HOUSTON – Valentin “Val” Chmerkovskiy is dancing royalty. Not only is he a two-time “Dancing with the Stars” champion, he is also a former two-time world Latin dance champion.
But his time in the reality dancing competition ignited a passion for teaching his craft to everybody, and now he wants Houstonians to experience the magic of dance with the grand opening of his new studio, “Dance with me,” at the Galleria mall.
“We are very proud, I’m very grateful to the city of Houston for hosting us as graciously as it has. We have another studio in The Woodlands, as well, that we opened up a couple of years ago and it’s been incredible, so we wanted to open up one more,” said Chmerkovskiy, who co-owns 14 studios around the country with his brother, Maksim Chmerkovskiy .
“The project is a family business. We shared a lot of things together. He is my best friend. It is what it seems like. And even his personality, it’s exactly the same. He is a handful. I love him,” said Val Chmerkovskiy about his famous brother, who is also one of the professional dancers on “Dancing with the Stars.”
But dancing is not Val’s only talent -- he was also a rapper and has an incredible artistic side.
“I played violin since I was 5 years old, so music was my love. I loved basketball. I wanted to be in the NBA and then my growth spurt kind of ended at 5-feet-10. I love poetry. I wrote poetry for a long time. I love self-expression. The rapping didn’t work out and here I am,” he said.
To see the complete interview, watch the video above.