: I think Slavik isn't going to return to competition. Daria is on Dancing with the Stars with Val, so a partnership between them would be unlikely. In the upcoming documentary, I hear he has severe hip pain. Sad!

Here is a piece of Valentin and Daria's beautiful rumba

Maxim Kozhevnikov is back with Anastasia Grigorieva!

 Maxim and Anatasia

In an exciting interview with dancesport.ru, Maxim Kozhevnikov and Anatasia Grigoriev have a candid interview. Maxim is known for his choreography and his former partnership with current world champion, Yulia Zagorouitchenko.

He will be returning to competition with Anastasia Grigoriev in the Professional Latin category. 

Here are some of the tidbits from the interview:

On their first try-out: 

After just two training sessions in the same day, it all became clear. Everything came naturally like a sixth sense, which is what has always lead decisions in my life. You could say that I am glad to have found my “Star” !!!!!

He had some very nice things to say about his ex-partner and fiance, Yulia: 

For me Yulia is the best woman in Latin ballroom dancing now …. and not because she was part of my life. I danced with her, I brought her to America and I played a big role in her partnership with Ricardo at the beginning. As a professional, technically and emotionally, she is stronger now than she has ever been. With great respect for Joanna, and as a dancer and as a person, I prefer Yulia for justifiable reasons - her dancing. But my opinion (as you know), is very subjective in this. Honestly, I cannot say that as a couple Ricardo and Yulia are better than Michael and Joanna. In some areas I like one couple, and in other areas the other couple. 

On Slavik: 
I don’t believe it is enough to have naturally incredible talent, it takes more than that. An example of this is Slavik Kryklyvy. With all respect to his talent and spirit on the dance floor (and I am one of his biggest fans!), my opinion is that at the moment he has lost himself.

On Yulia choosing Riccardo over Slavik: 

I was right when I insisted to Yulia to choose Riccardo over Slavik, even though he tried hard to partner with her. Because as a team, Riccardo is better for many reasons which will help her achieve her dreams. I was right, and the results from this are that they are now World Champions. The lack of clearly structured work led to the failure of Slavik as an athlete. Many people know how much Kriklivyi deserves the title of Champion for his special abilities and talent. I am one of his fans who believe in him as a champion, however it never happened. He didn’t achieve the dreams others had for him to be a champion….

I am so happy that he has found a new partner to dance with and I look forward to seeing him compete soon. He sounds like a very nice person and I appreciate his honesty during the interview.

For the full English interview go here (thanks to Dancesportshow).

Here is their very cheeky cha cha:



Their Avatar interpretation:

Officially the best: Yulia and Riccardo are now the 2010 World Champions!

Been late with reporting this, but needed to say it anyways.

Yulia Zagorouitchenko and Riccardo Cocchi beat Joanna Leunis and Michal Malitowski at the WDC World Championships last month!

My opinion: Yulia and Riccardo are the deserving winners. I am watched them grow and progress to become one of the most mesmerizing couples of all time. For me, the diamond in the partnership is Yulia. I mean Riccardo is great, but Yulia is just perfection. She is strong, fierce, yet is very soft in her movement at the same time. They are a great pair.  In addition, every year, they come up with new routines at competitions, while Michal and Joanna have been dancing the same ones for years. I like couples that can take risks in their dancing.


The catch is...this year Yulia and Riccardo switched teachers. Riccardo had a romantic relationship with Shirley Ballas, but that ended this year. Yulia also broke with her ex-partner and long-time fiancé, Maxim Kozhevnikov. The rumour is that Riccardo and Yulia are dating.

Their new coach is Donnie Burns, who is also the head of the WDC (World Dance Council). Like I said, I think they deserve it, but politics is rampant in dancesport. I wonder if they wouldn't have won the title earlier if they had had Donnie as a coach earlier.

It will be interesting to see if they continue their winning strike to really overtake Michal and Joanna in the future. It does make dancesport less predictable and more exciting!