Who is Melanie Brown | Mel B | Scary Spice

"I represent the mixed race community, which I think gets left out a lot. I always describe myself as being mixed race."

"I live my life on self-belief and I live it partly on going with the flow."

"I live on my gut instinct."

During Season 2, Maks and his partner actress Tia Carrere finished in 6th place. In Season 3, Maks partnered singer Willa Ford into 7th place. Maks made it to the finals in Season 4 with Boxing Champion Laila Ali, finishing in 3rd place.

Maksim was introduced to the world of ballroom dancing at an early age when his parents brought him to a local ballroom dance school in Odessa, Ukraine. He quickly excelled in ballroom dance and the school became his home away from home.

As a teenager, Maks had a horrible skiing accident that nearly ripped his leg off and left him hospitalized for months. After many surgeries and the insertion of a 12 inch metal rod, doctors were skeptical that Maks would ever walk without a limp, let alone dance. After completing months of physical therapy, he was back on his own two feet walking, running, and dancing. Soon after, Maks established himself as the top dancer in Ukraine.

In 1994 the entire Chmerkovskiy family moved to Brooklyn, NY in order to start a new life and to give Maks and his brother a better atmosphere to grow and succeed in. The vision of the American Dream and his passion for ballroom dancing gave Maks the strength to fight through all of the obstacles that faced him and his family. He worked countless hours on his dancing and soon after emerged as one of the best dancers in the world.

Maks started the Rising Stars Dance Academy, which is the premier youth ballroom dance school in the United States. He is currently a board member for the non profit organization DanceTeamUSA, which works hard to promote DanceSport amongst the youth of America. Maks also has a production company, "Maksim Chmerkovskiy Productions," which organizes performances all over the world.

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