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Former Dancing with the Stars pro dancer Maksim (Maks) Chmerkovskiy is spilling about a squabble he had with one of his previous partners on the show.
In a first look at his upcoming appearance on Getting Grilled with Curtis Stone, which was released by People, host Curtis Stone questioned the choreographer about the physical intimacy of the routines.
“Is it just a show?” he asked. “Can you understand how sometimes people fall for their partners? What’s the deal?”
Chmerkovskiy noted that pros like himself who “came from [the] world of Latin ballroom dancing … have no personal space.” This prompted him to rehash a spat he once had with Kirstie Alley, who competed alongside Chmerkovskiy in both Season 12 and the Season 15 All-Stars edition of the show, per People.
“Kirstie Alley famously told me in rehearsal, she’s like, ‘You’re so flirty,’” he remembered. “Flirty? I’m having a heart attack, because I don’t know what else to do. How to figure this out. She’s like, ‘You’re so flirty.’”
While he denied that he was flirting to the late Cheers star (who died in 2022 at age 71) and asked her why she would say that, he recalled her pointing out where his hands were placed.
“She’s like, ‘Well, look at where your hands are?’” he recalled her saying. “I’m like, ‘Where’s my hand?’ [She’s like,] ‘It’s on my butt.’”
He then informed her that his hand was actually “on the part where [her] center of gravity is, at a place where [he] can move [her].”
“I’m like… ‘My hand’s not on your shoulder cause you’re going to keel over, like, I gotta move that,’” he said. “‘So where do you think my hand should be?’ She’s standing [there] like, ‘You’re an asshole.’ I’m like, ‘What? I’m explaining factually like what I’m doing.’”
He proceeded to clarify that “just because [they’re] not used to that hand placement doesn’t mean that [they’re] having this flirtation.”
“But if this is not communicated, she’s walking away thinking, ‘Oh, my God. He’s hitting on me. He’s hitting on me the entire rumba,’” he shared. “I’m like, ‘No I’m not! I’m just trying to make it look like a rumba.’”
Others have opened up about similar intimacy on the dance floor, including Brooke Burke, who made headlines for saying she felt “so connected” with her partner Derek Hough that she “would have had an affair.” However, she later clarified in an interview with People that her comments were a result of “the confusion between sexual and sensual.”
“You can have an extremely sensual experience, a passionate experience — with boundaries — that I think is very healthy,” she shared.
Chmerkovskiy, who exited DWTS in 2017, is now a judge on So You Think You Can Dance alongside Allison Holker and Jojo Siwa.
