Maks Chmerkovskiy on Joining ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ After Years of Challenging Judges on ‘DWTS’: I Was Mislabeled the ‘Bad Boy of Ballroom’
29.02.2024 - 00:49
/ variety.com
Emily Longeretta Maksim Chmerkovskiy is misunderstood. At least that’s what he’ll say if you ask. The professional dancer, who previously competed on 17 seasons of “Dancing With the Stars” and won once, left the ABC series in 2017 and has a brand new role: judge on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” Oddly enough, he’s best known for challenging the judges on his former show.
So now, it may be coming back around. “Challenge me, please! One thing I’m not is a hypocrite. I learned early in life that if you want to dish it out, you’ve got to be able to take it,” he tells Variety.
“This has to be a professional exchange. Come at me with facts and knowledge and I’ll come back at you with how it really is in the real world, from my personal experience. I’m not going to say, ‘This is what my opinion is.’ No, this is how it happened to me.
This is how you fail an audition, this is how you under-prepare, this is how you overthink. I’ve done all the negatives as well. I want to be the mentor to the young adult who is at the beginning of the 20 years that I’m at the end of.” At the beginning of his career, he says he was a “stubborn Capricorn who did not listen” and had to make mistakes to get to where he is now.
“Look, I’m here to mentor. I’m here to educate. I’m not here to demand attention.
It’s not about me. Chmerkovskiy will judge Season 18 alongside JoJo Siwa and Allison Holker, while Cat Deeley will host the dance competition series. As always, each judge falls into a role — and anyone who watched “Dancing With the Stars” may assume he’ll be the tough one.
“You’re going to have to evaluate me and the job that I’m doing. I never go in thinking I’m the tough judge, so now I’m going to be tough. I think I’m a soft-ass bunny
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