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As you may know, Dancing with the Stars has been in a bit of hot water in recent days, with professional dancer Val Chmerkovskiy being suspended for one episode after he made a controversial "joke" that appeared to suggest he wanted to slap one of the show’s judges, Carrie Ann Inaba.
For reference, Val is married to fellow professional dancer Jenna Johnson, whose celebrity dance partner is actor Harry Shum Jr. After their performance on Oct. 13, Carrie Ann criticized Jenna for including what she called an illegal lift in their samba routine.
At the time, Jenna graciously accepted Carrie Ann’s feedback, but Val was clearly unhappy. After defending Jenna in the comments of a TikTok video, he posted to his Instagram account: “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.”
Unsurprisingly, this was immediately interpreted to be a reference to the 2022 Oscars moment when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. He also infamously shouted: “Keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth!”
Carrie Ann responded by sharing a screenshot of Val’s Instagram post, writing alongside it: “So this is what we are doing now?” and Val then apologized, acknowledging that he shouldn’t have made the reference.
Two days later, it was announced that Val would be suspended from Dancing with the Stars for one episode as punishment for his post, and Val followed up with a second statement. This one explained that he was actually referencing Will’s comment rather than the slap itself, insisting that he hadn’t considered how it could be misinterpreted. He added that he never intended to suggest violence toward Carrie Ann.
The whole thing has sparked quite a bit of backlash, with many DWTS viewers arguing that the suspension for just one episode wasn’t enough of a repercussion for Val’s post. There was also criticism of how the show handled his absence on Wednesday, with viewers at home not actually being told the reason on air. In short, many are angry at how dismissive producers appear to have been over an apparent threat of violence against a woman.
And amid all of this, a TikTok compilation of Val’s brother, Maksim “Maks” Chmerkovskiy, on the show has gone viral, with horrified viewers calling out how he treated his female partners over the years. For reference, Maksim was a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars for 17 seasons between 2006 and 2017, and became pretty renowned for his no-nonsense approach to training.
In fact, he and the late judge Len Goodman locked horns on more than one occasion over this, with Len calling out how Maks treated his 2010 partner, Brandy, in their pre-performance video trailer about their week of rehearsals. In the footage, Maks could be seen slapping Brandy’s forearm to relax her arms, and slapping her butt repeatedly.
At one point, he says: “Brandy is one of those people that needs somebody tough, somebody who gets her to do things. I needed that, that’s [what] made me who I am.” In the footage, Brandy appears fed up, and when she asks to be shown a move one more time, Maks refuses.
“My sensitive side feels that Maks bullies me,” she admits in the footage. “But I know he’s trying to make me better, and he really believes in his process — so it’s just about the strongest people getting through it.”
After their performance, Len expressed his displeasure at what he saw in the VT, telling Maks: “Slapping them on the ass, giving it all of this, it’s not the way to train, in my opinion. You go your way, I’ll go mine, but I didn’t like it.”
In response, Maks repeatedly asks Len if he’s been to Rio, where samba originates, which Len dismisses, saying: “Yeah, OK, OK; but I didn’t like that whole VT of your way of training.”
Other clips in the compilation show Maks using a similarly harsh technique with other contestants throughout his time on the show, including Amber Rose, who he reduced to tears before she dramatically left the rehearsal early.
Len also confronted Maks for a second time, in 2011. Maks was partnered with soccer player Hope Solo, and Len noted that he’d been in the business “for nearly 50 years” as he justified his criticism of their performance and Maks's training technique, to which Maks said: “Maybe it’s time to get out.”
In her 2012 memoir, Hope claimed that Maks had slapped her across the face during rehearsals when she was on the show. She alleged: “He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly. I thought that was just how it went - how dancers worked with each other. I was tough. I could take it. But it kept getting worse. One day, Maks was trying to put me in a certain position and hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day."
Referencing their Halloween-themed episode, she added: “He wanted my head in a specific position. To achieve that, he slapped me across the face. Hard." Hope said that Maks was "extremely apologetic" after the incident, and that she was offered a new dance partner but declined because she feared looking like a “prima donna.”
Maks denied the allegations at the time, tweeting: “Always hated hypocrites and liars...but when someone is both AND an opportunist, I just feel bad for them. Can't win at someone's expense…”
Always hated hypocrites and liars...but when someone is both AND an opportunist, I just feel bad for them. Can't win at someone's expense...
— Maksim Chmerkovskiy (@MaksimC) August 16, 2012Maksim Chmerkovskiy / Via x.com
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