Read related Dancing with the Stars stories:
Season Finale Recap Season Finale Live Thoughts Season Finale Predictions Top 3 Power Rankings Maksim Chmerkovskiy Biography:
Maksim Chmerkovskiy was born on January 17, 1980 in the Ukraine. He has been dancing he was four years old, and was hailed, along with his dancing partner, as one of the best junior couples in the country. His family moved to the United States in 1992, but they had a hard time adjusting to the culture and meeting the financial demands of their new life. When Chmerkovskiy was 13 years old, he fractured his leg, but despite the doctor’s prognosis that he would forever walk with a limp, he made a full recovery and went on to pursue his dancing career. He has participated in numerous world championships and has opened two dance studios, Rising Stars Dance Academy and Dance with Me. He is also a board director of Dance Team USA and in 2004, he was asked to join the cast of the ABC reality series, Dancing with the Stars. Chmerkovskiy has received several recognitions, which include being crowned the Professional Latin Champion of the 2005 Yankee Classic.
As a dancer on Dancing with the Stars, he had the honor of performing with actress Tia Carrere (season 2) and singer
Willa Ford (season 3), with whom he was speculated to have a relationship. For the fourth season, Chmerkovskiy was paired with undefeated female boxer
Laila Ali , where they finished in third place. Although he has not been able to win the competition, he is back for the show’s fifth season, this time dancing with Spice Girl
Melanie Brown . Mel and Maks have received perfect scores five times during the season. During the ninth performance show, they received perfect scores for both the Viennese waltz and the paso doble, giving them a perfect night. They also scored a perfect 30 for the mambo In the final two dance-off at the end of the season, but were bested by
Helio Castroneves and
Julianne Hough .
(Photos courtesy of ABC)